The Rev. Alphonse Mascherino, founder and director of the Flight 93 Memorial Chapel in Shanksville, has accepted the status of bishop in the North American Old Roman Catholic Church, Utrecht Succession Archdiocese of California.He will be consecrated as a bishop at 2 p.m. Sept. 27 at the chapel.
“I think it’s a great honor for the chapel and a great honor to the memory of Flight 93,” Mascherino said.
Mascherino, who served as a priest in the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese for 31 years, has been unassigned for about six years.
His acceptance as a bishop in the Old Roman Catholic Church “severs his ties with the Roman Catholic Church,” said a news release from Bishop Joseph Vellone of the Old Roman Catholic Church.
The church split from mainstream Catholicism more than 130 years ago.
“A lot of Catholics are going to have questions about this,” Mascherino said.
He said the Old Roman Catholic Church gave him “permission to function as a priest” in 2003 after Bishop Joseph Adamec of the Altoona-Johnstown diocese refused to allow him to practice as a priest or give him an assignment.
“The bishop forced me out,” Mascherino said.
Diocese spokesman Tony DeGol said Monday that Mascherino left on his own.
“He left the Roman Catholic Church a number of years ago,” DeGol said.
“Therefore he has no status. We’re sorry to see he is not seeking full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.”
Mascherino said his new role as a bishop will strengthen his ministry.
“It increases my potential to minister to the people who visit the chapel,” he said.
The small, white church was listed for sale about a month after United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville on Sept. 11, 2001.
It was renovated into the Flight 93 Memorial Chapel a year later through the efforts of Mascherino and a corps of volunteers.
The chapel has become a popular stop for visitors to the Flight 93 site.
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