Announcement for our new Parochial Vicar & Sacramental Minister

We welcome Fr. James Smith, C.PP.S., our new parochial vicar beginning July 1, 2026. Fr. James was ordained a priest in 2017. While hailing from Southern Indiana, Fr. James is familiar with our local area having served previously as a parochial vicar in the St. Henry Cluster. He recently completed graduate studies in practical theology. Fr. James will reside in the St. Augustine rectory and is looking forward to serving throughout our family of parishes.

Fr. Matt Jozefiak, C.PP.S. has graciously served Christ Our Light family of parishes with lingering health issues and is looking forward to reduced ministry commitments in his new role as Sacramental Minister. Fr. Matt will continue to celebrate Mass and the sacraments as needed and be available for other religious education and parish requests. Fr. Matt will continue to reside in St. Augustine rectory.

We are grateful for Fr. James, Fr. Matt, Fr, Mark and Fr. Vara Kumar as we continue to serve Christ Our Light family of parishes. It is a blessing for us to be here and we are grateful to all the staff and parishioners who are helping us serve and unify Christ Our Light family of parishes.

Sincerely in Christ, Fr. Ken Schnipke, C.PP.S., Pastor

To All in and around Christ Our Light family of parishes,
My name is James Smith, and I am a priest in the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. I was ordained a priest in 2017 in St. Henry, OH. My assignment here in Mercer/Auglaize County is my third assignment in the Precious Blood community.

I was born and raised in Southern Indiana. After my first year of college in Iowa, I transferred to Saint Joseph’s College(SJC) in Rensselaer, IN. It was at SJC that I went through RCIA and met the CPPS community there. I graduated from Saint Joe in 2009 and entered formation with the Precious Blood community. All of my formation was in Chicago, except for my year in special formation in Glandorf, OH. I graduated from Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in 2016 with an M.Div. My second year of studies at CTU overlapped with a kind and thoughtful formator of the Augustinian community named Fr. Robert Prevost, OSA, now Pope Leo.

I completed my year as a transitional deacon and first assignment as a priest in the St. Henry Cluster from 2016-2020. In the fall of 2020, I began graduate studies at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, studying practical theology, along with liturgy, ethics, and sociology of religion. Throughout graduate school I provided coverage assistance, including a Dominican convent, Catholic high schools and colleges, Most Holy Redeemer Church in San Francisco, and parishes staffed by both the Precious Blood community and dioceses.

A number of years ago, a parishioner asked me if I would stay longer at her parish instead of getting moved after just a few years. I don’t know how, but somehow on the spot I gave her a description of ministers and moving that I still stand by. Priests are like cow manure (I don’t think I said manure the first time). If they’re good, they should be spread around to help things grow. If they’re a bit more like manure, they should be spread around too, so that the smell doesn’t pile up in just one place. I am a firm believer in both the growth of the church and the skills and resources for faith communities to grow, even when the skills or ideas from priests or others don’t align perfectly with a faith community. Strong and growing Catholic faith communities thrive because of people in the community, and at their best, priests strengthen and promote that thriving of the community. Folks are very likely to hear my bias and emphasis on us or the community compared to you/me or the individual in and around religion or faith.

On the personal side, I am a fan of sports, theatre, and movies/television. I played tennis in college and pretend like I still know how to play the sport sometimes. I’m a bit nerdy in a lot of ways, especially as a product of graduate school education, I can recommend far too many books and turn a question needing a 30-second answer into what feels longer than a TEDTalk. As a younger member of the U.S. Province of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, I am both proud (and kind of ashamed) that I have been responsible for introducing memes and TikToks to some community members. As a millennial I do tend to use the distance to a Chipotle or a Trader Joe’s as a unit of measure, which is quite far in MAC country.

Sincerely in Christ, Fr. James Smith, C.PP.S.

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