Priests assigned to leadership posts - Archdiocese of Baltimore

By Elizabeth Lowe and Maria Wiering

Archbishop William E. Lori has appointed nine priests to serve as pastors in parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore. They include first-time pastors with experience serving as administrators and pastors who are taking on additional parishes. Biographical capsules follow.

Father Mark S. Bialek

Resurrection of Our Lord, Laurel

After serving as the administrator of Resurrection of Our Lord, Laurel, for a year and a half, Father Mark S. Bialek will become the parish’s pastor July 1. The assignment is Father Bialek’s first pastorate. Ordained in 2006, Father Bialek, 33, is a former associate pastor of St. Joseph, Fullerton, where he was assigned in 2006, and St. Ignatius, Hickory, where he was assigned in 2009. In 2010, he served as a temporary administrator at St. Mark, Fallston, for three months before becoming administrator of Resurrection of Our Lord.

Father William F. Franken

St. Joan of Arc, Aberdeen

Father William F. Franken is taking up a new role as pastor of St. Joan of Arc, Aberdeen. He has served as pastor of Our Lady of Hope, Dundalk, since February 2010. Ordained in 1988, Father Franken has spent 24 years as a priest in Harford and Baltimore counties. The 63-year-old priest was first assigned to St. Joseph, Fullerton, where he served as associate pastor for five years. He was associate pastor of St. Isaac Jogues, Carney, for one year. For five years, Father Franken was the administrator, then pastor, of Our Lady of Victory, Arbutus. In 1999, Father Franken was assigned as pastor of St. John the Evangelist, Hydes.

Father George Gannon

St. Rita, Dundalk

Ordained in 2002, Father George Gannon served from 2002 to 2006 as associate pastor and then temporary administrator of St. John the Evangelist, Severna Park. In 2006, Father Gannon was named administrator of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Edgewater, where he served for five months. Later that year, he was assigned to Sacred Heart of Mary, Graceland Park, where he was associate pastor and then pastor. Father Gannon, 52, will continue to serve as pastor of Sacred Heart of Mary in conjunction with his new assignment.

Father Edward S. Hendricks

Mountain Maryland Four Parishes

Ending a yearlong sabbatical July 1, Father Edward S. Hendricks will become pastor of Mountain Maryland Four Parishes, a faith community that worships at St. Michael, Frostburg; St. Joseph, Midland; St. Ann, Grantsville; and St. Peter, Westernport. The parishes are familiar to Father Hendricks, 61, whose first assignment after his 1977 ordination was to St. Peter as an associate pastor, and who later spent 20 years in campus ministry at Frostburg State University. In 1981, he joined a team ministry at St. John the Evangelist in Columbia, and 1986, he became an associate pastor at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Crofton. From 1989 to 1991, he was part of the administration of Monsignor O’Dwyer Retreat House in Sparks. He became pastor of St. Patrick in Mount Savage in 1992 and ministered part time for Frostburg State University’s campus ministry. He began full-time campus ministry in 1994, where he served until his 2011 sabbatical.

Father Silvester T. Kim

St. Thomas Aquinas, Hampden

After serving as the administrator of St. Thomas Aquinas, Hampden, since December 2010, Father Silvester T. Kim, 37, is taking on the role of pastor of the city parish. He first served for three years as associate pastor of Sacred Heart, Glyndon, following his 2006 ordination. Father Kim was named associate pastor of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Homeland, in 2009.

Monsignor Richard J. Murphy

St. Timothy, Walkersville

For the second time, Monsignor Richard J. Murphy will become pastor of St. Timothy in Walkersville – returning to the Frederick County parish he first pastored from 1989 to 2004. Ordained in 1973, Father Murphy, 66, served as an associate pastor of St. Isaac Jogues, Carney, before leaving for education at the North American College in Rome in 1976. In 1977, he became an associate pastor of St. Matthew, Northwood, and was later named its temporary administrator. In 1982, he became an associate pastor of St. John the Evangelist, Hydes, and in 1984, assumed the same position at St. Anthony of Padua, Gardenville. He received his first pastorate in 1995 at St. Thomas More in northeast Baltimore. He was named pastor of St. Ann , Hagerstown, in 2004 and administrator of St. John the Evangelist in Frederick in 2006, before becoming pastor of St. John the Evangelist in 2008.

Father T. Austin Murphy Jr.

St. Luke, Edgemere, and Our Lady of Hope, Dundalk

After serving for two years as the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s vocations director, Father T. Austin Murphy Jr., 39, is returning to parish ministry as pastor of St. Luke, Edgemere, and Our Lady of Hope, Dundalk. Ordained in 2003, Father Murphy spent three months in special ministry at St. Peter, Oakland, before leaving for Rome to study for nine months. Returning to the U.S. in 2004, Father Murphy was named associate pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Essex, where he served for three years. In 2007, Father Murphy was named chaplain of the Newman Center at Towson University before being serving since July 2010 as the vocations director.

Father James Sorra

St. Michael the Archangel, Overlea

Father James Sorra is no stranger to St. Michael the Archangel, Overlea. The former parish administrator has been named the church’s pastor. Father Sorra has served the Overlea parish since 2009. After his 2006 ordination, Father Sorra served for three years as associate pastor of St. Louis, Clarksville.

Conventual Franciscan Father Carl Zdancewicz

Church of the Annunciation, Rosedale

Pennsylvania native Conventual Franciscan Friar Father Carl Zdancewicz first came to the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1967. He completed a novitiate at St. Joseph Cupertino Novitiate in Ellicott City in 1968. Father Zdancewicz has served as a parochial vicar, teacher, co-pastor and pastor in New York, Connecticut, Georgia and Massachusetts since his 1977 ordination in Albany, N.Y.

Since earlier this year, Father Zdancewicz, 63, has been pastor of Church of the Annunciation in Rosedale. From 1993 to 1995, Father Zdancewicz was on sabbatical to pursue graduate studies in social work at the University in Connecticut in Storrs, Conn. He also spent the following year on sabbatical.

From 1997 to 2001 and 2005 to 2010, Father Zdancewicz was a member of the Parochial Concerns Commission. From 2001 to 2005 he was a member of the Franciscan Discipleship Commission.