Dominican Fr. Carl Schlichte to leave Utah for a new assignment in California parish

Friday, May. 22, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — Dominican Father Carl Schlichte, pastor of Saint Catherine of Sienna Newman Center, has been assigned by the Western Dominican Province as pastor of Saint Mary Magdalen Parish in Berkeley. June 14 will be his last day at St. Catherine’s.

He first came to Utah 20  years ago as a Dominican brother to serve his pastoral year.

“I remember that year as a fabulous year,” said Fr. Carl,  who then was 25.

His first assignment as a priest was at Saint Dominic Church in Eagle Rock, Calif. His next assignment was in campus ministry at Stanford University.

After three years at Stanford, he spent a brief period at the University of Oregon Newman Center. He then was elected superior of the Dominican house in Portland, but a change of provincials sent him back to Stanford. 

In 2010, when he learned that Father Peter Rogers, the previous pastor of St. Catherine of Sienna Newman Center, was elected prior of St. Dominic’s, “I immediately wrote a letter to the Province asking if I could have Fr. Peter’s old job, which was to be pastor at the [University of Utah] Newman Center … and, to my great joy, they said yes,” said Fr. Carl.

This assignment in Utah has been the longest time that he has been in one place as a priest.

“The nice thing about being here for a while was that I really had the ability to grow in my experience of how to live in community as well as all the nitty-gritty, day-in-and-day-out stuff,” said Fr. Carl.

The Dominican priest’s sense of humor opened doors with all the Newman Center students, said Martin Boyle, adding, “I always enjoyed going to the grass Masses and hearing him talking to us.”

Fr. Carl said that he will miss the Catholic community in Utah a lot. “This is a hard place for me to leave,” he said.

Dominican Father Lukasz Misko will be the new pastor at St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center.

“He is a lucky dog for coming here,” said Fr. Carl, who also said that he doesn’t have any formal advice for his successor except “the advice that I’d been given when I came here, and it’s the one that I’ve been given for my new assignment. … The most important thing is love the people, love the people, love the people.”

Fr. Carl said that he is confident that Fr. Lukasz will be very welcomed by the community because of “the energy that I felt in him when he came here for his visit, and the way people responded to him. I think they are going to have a blast with him.”

Dominican priests are usually appointed as pastors for four years,  “but right now the way that the Western Province is, we are really tight on manpower, so the guys that are in my generation are in high demand because newly ordained guys are not quite ready to take on leadership, and the guys that are above us, some of them should have retired years ago and are still in full ministry, partly because they want to,” said Fr. Carl.

Two farewell events are scheduled in honor of Dominican Fr. Carl Schlichte.

The first is a dinner, which will be  Friday, June 12, at 7 p.m. To RSVP, contact the parish.

The second event is a public reception, which will be Sunday, June 14, after the 10:45 a.m. Mass. Everyone is welcome.

Both events will be at St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center, 170 University St., SLC.