New Allentown Diocese priest became a father long before his ordination Saturday

At seminary, the young guys hit him with all the old man jokes. John Maria laughed along.After all, the Berks County man knew he was like a grizzled veteran catcher walking into a clubhouse full of rookies. Older, even. He was in his mid-40s when he began his five-year training for the Catholic priesthood.But the metaphor ends there. The catcher is at the end of his vocation. Maria, now 51, ordained in the Diocese of Allentown on Saturday, is at the beginning of his.“We’re ready to get to work,” he said in a recent interview, looking forward to the solemn and nerve-wracking moment when Allentown Bishop Alfred A. Schlert would lay hands on him and two other ordinands and confer the priesthood.For many men who pursue that vocation, discernment begins early ― age 16 on average, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a Catholic think tank in Washington, D.C. The group, called CARA, recently released the results of a survey of nearly 400 men on track for ordination this year.Maria, of Sinking Spring, can be counted among the oldest men ordained in Allentown. Diocese communications director Matt Kerr said two older men were ordained in the past few decades. One was 57, another 54.Maria is about 18 years older than the average 2019 ordinand, according to the CARA report. Since 1999, that average has been in the mid-thirties and trending younger — from 36 in 1999 to the current average of 33. The men ordained with Maria — the Rev. Giuseppe Esposito, 37, and the Rev. Zachary Wehr, 28 ― are more typical of a seminary class.Maria, raised by devout Catholic parents in the Luzerne County borough of Pittston, might have had an earlier calling, but underwent the not-uncommon experience of falling away from his faith as he grew. By the time he reached college, he was Catholic only in name.That was at Penn State, where he met Amy Heffner — the woman who, in senior year, became his wife. They had a son, James, but their union fared poorly.“We had high hopes, but weren’t really prepared for the challenge of marriage,” Maria said. “I never imagined being divorced, but we were divorced in 1990.”It was a crucial year, as his dormant faith began stirring.“That was a pivotal time for me to decide whether this faith I grew up with was a family tradition or a way to Christ and hope and happiness,” he said.Embarking on a career in information technology — he joined a small company in Allentown in 1992 — Maria focused on helping to raise his son and began attending daily Mass at the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena, the mother church of the diocese.“The youngest guy at daily Mass,” he quipped.Entering the priesthood didn’t occur to him. He was divorced, for one thing, and hadn’t pursued an annulment — the church’s declaration that, for some reason, a marriage was never valid. Those reasons can include the immaturity of the couple and their failure to understand the nature and demands of the sacrament.Maria shared custody of James with Heffner. Both took him to church, Maria at the Allentown cathedral and Heffner at a Pentecostal evangelical church.Maria plugged away at his job. In 2003, he and another employee bought the company, dubbed it J2 Tech and moved operations to Wescosville.As James grew, so did Maria’s yearning to grow in his faith. Along the way, he earned a master’s degree in theology.“A small business provided what I needed,” he said. “But even though I enjoyed my co-workers and clients, [information technology] was not really my passion. I always had an eye on working for church. Around 2013, while I considered making a move vocationally, we were approached by a larger company interested in buying us out. That was unforeseen and I took it as a great sign from above.”The new bosses offered him an opportunity to stay with the company. He declined.“I have something else going on,” he told them.Maria’s wife assented to his wish to pursue an annulment, which was granted in 2014. With James now grown and independent, Maria decided to pursue a vocation.He might have become a permanent deacon. Men ordained to that role can’t say Mass but are able to perform many functions of the priesthood, including baptisms, weddings and preaching. That takes some pressure off priests, whose ranks have been thinning for decades as vocations have declined.Maria, certain of his calling, chose the path of priesthood. But first, he sought his son’s blessing.“I can’t say I was entirely surprised,” said James Maria, 30, a tattoo artist and painter who lives in Sinking Spring with his wife, Abby, and 7-month-old son, Donato. “His faith has always been central to his life and he has always demonstrated that primacy through his actions and disposition.”In 2014, Maria entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Montgomery County.“On my first day, when everyone was 18 and looked 14, I asked what I was getting myself into,” he said.It took time to settle in.“In pursuing my masters, I was used to taking one class at a time,” he said. “I worked on papers, did lots of work in script and theology. That was familiar and there was no need for adjustment. However, being in class with guys of college age younger than my son and taking philosophy — that was new. You begin with philosophy, going back to the ancients.”Maria proved more than able, said the Rev. Thomas Dailey, a theologian and John Cardinal Foley Chair of Homiletics and Social Communications at the seminary.“I admire John Maria,” Dailey said. “He’s certainly courageous to enter the seminary when he did. It’s a challenge for anyone to go back to school at a late age, let alone have to discern quite a different vocation in life. Having to live 24-7 with guys who were all younger than he, and interact with a different generational cohort, was daunting, I’m sure. He had to undertake graduate studies when he’s already a graduate of real life.”That real-life wisdom, of course, was an asset. Younger seminarians often sought Maria’s fatherly advice on one issue or another. And it gave him a depth that translated well to one of the essential priestly duties.“In my view, John was among the very best of the preachers in his class,” Dailey said. “He knows, more experientially than his younger classmates, what matters in terms of what the people in the pews are going through and seeking to find in their faith. He communicates that good news in an intelligent way but not one that is overly academic, as would typically be the inclination of one immersed in graduate studies in the subjects.”With this weekend’s ordinations, the number of active and retired priests in the diocese is 150. They serve about 260,000 Catholics in 89 parishes across Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton and Schuylkill counties.James Maria said that wherever his father is assigned, parishioners will be blessed.“He absolutely has a gift,” he said. “Other people stand to, and deserve to, benefit from it.”
Source: Morningcall