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	Willington Pastor Suspended As Two Parishes Yoked By Kym Soper Journal Inquirer February 13, 2008 http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19291893&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6 The longtime pastor of St. Jude Catholic Church in Willington has been suspended for refusing to take on a more demanding parish that would leave him little time to care for his aging, invalid mother and chronically ill sister. Parishioners learned Sunday that the Rev. Thomas Sennik was suspended - without pay, pension, or health care - for refusing Norwich Diocese Bishop Michael Cote's order to go to St. Maurice Church in Bolton. The congregation also learned from Cote in a letter read during Sunday's Mass that their church would share a pastor - be "yoked" in church parlance - with St. Philip the Apostle in Ashford until a permanent decision is made about the parish. In the letter, Cote says the shortage of priests led to the decision to yoke the two churches and reassignment of the pastors. According to the letter, the Rev. Christopher Zmuda, pastor of the Ashford church, will oversee both St. Jude and St. Philip. Meanwhile, St. Maurice Church in Bolton appears to have no one at the helm as its pastor, the Rev. William Olesik, has been transferred to a Jewett City parish, church members say. St. Jude parishioners say they're upset - not so much over losing their religious home, but over the way their spiritual leader for the last 16 years has been treated. The news came as a shock and the timing was terrible, they say. The Lenten season, a time for sacrifice, prayer, and reflection among Christians as they prepare to celebrate Easter, began with Ash Wednesday on Feb. 6. "The bottom line is he needs to take care of his mother," Carl DalBon, president of the St. Jude Parish Council said. "He was pushed into a corner - you can't really be disobeying your vow of obedience if you're given no option." Having to choose between honoring your parent or honoring your bishop is no choice, DalBon said. Parishioners say they had a good working relationship with Sennik that allowed him the time needed to care for his family. While closer in distance to his mother's home in Middletown, the Bolton parish is much larger and would involve considerably more work. St. Jude, by comparison, is relatively smaller, and allowed Sennik time to care for his 85-year-old mother, who is crippled with arthritis, and an adult sister who suffers from kidney disease and needs dialysis treatment three times a week. There are some who regularly attend the Old Farms Road church in Willington who won't be eager to travel to Ashford each Sunday, and the church might lose them altogether, St. Jude parishioners say. Church officials from Cote's office did not return repeated calls seeking comment. Sennik also did not want to speak publicly, unwilling to aggravate the sense of unrest. But there are plenty who willingly speak on his behalf. "For his abilities, he did what we needed - we didn't need somebody 24 hours a day," Karen Rabe, a member of the St. Jude Parish Council said. "It's a big choice and a tough situation for him. Not many people can actually take care of an elderly parent." Rabe says that for the last few years, the congregation has believed a merger could happen because it is so small. Still, they moved forward, purchasing pews and stained glass windows, and welcoming new families into their fold. Now, the future is unclear. It's uncertain what will happen to the after-school catechism program, which was convenient for students attending Center School across the street, Rabe said. And the small church also just signed up nine new altar servers - children who were about to begin training to assist the priest during Mass, she added. Meanwhile, other than Cote's letter, no one has heard from the diocese or deanery instructing them on what to do. "We feel like we're in limbo," Rabe added. "We're just a ship in the water with no sail or rudder."
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