St. Joachim Head Pastor Transferring

Kenneth Krause, head pastor at St. Joachim Catholic Church and a proponent of programs that reach out to the city’s Latino community, will transfer to Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Newport Beach on July 1.

When Krause, 61, started at St. Joachim 15 years ago, the Orange Avenue church offered one Spanish-language service on Sundays. Now there are three.

“To work with the Hispanic community has been very rewarding,” he said. “It changed my life. They are just a very warm and good people.”

St. Joachim’s members are involved with a variety of outreach programs that serve the city’s largely Latino west side, including tutoring children in the once-troubled Shalimar Drive district and working with Families-Costa Mesa, a network of charities that work together to provide social services.

At Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Krause will succeed the late Thomas O’Donnel, who died in August at 70. Krause takes over as head pastor July 1.

Joseph Robillard of St. Anne Catholic Church in Santa Ana will lead the 2,500-family congregation at St. Joachim, which is where he started after his 1984 ordainment.

The appointments were made by Norman F. McFarland, the bishop of Orange County, with help from a committee.

Krause said he hopes to build up the congregation of 725 households at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which is on the Balboa Peninsula, and create more activities for the young and largely single membership.

In a related matter, St. Joachim’s members observed the church’s 50th anniversary over the weekend with a spring carnival featuring rides, games and food. The church was founded in March 1947.