Long history of service

CLIFTON  Msgr. James T. Mahoney will retire Sept. 30 from active ministry after 47 years, including the past 16 years serving as Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, leaving behind a wealth of experience, insight and hard work that will continue to benefit the Diocese, both on the Chancery Office and parish levels, for years to come.

He has packed several lifetimes into his dynamic and multifaceted ministry as a leader in the numerous posts and assignments that he has held in the areas of education, planning and administration in the parishes that he has served, most recently at Corpus Christi Parish in Chatham Township, where he revitalized the faith community as pastor (1990–2019). Well respected and well liked, he helped guide the Diocese through difficult times and, under the leadership of Bishop-Emeritus Arthur Serratelli and now Bishop Kevin Sweeney, helped implement initiatives to strengthen the operations of the Diocese to better serve the parishes — and ultimately the faithful — that they serve.

“For nearly two decades, Msgr. Mahoney has served as Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia with great distinction,” said Bishop Emeritus Serratelli, who appointed Msgr. Mahoney as Vicar General in 2005. “As a well-respected pastor within the Diocese, he brought a thorough understanding of the needs of parishes, priests and their staff to his dedicated and zealous service. His vision of the Diocese and the Church and his love of God‘s people always guided his ministry in establishing policies and making prudent and wise decisions. He will be missed,” he said.

Msgr. Mahoney earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Lewis University in Lockport, Ill. and a Master of Sacred Theology from St. Mary Seminary and University in Baltimore. He was the first person to earn a doctorate in church leadership from Fordham University and has been an adjunct assistant professor there. Bishop Lawrence Casey ordained him to the priesthood on May 5, 1973 in the Cathedral of St. John in Paterson.

On the eve of retirement, Msgr. Mahoney engaged in a question-and-answer session about his priestly life and ministry.

Isn’t your retirement as Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia outside the regular schedule for a change in that position to occur?

I hoped that the Diocese would have a new bishop in about a year [from when Bishop Serratelli submitted his retirement letter to Pope Francis on his 75th birthday on April 18, 2019, in compliance with canon law]. That was the way those changes of bishops worked in the United States. When the resignation of Bishop Serratelli was accepted around the one-year mark [on April 15 of this year], frankly I was really tired. I could not wait to shed the diocesan responsibilities.

It was a difficult time in the Church with all the continuing anger and problems caused by clerical sexual abuse. I had worked very hard since I retired as pastor [of Corpus Christi]. I enjoyed the diocesan work, but had also dealt with so many problems over the years. I decided to ask our new bishop, whomever he was, to allow me to resign as soon as possible. It is customary for a new bishop to wait from six months to a year before he makes any changes, especially in positions like mine. Bishop Sweeney asked everyone in any type of canonical office to stay in their job for the next six months while he learned about them and the Diocese.

At my first in-person meeting with Bishop Sweeney in my office, I told him my history and ended it with saying that I wanted to resign so I could be fully retired from everything. I suggested a time frame of two months before resigning. I wanted a smooth transition and welcome for our new bishop. I had the historical memory of most areas of diocesan life and could be supportive to him. He suggested staying on for three more months, especially since September would probably be a very busy time. I agreed. My only regret in resigning at this time is that it could be fun with the new bishop. After all, he grew up in Brooklyn and was a Yankee fan — which shows that he’s not perfect. [Msgr. Mahoney was born in Chicago and is a lifelong fan of the Cubs]. But he was an experienced and effective pastor in Brooklyn. I did think, “Why not stay longer?” Nah, I gave it everything I had; it is time to move on. He deserves his own man.

Under Bishop Serratelli, while you were Vicar General, the Diocese undertook many large-scale efforts in evangeli­zation, combining of smaller parishes that were close to each other and dealing with changing demographics especially in the urban areas. What role did you play?

You have to understand the relationship in Church law between the Bishop and the Vicar General. My responsibility was to advise and assist, but things were never done because it might be my own priority. Frankly, that would be wrong. The priorities of a diocese are the priorities of the bishop. That is what must be followed. My job was to support the priorities of the Bishop. I took that very seriously.

