Category: Diocese of Scranton News

SCRANTON – When the phone rang in the middle of the night at the Saint Patrick Parish Rectory in West Scranton in the 1980s, Bishop John Dougherty was normally the first to pick it up.

“We would assume it was the hospital calling for someone to go over to anoint someone or give them Last Rites and before Monsignor Tressler or I could get to the phone to answer it, he would pick up the phone. Before moments passed, Bishop Dougherty would be dressed, in the car and on the way to the hospital,” Father James Paisley said.

Father Paisley and Monsignor David Tressler were both assigned to be assistant pastors under Dougherty for their first assignments after ordination in the 1985. Both say Dougherty had a deep love for ministering to the sick and dying.

“He would go to the hospital almost every day when I was a newly ordained priest. I was with him three years. That was a priority to him,” Monsignor Tressler said. “As assistants we had our assigned days to go, but he still would go late in the evening when his day was freed up.”

As a young priest, Tressler said he learned how to be a pastor by watching Dougherty’s humble example.

“I learned the importance of compassion, of taking time for people in need, being present to people. I think that was key,” he said.

“Everything I do now, hopefully for the people, the needs of the people, for the Church and for my God, I learned all of that from his loving example,” Paisley added. “I carry a little bit around and I will continue to do that long after he’s gone now.”

GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT

Both Paisley and Tressler said Bishop Dougherty would never expect his assistants to do something that he would not do.

“He instilled my great love of the priesthood. I love my priesthood. I love being able to serve the people of God and I really attribute it to him because of the fact that he was a great example,” Tressler said.

Paisley said even when he became Auxiliary Bishop of Scranton, Dougherty always worked to avoid attention and extravagant things.

“His big fancy car was a 1976 AMC Hornet and it literally, this is not an exaggeration, had a hole in the floor that you could see right down into the ground. Larry and I called it the ‘Flintstone Mobile’ because it was a Fred Flintstone kind of thing,” Paisley said.

Deacon Ed Kelly, Parish Life Coordinator of Saint Mary Parish, Waymart, became close with Bishop Dougherty while previously serving with him at Christ the King Parish in Archbald.

“Maybe it’s not a coincidence that he died in Cycle C in our Gospel, the Gospel of Luke, because the Gospel of Luke is known as the Gospel of Prayer,” Deacon Kelly said.

Kelly said he would often find Bishop Dougherty alone in prayer.

“Witnessing with my own eyes, seeing him sit before the tabernacle, or visit one of the churches and sit there in silence, and letting the Lord speak to him, that’s one thing I’m going to take with me from his legacy,” he added.

LOVE OF CONFIRMATION

As an Auxiliary Bishop, Dougherty would often travel around the Diocese of Scranton celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation with young adults in parishes.

Dougherty’s fellow clergy say it was something he enjoyed.

“All of the priests know that he spoke at length at Confirmations. We would think, these kids are never going to pay any attention,” Paisley joked.

It is usually the opposite – as Bishop Dougherty would be engaging and relatable.

“They were riveted to every word that he said. He would get right down there with them. His message was very powerful and very direct. They loved it. It stayed with them for years and years afterward. That is how much he loved the young people,” Paisley said.

“I always found it so amazing how he really tried to engage them. He would get down on his knees and be eyeball to eyeball with the confirmation candidates,” Tressler added. “He made them feel so much at home. He gave them a sense of hope and a sense of peace.”

UNEXPECTED HUMOR

While all of Bishop Dougherty’s clergy colleagues admit he had a reputation of being stern and serious, they all say he had a great sense of humor.

“He had this extraordinary poignant dry wit and it would come out a lot,” Kelly said.

Monsignor Tressler said Dougherty’s humor often came out when he would not heed his advice.

“He’d stand at the wall and talk to the wall. He would say, ‘I get a better response out of this wall than out of you!’” Tressler recalled lovingly. “He also asked me if I was a piano player but he knew I had no musical ability. He said, ‘You know what keys to play to get a reaction out of me.’”

“I’ll never forget one night, in the middle of the winter, it was freezing cold outside, he said, come on we have to go somewhere. I got in the car with him and he scraped open a little, tiny opening. We went to the parking lot behind the school and he did donuts in the parking lot as I was holding on for dear life. I will never forget that. I couldn’t wait to get out of the car but I enjoyed every minute of it as well. That is the kind of humor that he had, that hardly anyone ever saw,” Paisley explained.

