News from St. Clement Mission House, Ephrata, PA
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December 27, 2022St. Clement Mission House is a House for Redemptorist Priests and Brothers who need some care and assistance in their living. When I arrived as Superior of St. Clement Mission House in 2019, we had 14 Redemptorist Priests in the community, nine of whom needed care and assistance in their living. The other five needed no assistance.
I, Fr. Kevin Moley, was appointed the Superior of the community. Fr. John Murray was appointed the Pastor of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish in Ephrata, PA, and Fr. Jim Szobonya, the Vicar of the Parish. Fr. John Tizio was appointed the Vicar of St. James Parish in Lititz, PA. Fr. Jim O’Blaney was the Pastor of the Parish of St. James for over 20 years.
Fr. Ed Faliskie took care of all the properties of St. Clement and helped in the Parish of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Because of the needs of the Province, Fr. John Tizio was assigned as Pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in New Smyrna Beach, FL, and Fr. Ed Faliskie was assigned to San Alfonso Retreat House in Long Branch, NJ. Fr. Tizio and Fr. Faliskie were two great losses for our community.
During these three years, three of our men who lived at St. Clement have gone to their Eternal Reward: Frs. Jim Geiger, the brother of Fr. Bill Geiger, who worked many years at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish; Fr. Arthur Gildea, the former Pastor who officiated at the building of the church and school hall of Our Mother of Perpetual Help; and Fr. Pat McGarrity, the former Pastor of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish. All three men are buried here at St. Clement Mission House Cemetery. They were wonderful Redemptorist priests and confreres. We miss them very much. May they bless us from heaven.
We welcomed Fr. Jim Cascione to St. Clement Mission House this year to receive some care and assistance in his living here.
As a community we come together two times every day for prayer and for Mass together. We also come together for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
We have been blessed by a terrific staff who take care of the men in a very wonderful way. We are very blessed by Sisters Serafina and Joela who care for the medical care and needs of our men. We are blessed by a wonderful staff including Rita, Anne, Shirley and Shawn who take care of the food, cleaning, secretarial, and maintenance and other needs of our community.
We are blessed by a staff who love our men, and give of their lives for our men, and are always willing to do more than they have to. They are truly our family. We are very fortunate in having them.
We do realize that we are getting older and having more difficulties every day, so we thank God for the wonderful help and the goodness of the people who serve us.
Even though some of our staff got Covid, none of our confreres did. That is a great blessing knowing the age of our men! We thank God for the generosity of our Province and benefactors for the support and care of our confreres.
