The
Central Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church and its mother
cathedral, St. Stanislaus in South Scranton, will welcome a new bishop
and pastor on Feb. 1.
Bishop John Mack has served for the past four years as the auxiliary
bishop of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese and has been a pastor in
Western Pennsylvania for two decades.
The current bishop of the Central Diocese, the Most Rev. Anthony
Mikovsky, was elected Prime Bishop of the church in October, leaving a
vacancy at the head of the diocese that stretches from Maryland to New
York.
Bishop Mack was assigned to take his place at the end of the
denomination-wide synod in October.
He will take charge of what he notes is the largest parish and the largest diocese in the denomination.
"It's quite daunting," he said.
Bishop Mack was born and raised in the Polish National Catholic
Church in the greater Detroit area and attended Savonarola Theological
Seminary in Scranton.
Although he has never served as a pastor in the Central Diocese,
Bishop Mack said the relatively small size of the Polish National
Catholic Church and the frequency with which people throughout the
denomination meet at events means he knows at least a few families here.
"Our church, in its smallness, it has a family feel to it because you
get to meet people from all around the denomination when you go to
various national events," he said. "You keep these friends through all
the years."
Because Scranton was the site of the denomination's break from the
Roman Catholic Church and its founding as a new church, parishioners
here tend to have an acute sense of the denomination's first principles,
including its democratic structure, he said.
"Many of those parishioners, their grandparents, great-grandparents,
great-great-grandparents, were some of the founding members of the first
parish," he said, "so there's a heightened awareness there of the
overall purpose of our denomination, why it began."
As he prepares for his new role and its spiritual challenges, Bishop
Mack has also had to adapt to the earthly logistics of a 300-mile move
after decades in the same region.
Priests in the Polish National Catholic Church can marry and Bishop
Mack and his wife have three children, aged 17, 20 and 23.
In his other
fatherly role, Bishop Mack was faced with how to let his 17-year-old son
stay in the Pittsburgh area with his 23-year-old sister while he
finishes high school.
"That's one of the things that was the most difficult, and I'm still feeling that a bit in the pit of my stomach," he said.
Having to make such hard family choices can help the denomination's priests connect to parishioners who face similar struggles.
"You have a great deal of empathy for them when you've been through
some of the sleepless nights, and little ones, middle-aged ones and
teenagers," he said.
"You have, what do they call that, battle
experience?"
SIC: STT/USA