SAN DIEGO — No one can accuse Noreen Madden McInnes of being a slacker.
For almost 12 years as director of the diocesan Office for Liturgy and Spirituality, she helped to plan and coordinate some of the most significant liturgical celebrations in this Local Church.
Her tenure, which spanned four bishops, included overseeing:
-The ordinations of 31 priests and 87 permanent deacons
-The installation of two bishops (Bishops Robert W. McElroy and Michael Pham) and consecrations of four bishops (when then Fathers John Dolan, Ramón Bejarano, Felipe Pulido and Pham were made auxiliary bishops)
-Funeral Masses for two bishops (Bishop Cirilo Flores and Bishop Robert H. Brom) and for 52 priests
-Five dedications of churches and altars
-The training of more than 2,000 lay Eucharistic ministers
-A Mass of Thanksgiving for Bishop McElroy’s elevation to cardinal, which was celebrated on Aug. 28, 2022, at St. Patrick’s Church in Rome.
“It was just an amazing blessing, all these wonderful liturgies that I got to do,” said McInnes, 68. “I loved every one of them.”
But after all of that, she said, she no longer has “the bandwidth to keep up with all the work.”
She stepped down on June 30 as director of the Liturgy Office. But
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