By Mark Ambrogi
Father Mike McKinley has served a variety of churches in different capacities. His latest assignment brings two new aspects for him.
McKinley began serving as associate pastor at Saint Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church in Zionsville in late June.
“This is the biggest church as far as number of families,” the Lafayette native said. “I’ve never served in the Carmel deanery before, so that will be something different. With this assignment I’ve now served all the deaneries of the diocese of Lafayette.”
More than 20 years ago, McKinley said he helped at penance services at Saint Alphonsus.
He transferred from St. Patrick Church in Kokomo, where he had been a pastor the past three years.
“I’m sure I’ll be involved with the high school servers,” McKinley said. “I’ll be involved with visiting homebound and shut-ins, and I’ll be working with the senior citizen group. Other than that, I’m here to serve and help the pastor (Father Dennis O’Keeffe) in any way I can. My duties have not been spelled out, just generally speaking.”
McKinley, 58, was ordained in 1985 and assigned as St. Bernard associate pastor in Crawfordsville. His longest stint was 9 1/2 years as St. Ann’s Church pastor in Lafayette.
“With the staff and Father O’Keefe, it should be a good assignment,” McKinley said. “I serve at the will of the bishop so wherever the bishop wants to assigns me, I go.”
