PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune Review
October 5, 2018
By Dillon Carr
Figurines of Jesus and notable saints adorn the small lobby in Monroeville’s St. Bernadette Catholic Church on a sunny late summer morning. As they always do, church bells ring nearby signifying the end of daily Mass as parishioners file out to go on with daily life.
But for many of them, that day’s worship carried a weight not typically present in the sacred space of their sanctuary. A few days prior, a grand jury report was released detailing how 300 “predator priests” sexually abused at least 1,000 children over seven decades and how a hierarchy of clergy leaders conspired to cover it up.
Two of the disgraced priests served at St. Bernadette during their tenures.
At the same time the roughly 7,500 parishioners of the church wrestle with that reality, they also are saying goodbye to a trusted priest of nine years.
Effective Oct. 15, the diocese’s 188 parishes will be placed in 57 groupings that will become new parishes between 2020 and 2023 as part of a strategic planning initiative that’s been in the works for five years. Religious leaders — some who have been in their current churches for many years, including the Rev. Tony Gargotta of St. Bernadette — will be reassigned to other parishes, hospitals, nursing homes, schools and correctional institutions.
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