Lago named 1st lay chancellor of archdiocese

Cardinal George has named Jimmy M. Lago the first lay chancellor of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The move was one of several major personnel changes the cardinal announced last week. These appointments, he said, will improve administrative functions at the Pastoral Center; help solidify the financial stability of economically troubled Catholic schools; and increase focus on racial conciliation in church and society.

Lago currently is archbishop’s delegate for operations and government relations. Father John P. Smyth, executive director of Maryville Academy, has been appointed special assistant for grant schools; and Heart of Mary Sister Anita P. Baird, executive assistant to the archbishop, will become director of the Office for Racial Justice.

The appointments, effective July 1, will place more administrative management under lay leadership to free priests from the Pastoral Center for parish work. The moves will also provide more focus on managing economically troubled Catholic schools, which are entering a very critical period, and increase focus on the archdiocese’s continuing efforts to foster racial and ethnic harmony, an archdiocesan statement said.

“The administrative and ministerial work of the Pastoral Center serves the 2.3 million Catholics in Cook and Lake counties as well as many non-Catholics who are helped by our services. I believe these appointments will benefit our parishes, parishioners, young Catholics and Catholic school children, and I’m grateful to all in the Pastoral Center for their cooperation,” said Cardinal George.

Lago also will assume management of the departments and agencies currently reporting to Moderator of the Curia Father R. Peter Bowman. Though past retirement age, Bowman will act as interim director of the new Department of Specialized Ministries.

Father Thomas J. Paprocki, completing his second term as chancellor, will become a pastor following a short sabbatical in Poland.

“I am grateful that Jimmy Lago will be leading the Pastoral Center staff,” Cardinal George said in a statement. “His extensive administrative experience will help the Pastoral Center serve the archdiocese more effectively.”

In his new position as special assistant for grant schools, Smyth will assess fiscal and administrative management of those elementary schools on direct archdiocesan grants and identify ways to improve the financial stability of these schools. Grant schools are those which cannot meet operating expenses from tuition and parish subsidies and require additional funding to continue operation. Smyth will report to Elaine M. Schuster, superintendent of Catholic Schools. While he will remain executive director of Maryville, that operation will be handled by Father David Ryan, assistant executive director.

“As his outstanding work at Maryville Academy demonstrates, Father Smyth is deeply concerned with helping children,” said Cardinal George. “Now he’ll be helping children in Catholic schools.”

As director of the Office for Racial Justice, Baird will be responsible for the Archdiocesan Committee for Racial Justice and the Workshops on Racism and Ethnic Sensitivity and will oversee the implementation of the archdiocese’s program “Uniting for Racial Justice.”

“Evangelizing includes transforming society,” Cardinal George said. “Fostering racial justice and healing in the communities of the archdiocese and in the society at large is a major contribution to this transformation. Sister Anita Baird, a trusted aide, will direct efforts to improve racial and ethnic relationships, so we can enter the new millennium free of the sin of racism. ”

The appointments are part of an administrative restructuring at the Pastoral Center that will become effective July 1. Other changes include:

Father John Pollard, formerly head of the Department of Education, becomes director of the Department of Evangelization and Catechesis;

Schuster will lead the new Department of Catholic Schools;

Jesuit Father Raymond Baumhart, formerly director of the Department of Evangelization and Christian Life, assumes the new part-time role as personal consultant to Cardinal George and will continue management oversight for the archdiocese’s Food Service Professionals, Ceres Food Group and Liturgy Training Publications;

The new Office of Canonical Services, headed by Father Patrick Lagges, will encompass much of the efforts that have been the responsibility of the Chancellor’s Office.

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