The Catholic Diocese of Greensburg has announced that four Capuchin Franciscan Friars are coming to parishes in Indiana County.
Bishop Edward Malesic said this comes after two years of discussions with Capuchin Father Thomas Betz with the Capuchin Friars of the Province of St. Augustine in Pittsburgh. The friars will establish a friary at the rectory at St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and the four will also oversee the campus ministry at IUP. Under the new arrangement, one friar will serve as the pastor of both St. Bernard and St. Thomas More University parishes, a second friar will be the parochial vicar for those parishes. Another will oversee both of the Our Lady of the Assumption Parish churches in Center Township, and a fourth will live at the group’s Friary and work in the community. Over the last few years, St. Thomas More and both Our Lady of the Assumption Parish sites have shared a pastor, with St. Bernard having their own pastor.
Capuchin Father Richard Owens will serve both St. Bernard and St. Thomas More parishes. He is currently the Director of the Office of Black Catholics for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, while Capuchin Father Tage Danielson will serve as parochial vicar for those two parishes. Capuchin Father John Pavlik will serve the Our Lady of the Assumption Parish churches, while Brother Thomas Choi will serve the community out of the Friary.
For the pastors currently serving the Indiana and Homer City areas, both Father Thomas Federline and and Father Roddy Mejia will receive new appointments in the diocese while Father Andy Gumangan will return to the Philippines when his four-year term in the U.S. ends.
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