NEW BISHOP TAPPED

Pope names Monsignor Larry J. Kulick as next bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Greensburg.

When he received a recent call from the Vatican representative to this country, Monsignor Larry J. Kulick thought he might be receiving an update on the search for a new leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg.

Monsignor Kulick had been serving as administrator of the diocese since September, when previous Bishop Edward Malesic became bishop of Cleveland.

What Monsignor Kulick didn’t expect was that he would get the assignment himself — that Pope Francis had named him the next bishop of Greensburg.

It was the ecclesiastical equivalent of offering a permanent job to the temp.

“What I heard so clearly was an invitation to serve” and as a “tremendous bonus and blessing, to continue to serve in the Diocese of Greensburg,” he said Friday at a news conference at Christ Our Shepherd Center, a church conference center in Greensburg.

While bishops are typically appointed from outside of a diocese, it’s not rare to have a native of that diocese become its bishop. The most recent two bishops of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, David

Zubik and Donald Wuerl, grew up and became priests in that diocese, but returned home only after each served as bishop in another diocese.

But Monsignor Kulick said it’s more unusual for a priest to be appointed directly from within a diocese and for a temporary administrator to find his caretaker role turned into a permanent one.

He said it may reflect Pope Francis’ emphasis on pastoral leaders — “to have bishops being named who are from their own diocese, who know their diocese and who are called to shepherd in the diocese they were raised and served in.”

Monsignor Kulick, 54, will be ordained and installed as bishop on Feb. 11 at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Greensburg, according to the diocese.

“This is the diocese in which I was born, baptized, received all of my sacraments, was ordained and served as a priest for 28 years,” he said. “I do not underestimate this privilege, nor do I take it lightly. I promise our Holy Father and each of you that I will strive to ... be the best shepherd I can.”

A native of Leechburg, he grew up at the former St. Martha

Parish, an ethnic Slovak congregation where he developed his affinity for Slovak religious and cultural traditions. He graduated from St. Joseph High School in the Natrona Heights section of Harrison, Saint Vincent College and Saint Vincent Seminary.

Monsignor Kulick is a canon lawyer and has served as the pastor at St. James Church in New Alexandria since 2012. He’s a classic-car enthusiast, with an affinity for Pontiacs, which he has brought to the parish’s annual car cruises.

The term monsignor is an honorific usually given to a priest who has performed an important service or holds an important position.

He will be the sixth bishop to lead the diocese. The first five came from other dioceses in Pennsylvania.

The Rev. Thomas Reese, a Religion News Service columnist, said appointments such as this have some precedent. “A diocesan administrator is normally someone with competence and standing in the diocese, so he would be a someone who would be considered a candidate,” said Father Reese, a priest and author of books on the Catholic hierarchy.

The Greensburg Diocese includes 78 parishes in Armstrong, Fayette, Indiana and Westmoreland counties.

It has 126,649 Catholics, according to the 2020 Official Catholic Directory. Like many Catholic dioceses in the region, its ranks of members have been aging and decreasing amid demographic shifts and growing secularization. The church has lost 14% of members in the past five years and nearly a third in the past 20 years.

For those who have been active in their parishes, he appealed to them to continue to be so and to expand their work where they can.

He apologized to victims of sexual abuse, saying he has met “face to face” with survivors and would do what he could to help them and prevent future abuse.

The diocese was one of six named in a 2018 statewide grand jury report, which said 20 of its priests had been accused since the diocese’s creation in 1951. The diocese has paid $5.9 million from a compensation fund to 72 survivors.

He acknowledged the impact of the coronavirus.

“Mass attendance is 30 to 40% of pre-pandemic levels,” he said, and impacting financial giving. “But I want you to know that even during the pandemic, God’s work continues.”

He applauded Catholics’ responses to the pandemic in mobilizing to aid the needy and providing for ministry remotely and in person using safety precautions.

He also pledged to continue the diocese’s response to the opioid epidemic in the region, which was a priority of Bishop Malesic’s work.

Religious leaders from the region applauded his appointment.

“He has been a very good friend to our congregation,” said Sister Catherine Meinert, provincial superior of the U.S. Province of the Greensburg-based Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. “Our prayers will be with him as he assumes leadership of our diocese.”

Monsignor Raymond Riffle, rector of Blessed Sacrament Cathedral and director of Catholic Charities for the diocese, has known Monsignor Kulick since the early 1990s, when they served at the same parish.

“When ... he is talking with you, that’s where his attention is, and you definitely know that he is interested in what you have to say and that it is important that he hear it,” said Monsignor Riffle. “He has always evidenced that desire to be connected to the people.”

“Bishop-elect Kulick is an amazing pastor and an outstanding administrator,” said Bishop Zubik in a statement. “I have known him since he was a seminary student. He was impressive then and even more so now.”

The Rev. Liddy Barlow, executive minister for Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, an ecumenical organization of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant denominations, said Monsignor Kulick has “demonstrated a strong interest in ecumenism and a warm, pastoral heart.”

Archabbot Martin de Porres Bartel of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe noted that Monsignor Kulick studied at its affiliated college and seminary. “We are so pleased that ‘one of our own’ will take the helm as our chief shepherd,” he said in a statement. “We look forward to our continued partnership with him.”