Dubuque Archdiocese Reorganization Moves Charles City Priest to Cedar Rapids, New Priests to Serve Pastorate

The Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque has announced its plans to reorganize, with a Charles City priest reassigned to Cedar Rapids. 

Archbishop Thomas Zinkula says the Archdiocese will reorganize its 160 parishes serving 180,000 Catholics into 24 pastorates beginning July 14th. 

Catholic churches in the Charles City Area pastorate include Holy Family in New Hampton, Holy Name in Rockford, Immaculate Conception in North Washington, St. Boniface in Ionia, St. Mary in Greene, St. Mary of Roseville, St. Michael in Nashua, and Immaculate Conception in Charles City, where Father Thomas Heathershaw will leave to become a parochial vicar for four churches as part of the Cedar Rapids Central Area pastorate. 

In a Facebook post to the IC Parish, Father Heathershaw said, “I will greatly miss being pastor of IC and St. Michael. But we still have 3 months together!”

With Father Heathershaw’s departure, the new pastor will be Reverend Ivan Nienhaus (currently pastor at St. Patrick in Cedar Fallds), with parochial vicars Reverend Ray Atwood (currently Sacred Heart in Oelwein/Immaculate Conception in Fairbank) and Reverend Christopher Podhajsky (current pastor at Holy Family in New Hampton/St. Boniface in Ionia/Immacualte Conception in North Washington).

Zinkula says the reorganization comes out of necessity.

That reorganization also means a reduction in masses, with Immaculate Conception in Charles City, Holy Family in New Hampton and St. Mary’s in Greene as the only churches with regular masses. The other Charles City Area pastorate churches will only be open for events such as funerals and weddings.