The initiation of this thread serves as a bridge of discussion from the St. Jude Parish/School Nostalgia thread that focuses more directly with the recent decision by the AOD to release Fr. Jovita Okoli from his adminstrative duties at St. Jude .

[[Here is an excerpt from the St. Jude thread)...

It's this type of issue that merits this thread to be in the Detroit Yes "Discuss Detroit" section. The leaving of Fr. Jovita along with the possible consolidation and/or closing of St. Jude will indeed have an impact on the northeast area of Detroit. ..One can only guess what the rationale of the AOD was in the "Together in Faith" action plan given the limited supply of financial resources and priests. One can't help but think that the decision making process of the AOD was more involved with spread sheet analysis, pie charts, and bar graphs that demonstrated projected income and demographics more so than what is stated in the Parish mission statements and beyond into the local neighborhoods. Can someone please explain how a priest like Fr. Jovita, who wanted to remain at St. Jude, will later be assigned by a Bishop in Nigeria? Is there a possibilty that he could remain in the AOD? If not, please explain the reason, especially given the critical shortage of priests in the Detroit area? .....The weekend paper just did a multipage report on the desolation of the 48205 area as seen through the eyes of a Denby High School student. I was thinking a Fr. Jovita/St. Jude story would have offered a nice counter balance...a beacon of hope.