Using a Team Concept to Revitalize a Parish

Frank Cieplinski has a vivid memory of his first meeting with the priest who would become the pastor of his church, St. Anthony of Padua. Vivid with a shade of red.

“His first day here was Ash Wednesday, and I was the Eucharistic minister. I walked up to the tabernacle. He looked at me and said, ‘Who are you?’ ” remembers Cieplinski. “I should have introduced myself.”

Since that initial encounter more than nine years ago, Cieplinski has become an admirer of – and a friend and occasional financial adviser to – this Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. John Baran.

Father John, as he’s known to most parishioners, was appointed administrator of this ethnic Polish parish on South Pine Creek Road in 2002, shortly after the Diocese of Bridgeport took over its operation from the Franciscan order. That September, he was named pastor.

Cieplinski’s affiliation with St. Anthony is lifelong – beginning just six years after the church’s founding by the Franciscans in 1927 – and so he has witnessed myriad changes. “My parents were married there in 1932, I was baptized there and I went to school there,” he says. He also became one of the first Eucharistic ministers and he chaired the church’s Finance Counsel.

“There has been a terrific amount of growth since he came on board,” Cieplinski explains, “both in the number of people who have joined the parish and in the number of kids in CCD.” The former PerkinElmer controller also notes that giving “has grown about 10 percent each year.”

True enough, across the board.

“That first year, maybe 25 people were here for the Easter vigil,” Fr. John recalls. “This year the place was nearly full.”

The growth in the religious education program has been equally impressive – 223 children now as compared to just 30 in 2002. The number of registered families has increased from a few hundred to more than 500, and that figure may be understating the case.

Fr. John prefers to share the credit for the parish’s revitalization with his “team,” including Deacon Donald J. Ross and Eleanor Sauers, Ph.D., the director of religious education. Both had worked with him across town at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, where he served as parochial vicar. They joined him at St. Anthony within a matter of months.

About four years ago, another Assumption staffer, Frank Macari, was appointed St. Anthony’s director of music, although he remains at Assumption as religious ed director. Under Macari's leadership, the St. Anthony choir has grown to 25 members.

“There is a welcoming feeling here,” Fr. John says. “It’s something we’ve really put a lot of effort into…being welcoming and not being judgmental.

"So many times Catholics are treated like children. People come here because they want to be here."

(This scrivener and his spouse, Patti, are among many former Assumption parishioners who have followed Fr. John to St. Anthony’s. Why? His homilies almost always provide inspiration and food for thought. He has been supportive of our family in happy times and not-so-happy times.)

Fr. John, a Shelton native who earned a bachelor's degree in psychology at Fairfield University (Class of 1980) and a master's of divinity at Saint John's Seminary in Brighton, Mass., is well aware that music enriches the soul.

In addition to hiring Frank Macari, he has brought in  two liturgical composers and musicians, Dan Schutte ("Here I Am, Lord") and Gregory Norbet ("All I Ask of You") for concerts in the church. Norbet, formerly of the Weston Priory in Vermont, and the pastor have developed a warm friendship.

The music series has attracted  a wide spectrum of people from area churches and synagogues. One Christian couple was invited by a Jewish neighbor, who said, "You've got to check this out."

To raise funds for the Merton Center in Bridgeport and other area charities, Sauers conceived the idea of hosting soup suppers during Lent. They began modestly enough, with perhaps 40 people turning out and $2,500 raised the first year. "You're giving up something (time) so that somebody might have something," Fr. John says.

In the past lenten season, the parish hosted five soup suppers and generated nearly $7,400 (a new high) for the Merton Center. "If they're fed here," reasons Sauers, "they'll want to go out and serve the community."

David Russell, the retired Fairfield fire chief, is another longtime St. Anthony's parishioner; he often serves as an usher for the 10 a.m. Mass on Sunday. He considers Fr. John "a special person in my life," and he's delighted that his son-in-law, John Macfarlane, recently converted to the faith through St. Anthony's R.C.I.A. program.

"My granddaughter drives down from Monroe every Sunday to come to Mass here," Russell says.

Don Ross, who entered the diaconate in 1994, attributes St. Anthony’s growth to a number of factors, including the influx of young families in the neighborhoods bordering the church and beyond. But he knows the key is the pastor.

“Father John is a very charismatic preacher who has a gift with words. He uses words from everyday life and applies them to the gospel,” he says. “Once they hear the words so eloquently put, the people continue to come.”

For information about St. Anthony of Padua Church, visit the website, stanthonyffld.org.