If I were ever asked, I would adamantly insist that every single diocese give more attention to high quality preaching. The results could be a phenomenal increase in terms of people’s religious faith and participation in the life of the Church. The failure to do this with courage and care is one of the greatest failings of the Church in the United States.

Speak about the diocese working diligently to pay down its debt.

It was very important to become more financially responsible. This was a slow process aided by our wonderful Diocesan Finance Council and our present financial staff. By any objective measure from years ago to today, our outside auditors note the improvement. That is good to see and good for people to realize. Our Diocesan Finance Council, Investment Committee and Pension Board are composed of a great group of lay financial leaders. With our diocesan staff, clear progress has been made every year.

Talk about the Diocese’s efforts to strengthen its child protection program while you were Vicar General.

Our child protection program is a credit to our most deeply held views on the dignity of all life. Anyone who abuses children or vulnerable adults does heinous things. We have to help the victims heal and make them whole. Those who work in this area never receive the credit they deserve. But they are our quiet heroes. The safest place for children is in any entity sponsored by the Catholic Church in the United States. With our general counsel and compliance officer [Kenneth Mullaney] and director of child and youth protection[currently Eric Wilsusen] and other diocesan staff, I joined with them in working tire­lessly to make sure that we protect children. Our priests have also gone the extra mile in working to protect children.

What do you take away from all those years as pastor at Corpus Christi?

Being named the second pastor in the life of Corpus Christi remains one of the highlights of my life as a priest. I had been associated with the parish since my first year as a priest. The parish became my personal laboratory to apply state-of-the-art research and sociology to make for a stronger parish. I had my own little place on earth to utilize what I had learned in the sociology of religion. It was fun and wonderful.

The parish had a debt of $2.5 million [in 1990 dollars, not 2020 dollars] left over from the building of its new church. The people were never told the actual cost of the new building. It is possible that my predecessor, Father Stephen Patch, due to his health, simply did not realize the total cost. The amount needed for the weekly collection was higher than the debt payments owed to the bank. In essence, before the lights were turned on, the parish was in increasing debt every single day. It was an awful and stressful situation.

The usual way to address such a large and unforeseen debt would be to reduce staff, programs and all expenses. Nationally, that approach seldom worked. It is still recommended by some today but the results are dismal. I took a deep breath and decided to follow the sociological research that I had done with other scholars. Here is the research finding that guided us: contributions follow service. If you want people to contribute, then increase the quality and quantity of what takes place in the parish. The people responded at Corpus Christi.

The next three things we did came from the research studies as well: the need for high quality preaching, a welcoming parish climate and joyful liturgies with great music. It is quite possible that little else has the impact on people’s faith as high quality preaching. Based on the research, I would not allow anyone to preach who did not have quality preaching. Every minute, every hour spent working on a homily is time incredibly well spent. It makes a great difference in the faith of the parishioners.

Corpus Christi had a phenomenal staff. This showed in the length of time that they stayed at the parish. The parishioners contributed and increased their contributions without even asking them. They increased their service. This trend continued for many years. We eliminated the parish debt without fundraising. We had a mutually beneficial relationship with our sister parish, St. Anthonyn in Passaic. Helping the poor was important to us. We built a 10,000­­­­­-square-foot addition as a second floor in the classroom wing of our parish center without a building campaign. The parish was alive, welcoming and joyful. People came from not only the surrounding area, but also from 47 other towns.

Through the people’s goodness and the staff’s quality, we were a parish that excelled in best practices. I never micromanaged them. I had staff members who knew more about their individual fields than I did. Why have a staff if you are going to micromanage them? That is so shortsighted, harmful and demoralizing.

For me, Corpus Christi was like being in heaven. It was also exhausting because I always had a diocesan job along with the parish work. I kept that up until 2019 when I waved the white flag as pastor. Being associated for so long in a parish meant that many parishioners were no longer only parishioners; they had become friends. The cumulative effect of doing so many funerals, especially for parishioners who had become great friends, really drained me. I decided that it was time to retire in early 2019 as pastor and continue for a year or so with my responsibilities of vicar general.

