Brockway Man of the Year
BROCKWAY – The Brockway community would be a very different place without the quiet spiritual guidance of the 2023 Brockway Man of the Year: Monsignor Charles A. Kaza.
Kaza came to Brockway in 1994 when he became the vicar of the Eastern Vicariate, helping the bishop in Cameron, Clearfield, Elk, Jefferson, McKean and Potter counties. He became the fulltime pastor of St. Tobias Catholic Church in Brockway in June 2001, a position he held until July 2022.
Brockway knew him outside St. Tobias because he routinely walked around town. He liked to see people on his walks, but he was always described as walking fast. Members of the community describe Kaza as a very humble person, friendly, thoughtful, and there when the members of the parish needed him. During his tenure, they said he performed every baptism, wedding and funeral for his church family.
“When I think of Monsignor, I think of integrity,” Joanne Bruno, his longtime secretary, said. “He would always do things to help others or solve problems when nobody saw it and would not take credit for it.”
Longtime friend Rev. Victor Baxter spoke at the Citizens of the Year Banquet, saying that Kaza was “dependable, reliable, honest, and trustworthy.”
“That’s just who he is,” Baxter said. “Thanks largely to his work, our congregations can meet together in unity.”
Kaza was a leader outside Mass. He is credited for leading the DuBois Catholic School System while also working closely with the public schools to benefit all students. He also shepherded the Brockway Ministerium, an organization of pastors of many denominations in the Brockway area. He represented the Ministerium in community activities and is remembered for his eloquence in speaking and approachable demeanor.
This man of faith was born on Oct. 14, 1946, in Adrian Hospital Punxsutawney, and his family remembers that he wanted to be a priest at a very young age. He was the youngest of seven children and has two surviving sisters: Alice Orsich of Punxsutawney and Janie Pokrajac of Bethel Park. When he came home from the hospital with his mother Anna (Sovich) Kaza, his oldest sister, also named Anna, said he looked like his name should be “Butch.” That nickname stuck, and his many nieces and nephews still call him “Uncle Butch.”
George Kaza, Monsignor’s father, was a coal miner, and the future priest started life in what is now Sportsburg and Valier near Punxsutawney, which were then called “No. 8 Mining Town.” When he was 7, the family moved to Punxsutawney, and it was there that family remembers young Monsignor Kaza pretending to have Mass in their home. He went to Saints Cosmas and Damian Catholic Schools in Punxsutawney,
graduating in 1964, and named Prom King during his senior year. From there, he went to St. Marks Seminary in Erie, eventually heading to St. Marys in Baltimore, earning a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1968 and a Master’s Degree in Divinity in 1971.
Ordained on May 11, 1972, he took his first assignment as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Peace Parish in Erie, assisting Monsignor James F. Daily. In 1986, he became the parish parochial administrator. Then, in 1986, he took the position of pastor at Erie’s St. John the Baptist Church. He held that position until 1994, when he was named “Chaplain of His Holiness” by Pope John Paul II, then heading to Brockway. After 1994, he served as the temporary parochial administrator of St Mark in Emporium and St. Leo Magnus in Ridgway. He also administered Holy Cross in Brandy Camp and St. Boniface in Kersey. He served on the Bishop’s Administrative Cabinet, the Presbyteral Council, the Clergy Personnel Board, the Bishop’s College of Consultors, and the Camp Notre Dame Board of Directors.
Monsignor Kaza may have retired from Brockway in 2022, but he has not stepped away from the ministry. He says Mass at Christ the King Manor, performing visitations and writing letters and cards. He always has time for his family and friends.
“I have been blessed as a person all my life,” Kaza said at the banquet. “Thank you for your acknowledgement.”
According to the Brockway Citizens of the Year Committee: “Monsignor Charles A. Kaza is being recognized for his long time of community service and leadership in the Brockway Ministerium and as pastor of the St. Tobias Catholic Church. He was a man who brought the community churches and people together, making Brockway such a warm and welcoming place.”