Welcome to our new pastor and the Claretian Missionaries!

As of July 2024, The Claretian Missionaries have assumed pastoral leadership of Sacred Heart & St Paul parishes with Fr Ray Smith, CMF as our new pastor

 Fr. Ray Smith, CMF was Born outside Cleveland Ohio and raised in Jacksonville Florida, the 5^th of 5 children to Dr Raymond & Mary Smith.   After completing a solid Catholic education there, he left to pursue a Finance/economics degree at St Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He then served for a year in a Catholic Lay Missionary program before working for the archdiocese of Baltimore with adults with intellectual disabilities and was active in his church.  He spent the next 9 years working in the travel industry before entering seminary

With the Friars Minor of Holy Name Province in New York City in 1998.  These years led him to further discern a call to be a missionary and he left serve in El Salvador, Wilmington, Delaware and Ecuador. 

In 2010 he joined the Claretian Missionaries (The Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary) and after initial formation he went on to serve in Indonesia and the Philippines for a year.  Since then, he has served in campus ministry, vocation promotion, and associate pastor of San Gabriel Mission (Los Angeles County, USA) and most recently Sacred Heart Parish in Springfield Missouri, USA

Fr Ray has a heart for serving in multicultural communities, Hispanic ministry, Scripture Studies, gardening, and cooking/baking.