A LOVING EXAMPLE

While all of Dougherty’s fellow clergymen admit he would not like all the attention that his funeral brought, they say it is all well deserved.

“Monsignor Dougherty was the best pastor we could have possibly had,” Paisley said. “He taught by example. He didn’t tell us what to do, he didn’t force us to do anything, he taught by showing us what a good and holy priest would be.”

“He was able to take the Church to the sick and dying and he was able to bring people to the Church,” Kelly explained. “Bishop Dougherty understood, that not only was he bringing consolation through the Eucharist to the sick, he was also being consoled.”

“He believed priesthood is a lifestyle, it’s not a job, it’s something that we’re called to be priests 24 hours a day and he demonstrated that right up until the end of his life,” Tressler added. “I’ll be eternally grateful to Almighty God for having him in my life and his example. His compassion, his humility, his ability to give direction without being in anyway hurtful or critical. He just was a man who was rooted in his prayer life and he exuded that in everything that he did.”

 

EXETER – As dozens of parishioners came together to celebrate the closing Mass for Saint Cecilia Church on April 24, 2022, the Rev. Michael E. Finn reminded them that the Church is much more than just a building.

“We belong to a Church that is universal,” he said. “We are part of a Body, the Body of Christ, and no one can take away from that.”

The closing Mass was a beautiful and fitting tribute to the Exeter church that served the community for 122 years.

“A total of 4,392 people were baptized in this church, or the previous church,” Father Finn said during his homily as he reflected on the history of Saint Cecilia’s.

The parish was founded on Nov. 17, 1900. It was formally dedicated on Sept. 29, 1901. Father Patrick F. Quinnan served as the first pastor. The church was rebuilt in the 1970s after a massive fire and became part of Saint Barbara Parish in 2008.

Father Finn is the sixteenth pastor or administrator to serve Saint Cecilia Church.

“This is a bittersweet moment. It’s always hard because we’ve had these experiences, these wonderful things have taken place, this was the church, the context in which I was raised, but now I’m called to belong to another community. The communities are all the same. They’re all Christians. We’re all the descendants of the Apostles that met in Jerusalem in that Upper Room,” he added.

Following the final Mass, Father Finn and Deacon Walter Janoski led the closing ritual for the church, which involved processing from the baptismal font, to the cross of the church, the Saint Cecilia statue, the ambo and finally the altar. At each place, the faithful raised their voices in song and the clergymen offered prayers.

At the church’s altar, the final stop, Deacon Janoski reminded everyone that the altar is where Jesus allows us to join Him in the holy and perfect sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.

“You have handed over your life to us through this holy sacrament as we worshipped you at Sunday Mass, special feast days, Confirmations and First Communions, celebrations of the Sacrament of Marriage and anniversaries and funerals celebrated here in hope. You have quietly waited for us, as you remained present in the tabernacle to speak to us, and to receive our humble prayers and requests,” he said.

The final act of the ceremony involved parishioner Dolores Seman, 91, who locked the front door of the church. When asked to describe what it meant to be asked to perform that important act, she said it was a “special privilege.”

Following the Mass and the closing ritual, parishioners mingled outside the building with one another and took photographs.

“We were married here in 1990,” Mary Ellen Berry of Wyoming said. “We loved this church. We sat in our old pew today where we always sat.”

Berry, who has been a parishioner at Saint Cecilia Church for 45 years echoed the words of Father Finn that a Church is its people, not the building.
“It has always been that way,” she said. She said the closing Mass and rituals were very fitting and will always have photographs to look back on when she gets nostalgic.

“We had beautiful wedding photos taken so we have some good views of the church, between my brother’s video and the professional photography that we had done. We still have the memories of the church in our album,” she explained.

The closure of Saint Cecilia Church finalizes a consolidation process that has been more than a decade in the making. It was first recommended during the “Called to Holiness and Mission” initiative. In recent years, the parish community of Saint Cecilia Church continued to diminish in size. Only one Sunday morning Mass was held in the church and sustaining operational costs would negatively impact the finances of Saint Barbara Parish.

