 Dear People of St. Veronica Parish, I am happy to be with you as your pastor. I have anticipated this time of joining you with great enthusiasm. For the foreseeable future I will be using most of my energy working to get to know you, our parish, and how God is working through each of us to be the Body of Christ. I am looking forward to our upcoming “Meet and Greet” sessions. Thank you for taking the time to sign up for the scheduled times; these will be important meetings for us to get to begin to know each other. I will also be taking time to come to parish meetings, gatherings and social events so that I can get to know you better.Just a little bit about me. I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico where my father was stationed in the Navy. After 18 months we moved to our family farm between Yellow Springs and Xenia, just east of Dayton. I lived there until I left to begin seminary studies after High School. I began at St. Gregory Seminary in Cincinnati, then graduated from the Josephinum in Columbus. I studied at the Athenaeum in preparation for ordination. Three years after ordination I began studies in St. Louis, where I prepared for my teaching at the Athenaeum. And yes, I ended up with a handful of degrees which have helped me immensely in parish ministry. The true test of what any of us has learned is how we use that learning in our daily life.At this point in my twenty-three years of being a priest, I have split my time pretty evenly between serving in parishes in Dayton and teaching at the Athenaeum of Ohio in Cincinnati. My internship was spent at Ascension Church, Kettering. I was an associate pastor at St. Helen, Dayton. While teaching at the Athenaeum I was the weekend associate at St. Andrew, Milford. For the past ten years I have been in Dayton at Our Lady of Mercy (10 years), Queen of Martyrs (8 years) and Corpus Christi (3 years). The last ten years have been both challenging and enriching (funny how that works in life, isn’t it?) for me, preparing me for this next phase of ministry.My primary belief for parish ministry is that the Sunday Eucharist is the most important thing you and I do all week. When we do that consistently and well, we keep the proper perspective for living as the Body of Christ. Parish life is important – vital – in our lives because parish is where we stay connected with the entire church. I look forward to our years together as we experience our growth in holiness. I am honored to be at St. Veronica. Sincerely, Fr. Del Staigers | 
