CHARLOTTE — Bishop Peter Jugis announces that Father Francis Olalekan Raji, of the Missionary Society of St. Paul of Nigeria, has been assigned parochial vicar at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte, effective July 13.
Father Raji has ministered as a priest for 15 years, including serving as a parochial vicar in the Diocese of Minna, Nigeria; director of publications for the Missionaries of St. Paul; president of St. Paul Ranch in Nigeria, where he enjoyed raising livestock and planting food crops; and rector of Our Lady of Undoer of Knots Shrine in Iperu, Nigeria.
He studied agribusiness, entrepreneurship and microeconomics at the Pan Atlantic University in Lagos, Nigeria, and the University of Oxford in London, respectively. This education enabled him to focus on youth empowerment and food production in Nigeria.
A promoter of the devotion to Mary Undoer of Knots over the years, he believes many problems can be turned around for good with a simple novena to Our Lady.
“I am impressed by the awesome orthodoxy, deep faith and piety I find among the parishioners of my new parish and I am happy to work in the Diocese of Charlotte,” Father Raji said.
— Catholic News Herald
CHARLOTTE — Deacon David S. Reiser has been appointed executive director of the Inter-Faith Chaplaincy at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
He will oversee 18 chaplains of various faiths who provide spiritual and emotional support to the tens of thousands of passengers and employees at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, the nation’s sixth largest airport. He succeeds Deacon George Szalony, who retired this summer after 12 years as head of the Inter-Faith Chaplaincy.
Deacon Reiser serves at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Charlotte, and has also served as a chaplain at the airport for 10 years.
He has four decades of experience in law enforcement, crisis response and aviation. He began his career as a police officer and then joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he worked as a special agent and pilot for teams investigating organized crime, arson, drug trafficking, financial crime and fraud. He later supervised ground and air surveillance operations for the FBI’s anti-terrorism efforts in Puerto Rico before moving to Charlotte in 1990 to join the FBI’s Drug/Organized Crime Squad. There he was also responsible for the construction of a 50,000-square-foot field office for the Charlotte FBI. Before retiring in 2003, Deacon Reiser served as Supervisory Special Agent for the FBI’s Air Operations Unit/Special Flight Operations Squad in Quantico, Va., where he was responsible for the FBI’s Multi Engine and Special Mission aircraft, supervising a team of pilots who respond on short notice with aircraft support to crises around the world.
“Deacon Reiser’s extensive background in crisis response and aviation, as well as his heart for ministry, make him an ideal leader for the Inter-Faith Chaplaincy, which provides emotional and spiritual support to people during emergencies at the airport, accompanies military families when a fallen service member is welcomed home, and helps ease the tension of travel as people navigate one of the nation’s busiest airports,” said Harry Dobrowolski, chairman of the Inter-Faith Chaplaincy Board of Directors.
Deacon Reiser and Dobrowolski both expressed gratitude to Szalony for building up the chaplaincy into a vital and valued resource at the airport. “His leadership over the past 12 years has been so important to the chaplaincy’s growth and success, and his support and mentorship to me has been an inspiration,” Deacon Reiser said.