While saying the church closure is bittersweet, Bernardine Regis of West Wyoming understands.

“You don’t see children coming to the church anymore. They have other things to do. We were always taught that you always went to church,” she explained.

Just days after the closing Mass, Father Finn also retired, taking on a new role of Pastor Emeritus, after many years of faithful service. As a result, Saint Barbara Parish entered into a new linkage with Corpus Christi Parish in West Pittston. The two parishes will share one pastor and have three worship sites: Saint Anthony Church in Exeter, Immaculate Conception Church in West Pittston and Church of the Holy Redeemer in Harding.

“Today we’ll be saying officially goodbye to Saint Cecilia’s and thank you for the 122 years of witness to the faith,” Father Finn said at the end of his homily. “May God give us the grace that we may continue and go on to give many more years to witness to the faith and allow his spirit to work in each and every one of us.”

 
DRUMS – After 17 years of marriage, Phil and Sue Milazzo both began to realize something was missing. Between work, family life and children, both started to realize that they were unhappy.

“It was a culmination of little things that built up,” Phil Milazzo said.

That unhappiness led to Phil’s poor choice of becoming emotionally and physically involved with another woman. It seemed like the couple, who married on Long Island at the age of 19, was headed for separation and divorce.

“It was very shocking for me when I heard that there was someone else,” Sue Milazzo said. “I ran in circles trying to find something to help us, to try and turn things around, trying to make some sense of what was happening and try to work on our marriage. I had no help at all. No matter where I went, people were helping me get divorced, no one was helping me stay married!”

That is when the Milazzo’s discovered Retrouvaille.

Retrouvaille (pronounced Retro-vi) is a marriage program for couples facing challenges in their relationship. The program is peer-facilitated by other couples that have gone through difficult times in their own marriages. Retrouvaille is Christian-based, and Catholic in origin, but welcomes couples of all faiths as well as non-religious couples.

“It is basically for people who are suffering a crisis in their marriage, whether they are in the middle of the crisis or they may even be separated or divorced,” Phil said.

The Retrouvaille program is broken down into three phases.

The first phase involves a weekend retreat where three presenting couples share the breakdown of their own personal marriage stories and teach tools they have learned to improve communication.

The second phase of the program includes six follow-up sessions which help the couples in healing and rebuilding a new foundation based on love, respect and communication.

The third phase consists of ongoing monthly small group meetings, called CORE (Continuing Our Retrouvaille Experience), to keep marriages on track.

Overall, the Retrouvaille experience is focused on improving a couple’s communication through the sharing of feelings.

“Feelings are a large part of the program because feelings cannot be judged as right or wrong,” Phil said.

While several couples attend a weekend retreat at the same time, there is no large group sharing in Retrouvaille, which puts many people at ease.

Privacy is also a priority.

“There is no group sharing unless you want to,” Phil added. “No one is ever forced to say anything about their relationship. You can go through the entire weekend and not even say why you were there!”

Sue Milazzo is very blunt about the impact Retrouvaille has had on her marriage.

“We would not be sitting here today together if it wasn’t for Retrouvaille,” she admitted.

The program left such an impact on the couple that they have now spent more than three decades presenting it to other couples in need of assistance.

“We’ve been gifted to see people get back together after being divorced,” Sue said.

After moving to Luzerne County several years ago, Phil and Sue Milazzo are now working to bring the Retrouvaille program back to the Diocese of Scranton in coordination with the Diocesan Office for Parish Life.

A Retrouvaille Weekend has been scheduled for Aug. 19-21 at the Townplace Suites in Moosic. In addition to explaining the program and looking for couples that might benefit, Phil and Sue are also in need of help to get everything off the ground.

“We need people to do prayer letters, people to do hosting, people to just get supplies and get set-up for the weekend,” Sue said.

Over the last 37 years, the Milazzo’s have presented a total of 94 Retrouvaille weekend retreats. With an average of 20 couples attending each one, they’ve already helped roughly 2,000 people improve their marriages. They want to keep going.

“We’ve heard the phrase that it’s the best kept secret in the Catholic Church and I don’t know why that is!” Phil joked.

