Immaculate Conception Church of Charles City to Host Farewell Reception Sunday (07.12) for Outgoing Pastor

In April, the Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque announced plans to reorganize, with a Charles City priest reassigned to Cedar Rapids. 

That’s Archbishop Thomas Zinkula who said the Archdiocese would reorganize its 160 parishes serving 180,000 Catholics into 24 pastorates beginning July 14th, which is next Tuesday.

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. 

Father Heathershaw’s final mass at IC in Charles City will be at 10:30 AM this Sunday (07.12). A church social media post says a Farewell Reception for Father Heathershaw and Sister Diana Blong to thank them for their dedicated service will be held afterwards at the Columbus Club (formerly the Knights of Columbus).

With Father Heathershaw’s departure, the new pastor will be Reverend Ivan Nienhaus, with parochial vicars Reverend Ray Atwood and Reverend Christopher Podhajsky, current pastor at Holy Family in New Hampton.

That reorganization also means a reduction in masses, with only 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  churches will only be open for events such as funerals and weddings.