Reflect on the special relationship that you have cultivated with Catholic Charities over the years. The Department for Persons with Disabilities (DPD), an agency of Catholic Charities, named you Person of the Year in 2016.

I started to appreciate the work of Catholic Charities after I became pastor of Corpus Christi. My predecessor as pastor, Father Patch, had a close relationship with DPD and oversaw a fundraising golf tournament each year until his death. I believe that support for Catholic Charities is support for the work of Christ. It is that simple. We must support Catholic Charities because it continues to be part of the very mission of the Church herself.

Catholic Charities is one of the treasures of the Church. The competence and dedication of the staff, the continuous improvement of their programs and the unwillingness to ever settle for the minimum are wonders to behold. Catholic Charities captures the imagination of our people who know that supporting Catholic Charities is an important part of being Catholic. It has been a joy to support them.

What did you enjoy about teaching at the former Bayley-Ellard High School, Madison, where you served as chair of the religion department early in your priesthood?

I loved my first three years teaching at Bayley-Ellard. It was a great way to begin serving as a priest. The students and parents were wonderful. I also benefited from being involved at Corpus Christi Parish during those years as well.

Starting in 1976, you served as assistant superintendent of diocesan schools, a post you held for 10 years. What did you learn while you served there?

During those 10 years, I saw firsthand the value of Catholic school education. Even then, it was never easy, often difficult, and frequently hemmed in by financial issues. But I saw that it was worth it. In later years, I participated in some of the national research studies on Catholic school effectiveness.

What were you able to accomplish as director of diocesan pastoral research and later, in 1987, as diocesan Vicar for Planning and Priorities?

A diocese is shaped by information, data and history. Our faith is formed on the shoulders of those who came before us. We believe in God, Jesus, Mary and the Church. Our Diocese is composed of about 110 parishes. To have programs, services and planning, a large amount of data comes into the equation to figure out diocesan priorities — where we should be moving as a diocese and also the roadblocks to making meaningful change. Not all roadblocks can be easily removed.

I was fortunate to have the data and a comprehensive picture of our parishes. Often, this picture made me proud to be part of the Diocese. Here are so many great priests, so many gifted diocesan and parish staffs. At times, the data served as an early warning system if problems were developing in areas such as leadership, parishioners’ unrest or finances.

At the same time, this tremendous array of parish data had to be integrated into the diocesan services. It does little good for parishes and diocesan services to be on separate tracks. What we tried to accomplish, with varying degrees of success, was to have our parishes connect with the services — and to have diocesan offices and agencies develop their services to help the parishes. Parishes were truly our valued customers.

Over the years, we developed better and better systems for the Diocese and the parishes to work together. To put things into the jargon of our world, our diocesan services really exist to help and to support the parishes. We tried to adjust any relationships where diocesan staff felt that parishes existed to work for them.

My time in various positions often focused on addressing our financial stability as a Diocese. These efforts, even up to the present day, gradually made us more solvent and more responsive. It is a great thing to hear people in diocesan offices talk about how they go out to help parishes become better — and often this is recognized and appreciated by parishes.

How did all these experiences and assignments prepare you to become Vicar General?

I was blessed with my relationships outside the Diocese and also my assignments within the Diocese. At various times in my life, beginning in the seminary, I became friends and often colleagues with people who were major figures in their own fields. These treasured friends included Father Raymond Brown, my spiritual director and friend whose work as a Scripture scholar who was recognized by St. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI before he was pope and during his papacy. Dr. Elinor Ford was the mentor for my doctoral dissertation and one of the most respected figures in Catholic education and administration as well as the publisher of William H. Sadlier, Inc. Father Andrew Greeley of the National Opinion Research Center helped me in the early phases of my doctoral research and became a colleague and close friend. He was kind enough to dedicate a book to me and based Blackie Ryan, the most honorable character in his novels, on me. Tom Healey, the founding treasurer of the Leadership Roundtable, an organization of laity, religious and clergy working together to promote best practices and accountability in management, finances, communications and human resource development of the Catholic Church in the U.S., brought me into their meetings and became a trusted and valued friend and sounding board.

