Two diocesan priests have recently taken on new duties in addition to their other assignments.

Bishop Edward U. Kmiec announced that Father Ronald P. Sajdak (left), pastor of St Martin de Porres Parish, Buffalo, is also the new director of the Office of the Propagation of the Faith. The office’s mission is to assist the people of the diocese, young and old, to develop an authentic missionary spirit by encouraging the support of missionaries throughout the world with prayers and sacrifice, assisting them financially and welcoming them on visits home. Ordained in 1996, Father Sajdak previously served at St. John the Evangelist, Buffalo, and St Bernadette, Orchard Park.

In other assignement news ...Father Richard E. Zajac, chaplain at Sisters of Charity Hospital, Buffalo, has been given the new responsibility of moderator of the Catholic Medical Association of the Diocese of Buffalo for a term of three years. Father Zajac served at St. Ambrose Parish, Buffalo, following his ordination in 1976. Since1982, he has served as chaplain at Sisters Hospital. He also is an author, community leader and the recipient of many community honors.

The new pastor of Corpus Christi Church, Buffalo, is Father Matthew Wydmanski, OSPPE, who came to Buffalo in 2008 to serve as parochial vicar at Corpus Christi. Father Wydmanski was born and educated in Poland. While studying chemistry at the University of Krakow, he learned about the Pauline Order. He made the decision to enter the seminary and was ordained in 1992. Following his first assignment as a priest at a small parish in central Poland, Father Wydmanski served in Germany for 15 years. He then moved to the United States, first to Doylestown, Pa., and then to Buffalo.

Father Simon Shaner, OSPPE, has been named the new parochial vicar at Corpus Christi. Father Shaner is an American who has been a Pauline priest for 14 years. His previous assignments have been in his home state of New Jersey and also in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Florida.

In 2003, a small group of Pauline Fathers and Brothers, a religious order originating in Poland, came to the Diocese of Buffalo to run Corpus Christi Church on Buffalo’s East Side. The parish had been previously run by the Conventual Franciscans. When that order was no longer able to staff the parish, the diocese was fortunate enough that the Pauline Fathers and Brothers were able to step in to help. The first Pauline pastor, Father Anselm Chalupka, OSPPE, recently was reassigned by his order to a parish in Yonkers.