To learn more about attending the Retrouvaille weekend in August, or to learn more about helping to bring this weekend to life, please contact: Phil & Sue Milazzo, philmilazzo2@gmail.com or call (631) 338-5413. Additional information is also available by contacting Jen Housel, Director for Community and Family Development in the Diocesan Office for Parish Life, jhousel@dioceseofscranton.org, (570) 207-2213, x1104.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The lives of the saints prove that holiness is not an unreachable goal accomplished by a select few but comes from acknowledging and sharing God’s love, Pope Francis said.

“Our Christian lives begin not with doctrine and good works, but with the amazement born of realizing that we are loved, prior to any response on our part,” the pope said in his homily during the canonization Mass in which he declared 10 men and women as saints of the Catholic Church.

“At times, by overemphasizing our efforts to do good works, we have created an ideal of holiness excessively based on ourselves, our personal heroics, our capacity for renunciation, our readiness for self-sacrifice in achieving a reward. In this way, we have turned holiness into an unattainable goal,” he said.

An estimated 45,000 pilgrims from around the world gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the beginning of the canonization Mass, and tens of thousands more arrived in time for the recitation of the “Regina Coeli” prayer afterward, the Vatican said.

Carmelite Father Michael Driscoll, who lives in Boca Raton, Florida, was among the pilgrims who arrived early for the canonization Mass, which he said he has “been waiting for for 18 years” since his miraculous healing from advanced, metastatic melanoma. He had prayed for St. Titus Brandsma’s intercession, and his healing was accepted as the miracle needed for the Dutch Carmelite’s canonization.

Father Driscoll told Catholic News Service May 13 he was “very anxious and thrilled” for the canonization of St. Brandsma, who died in 1942 at the Dachau concentration camp after he “used his talents as a teacher, as a publicist and as a writer” to fight Nazi ideology.

“He fought with his mouth in the pulpit, he fought with his pen and typewriter way before the internet came along. He used all that was available at that time and rallied Holland,” Father Driscoll told CNS.

In his homily, the pope reflected on the Sunday Gospel reading from St. John in which Jesus calls on his disciples to love one another “as I have loved you.”

Christ’s call, he said, should be “the core of our own faith,” a faith that recognizes that “our abilities and our merits are not the central thing, but rather the unconditional, free and unmerited love of God.”

“Being disciples of Jesus and advancing on the path of holiness means first and foremost letting ourselves be transfigured by the power of God’s love. Let us never forget the primacy of God over self, of the Spirit over the flesh, of grace over works,” the pope said.

Jesus’ call to love one another, he continued, is not solely a call to imitate his love for humanity, but a reminder that Christians “are able to love only because he has loved us, because he pours into our hearts his own Spirit, the Spirit of holiness, love that heals and transforms.”

To live one’s life according to that love, the pope said Christians must be willing to serve others, which clears one’s soul from “the poison of greed and competitiveness” and fights “the cancer of indifference and the woodworm of self-referentiality.”

Giving one’s life, he said, is “more than simply offering something of ours to others,” but rather it is a way of “surmounting our selfishness in order to make our lives a gift.”

Pope Francis said that the 10 new saints exemplified the Christian call “to serve the Gospel and our brothers and sisters, to offer our lives without expecting anything in return, or any worldly glory.”

“They discovered an incomparable joy, and they became brilliant reflections of the Lord of history,” the pope said. “May we strive to do the same, for each of us is called to holiness, to a form of holiness all our own.”

The new saints are:

– Devasahayam Pillai, an Indian layman born in 1712 and martyred in 1752.

– César de Bus, the French founder of the Fathers of Christian Doctrine, who was born in 1544 and died in 1607.

– Luigi Maria Palazzolo, Italian founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Poor, who lived 1827-1886.

– Giustino Maria Russolillo, Italian founder of the Society of Divine Vocations for men and the Vocationist Sisters, 1891-1955.

– Charles de Foucauld, French priest and hermit, born in 1858 and killed in 1916.

– Anna Maria Rubatto, Italian founder of the order now known as the Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto, who lived 1844-1904.

– Maria Domenica Mantovani, co-founder and first superior general of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, born in 1862 and died in 1934.

– Titus Brandsma, Dutch priest and journalist, who was born in 1881 and martyred in 1942.

