Former pastor returns to help

Deirdre Newman

A familiar face will return to St. Joachim Catholic Church in January

when Father Jerome Karcher returns to the parish he served for five

years in the 1990s.

Karcher will temporarily fill the void when Father Joe Robillard

leaves Dec. 31 for a six-month sabbatical. When Robillard returns, he

will be assigned to another parish.

Karcher will fill in for six months only, as he is the full-time

pastor at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Huntington Beach. He

will serve as an administrator, which means he will have the

authority of a pastor but won’t be leading the services every Sunday.

Robillard’s departure comes on the heels of tension between some

Latino parishioners and himself. Some of those disgruntled

parishioners said the parishioners hope that Karcher’s arrival will

encourage those who have left St. Joachim to return.

“When Father Joe is not here anymore, we can start working with

the new priest and start making changes in the church,” Hugo Espinoza

said. “Until then, not a lot of people want to come back.”

Karcher said he is looking forward to the challenge of helping

heal the schism within the parish. He emphasized the need for

patience.

“If there’s a need for healing, healing takes a long time,”

Karcher said. “If there’s a need for positive growth, that takes a

long time. The body of Christ is a living organism, and as the living

body of Christ, it takes time to move from one place to another.”

He also said his abilities to communicate, collaborate and lead

will help during the transition period.

Karcher was a parochial vicar at St. Joachim from 1990 to 1995

before moving to St. Vincent de Paul, where he has been for the last

eight years.

Father Joe Fenton, director of media relations for the Diocese of

Orange, said Karcher’s experience and popularity at St. Vincent de

Paul will serve him well at St. Joachim. He also touted Karcher’s

fluency in Spanish.

“He’s been a very successful pastor where he is, and he built a

new church, and the people like him,” Fenton said. “And he’s very

experienced.”

Karcher founded Mercy House, a nonprofit organization that serves

the homeless with a variety of facilities, mostly in Santa Ana. The

services help the homeless acquire new skills, start savings

accounts, take care of bills and find permanent homes, Karcher said.

St. Vincent de Paul will continue to be his main commitment and

home. He will spend about one-fourth of his time at St. Joachim, he

said.

In Costa Mesa, he will continue working on a building project that

Robillard helped develop to refurbish the parish and surrounding

property.

Over the weekend, a large group of parishioners threw a farewell

party for Robillard, and he received an award from the Orange County

Congregation Community Organizations, Karcher said.

“He’s very well loved by many of the parishioners,” Karcher said.

Fenton said that as far as he knows, there is no permanent

replacement lined up for Robillard. Usually, new pastors are

announced in late May, he said.

One of 12 children, Father Karcher is the son of Carl Karcher, the

founder of the Carl’s Jr. fast-food chain.