Sorrowful Mother Shrine gets new rector

BELLEVUE — A new priest will take over leadership duties Saturday at Sorrowful Mother Shrine. Dayton native Father James Seibert will become the new rector at the shrine, a Catholic retreat center in rural Bellevue that averages more than 1,000 visitors each year. The current rector, Father Scott Kramer, was appointed to lead the Sts. Peter and Paul parish in Ottawa, near Findlay. Kramer has served the shrine for seven years. Both assignments take effect Aug. 1. Seibert's ministry experience encompasses more than four decades. In 1964, he entered the Missionaries of the Precious Blood at Brunnerdale, the Missionaries' former high school seminary near Canton and was ordained on April 30, 1977. After his ordination, he served as an assistant pastor at St. Andrew Church in Orlando, Fla. He has also served at St. Michael Catholic Church, Kalida, Ohio and as a pastor at Church of the Nativity in Lake Mary, Fla.; Immaculate Conception, Celina, Ohio, and St. Teresa, Rockford, Ohio. During his years as a pastor, he also served as the director of formation for the Cincinnati Province, and served on its provincial council. In 2000, he was named local director of St. Charles Center in Carthagena, Ohio, where he oversaw a major remodeling project that resulted in a new phase of life for the Missionaries' motherhouse, as the Saint Charles Senior Living Center. Twelve years later, he was appointed pastor of the Catholic Community of Northwest Dayton's three parishes, including Precious Blood, St. Paul and St. Rita. He most recently worked there before being assigned to Sorrowful Mother Shrine. Seibert is familiar with the Shrine, since he's made visits and participated in various committee work with Kramer and Shrine staff. Since 1850, Sorrowful Mother Shrine has hosted thousands of faithful worshippers, students and non-Catholic visitors on its wooded property near Ohio 4 in rural Bellevue. Visitors from Ohio, the United States and Canada flock to the shrine each year. Mass times are 11 a.m. Mondays through Fridays, 4 p.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays. On the first Sunday of each month, mass happens at 11 a.m. Confessions occur one hour before each mass in the shrine's parking lot. The shrine is open all year from dawn to dusk. Reach reporter Caitlin Nearhood at nearhood@sanduskyregister.com and follow her on Twitter @CaitlinNearhood