– Carolina Santocanale, Italian founder of the Congregation of the Capuchin Sisters of the Immaculate of Lourdes, who lived 1852-1923.

– Marie Rivier, French founder of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary. She was born in 1768 and died in 1838.

SCRANTON (May 12, 2022) – The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, issued the following statement on the U.S. Senate vote taken May 11, 2022, on the Women’s Health Protection Act, which failed with a final vote of 49-51:

 

“Today, I express my deep disappointment in the U.S. Senate’s attempt to advance the cause of a proposed law that would threaten the lives of countless unborn children. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) voted against the measure and Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.) voted for the legislation.  

“It is particularly distressing that Senator Casey chose to support the most radical, pro-abortion bill ever before Congress. I urge him in the strongest possible terms to take efforts to protect the rights of the unborn. 

“The deceptively titled ‘Women’s Health Protection Act,’ (S.4132) would impose abortion on demand nationwide at any stage of pregnancy through federal statute and eliminate pro-life laws at every level of government – including parental notification of scheduled abortions for young women under the age of 18, informed consent, and health and safety protections specific to abortion facilities. 

“If adopted, the legislation would compel all Americans to support abortions performed domestically and internationally with their tax dollars. It would also likely force health care providers and professionals to perform, assist in, and/or refer for abortion against their deeply held religious beliefs and rights of conscience. Finally, it would force employers and insurers to cover or pay for abortions and abortifacient drugs in violation of their deeply held religious beliefs and rights of conscience. 

“Today, I reaffirm the stance that all human life deserves respect, protection, and dignity from conception to natural death. In addition to defending the rights of the unborn, that means providing for the needs of the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters.

“I invite all of the faithful of the Diocese of Scranton to join Catholics around the country in fasting and praying the Rosary on Friday, May 13, the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima.”

SCRANTON – The beauty and importance of adoption once again became the focal point of the Diocese of Scranton’s annual Mother’s Day Mass – thanks to dozens of families who attended the liturgy with their adopted children.

The Mass, celebrated May 8 at the Cathedral of Saint Peter, brought together dozens of families and their adopted children.

Many, like Karen Trently of Throop, were joyful in discussing their adoption stories following Mass.

“It will almost be nine years in July that we got the call about Addison. My husband and I tried about ten years to get pregnant and unfortunately it didn’t happen for us,” Trently explained.

That is when the couple decided to adopt.

“The day that we got the call about Addison was one of the happiest days of our lives. Every day with her is a blessing and she really completed our family,” she added.

The Trently family makes it an annual tradition to attend the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass at the Cathedral.

“She didn’t grow inside me but she grew in our hearts,” Trently said. “She knows about her adoption and we thank her mother for being so brave and putting her up for adoption.”

This was the first year Dan and Sarah Wilson attended the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass. The Milford couple has an eight-year-old son, Luke, and recently adopted their two-year-old son, Jude.

“We knew our family wasn’t complete with Luke and we knew that he needed to have a sibling so we went through the adoption process and adopted Jude. He is from Atlanta, Georgia. We have a completely open adoption with his birth family and it is the most happy and joyous relationship in our life and our family is complete,” Sarah Wilson said.

“He is an absolute miracle. Our lives are so much richer, I don’t know how we existed without him,” Dan Wilson added. “Luke is amazing as well but Jude really completes our whole family.”

When asked to describe his thoughts on having a brother, Luke responded it was “probably the happiest time of my life.”

The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, was principal celebrant and homilist for the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass. During the liturgy, the bishop not only acknowledged adoptive and foster mothers, but all mothers, grandmothers and godmothers.

“For all of the commercialization and hype that can cause us at times to lose touch with the heart of its real meaning, doesn’t this day cause us to reflect upon the essence of the gospel message for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday?” the bishop asked. “Selfless love, forgiveness, unconditional acceptance and hope are all qualities that a mother seeks to impact to her child whom she knows and loves so well.”
Mothers, the bishop added, remind us that we are all given the power and responsibility to become vehicles for God’s presence in the world.

“May we especially give thanks for those women who have nurtured and cared for us, their children, and have taught us that it is possible to love as Jesus, the Good Shepherd,” Bishop Bambera noted.