As a priest of the Diocese, you have worked with four bishops: Bishop Lawrence Casey, Bishop Frank Rodimer, Bishop Serratelli and now Bishop Sweeney. Were these four bishops similar people or was each one different from the others?

It is hard to compress decades of service into a simple answer but there were things about each bishop that I really liked.

Bishop Casey accepted me into the Diocese, ordained me and sponsored my Ph.D. at Fordham. Since he liked me, he was clearly insightful! Casey was shrewd and wanted to have priests who read books and did well in their studies. That impressed me. He was a man who ran his life by the clock, watching how many minutes, if not seconds, could be saved each day. He was always in a rush and praised the pastor who could have a Confirmation shorter than the last parish.

Bishop Rodimer was markedly different from Bishop Casey. Bishop Rodimer never rushed you. He always gave people the time they needed. He was widely read in many different fields. His vision of the Church came from the Second Vatican Council. He had a deep commitment to social justice.

While Bishop Serratelli came from the Newark Archdiocese, he had the benefit of already knowing many of our priests through the quarter century that he taught Scripture in the seminary. When he began as our Bishop, he immediately set out to promote vocations to the priesthood wherever he went. He considered one of his strengths to be his work with seminarians. According to his students, he was one of the most gifted teachers that they ever had. This may be why he made real the importance of evangelization, especially through the establishment of St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization in Madison.

This summer, Bishop Sweeney arrived in the Diocese, seemingly out of left field (to use a baseball phrase). As a person born in Chicago near Wrigley Field, I had never heard of Brooklyn, much less Bishop Sweeney or the Yankees. After three months of working closely with him, it would be difficult to find someone better suited to guide us into the future as the Eighth Bishop of Paterson. He sizes up each situation with the insights of a capable and experienced pastor. That is not a bad credential for a bishop.

[Msgr. Mahoney’s vast experience also includes having authored or contributed to more than 50 books on religious education, research and pastoral life. He has addressed groups in 50 dioceses throughout the U.S. He has been a consultant to the U.S. Confer­ence of Catholic Bishops. He was named a monsignor in 1993. He also has been a consultant to the then National Conference of Catholic Bishops/U.S. Catholic Conference, the Na­tional Pastoral Life Center and the Nation­al Catholic Edu­cation Association. He is a Knight Com­mander of the Holy Sepulchre.]

How to you plan to spend your retirement?

I’ve worked very hard for a long time. I don’t mind working hard but now I have to learn to relax and to even say “no” when I am exhausted. I want to learn vegan cooking, become conversational in Spanish and spend rigorous time becoming physically fit. I want to spend time studying Scripture in far more depth, take in the cultural treasures of New York museums and art galleries. I have already started to work more faithfully on my daily blog, which unfortunately has not been daily due to too much work. It would be great to travel a bit but the pandemic makes that difficult. I deeply appreciate being invited by Father Kevin Corcoran [current pastor of Corpus Christi] to continue to celebrate weekend Masses at the parish. That is not typical for a new pastor to do for his successor. I profoundly appreciate that continued contact with the parish and parishioners.

Msgr. Mahoney also praised his administrative assistant, Arline Perro, who recently retired from the Diocese, adding, “Whatever looked organized, clear, and helpful out of my office came from her.”

In reflecting on his priesthood, Msgr. Mahoney said, “I have been blessed by God in so many things. I have so many priests in the Diocese whom I deeply admire and genuinely like.

“I have tried to be a person of joy. I have valued the example of so many wonderful priests,” said Msgr. Mahoney. “Religious sisters who serve in the Church have helped to keep it going in difficult times. A few of the religious sisters with whom I’ve worked are among the finest people I know. In diocesan offices, there are staff members who began as colleagues, but now are close friends. I have been so blessed with my friends. They are a treasure. I hope that I made a difference in some way, but that probably must wait to find out when Msgr. Raymond Kupke [diocesan archivist, author of the diocesan history Living Stones and pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Hawthorne] writes the next volume of our diocesan history.”

Msgr. Mahoney concluded wryly, “I said this to both Bishop Serratelli and Bishop Sweeney when they arrived in our Diocese: ‘We are small, but interesting.’ My hunch is that neither of them would disagree!”