I am originally from Jessup, Pennsylvania, a small “coal town” outside of Scranton.

 

 

I just received my doctorate in Canon Law and served on the faculty of the Pontifical North American College in Rome.  There I was a seminary formator and assisted in the Homiletic program.

 

 

Canon Law always appealed to me as a way of maintaining necessary structure, addressing challenging problems, and protecting individual rights in the Church. Seminary formation was not an original interest of mine, but once I became involved in it, I found it very challenging and rewarding to accompany seminarians on their path to the priesthood.

 

 

I was asked to accept the position of Director of Human Formation by the rector, Father Robert Pipta. I previously had the opportunity over the last few years to review the incredible progress of the seminary and felt very honored to be a part of  the faculty.  I then received the blessing and encouragement of my own bishop, the Most Reverend Kurt Burnette of the Eparchy of Passaic.

 

 

This is my first year.  I was a seminarian here from 1981 to 1989.

 

 

The most challenging part of teaching is making the gradual, deliberate effort of not only passing along information, but making sure that the information is properly integrated into a student’s life so he can apply it in his ministry.

 

 

I wish I could have better understood and appreciated the efforts of my teachers back then. There were many times when I was challenged as a student to not only do better as a student but to be better as a person. I was challenged not because the teachers didn’t care, but rather because they did care.

 

 

In my earlier years, the example of the pastors in my home parish cultivated many deep spiritual experiences as iI grew up and served there.  Living and learning in a Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Seminary helped me to understand and express these experiences.  Most recently, living and working in the center of the Church in the Vatican and Rome, I had the opportunities to make pilgrimages to many Churches there, as well as in Assisi, the Holy Land, and France.  All of these journeys have moved my soul and strengthened and nourished my priesthood.

What do you do to de-stress?

 

 

 

I am most definitely a dog person, but cats seem to like me as well.