Greensburg Diocese Bishop Malesic prepares for yet another leg on his journey

Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg Bishop Edward Malesic thought it was odd when he received a cellphone message from the Papal Nuncio on July 1 as he was traveling between Catholic schools to celebrate record scholarship contributions.

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the pope’s diplomatic envoy to Washington, D.C., asked Malesic to give him a call.

Later that day, when Malesic returned the call, Pierre asked about his health.

“Then he went into some pleasantries and asked how things were going. I told him I was keeping my head above water. And he said, ‘I hope you can keep your head above water where you’re going.’ Then he asked, ‘Are you alone?’ I said yes.

“Then he said ‘I can tell you the Holy Father has appointed you bishop of Cleveland,’ ” Malesic said.

The 59-year-old priest — who was marking the fifth anniversary of his ordination as bishop of the Greensburg diocese — was stunned. He said he had no idea his name was in play to fill the vacancy in the large Ohio diocese.

But then he remembered his faith.

“I told him I was happy,” Malesic said. “I’m a priest, and I go where I’m sent.”

Tough secret to keep

Five years earlier, Pope Francis plucked Malesic, a Harrisburg native who had previously served as a college chaplain, from his post as judicial vicar of the Harrisburg diocese and pastor of Holy Infant Parish to lead the Greensburg diocese.

Now, he had to keep his new appointment confidential until an official Vatican announcement and his introduction in Cleveland on Thursday.

It wasn’t easy.

There were the anxious thoughts that have always plagued him before taking on a new role.

“I always wonder if I’m up to the job. I always wonder if people will accept me. … This was not something I had asked for, not something I aspired to. I just wanted to be a pastor,” Malesic said.

He was left to silently weigh the irony when a local monk who had become a friend joked that if he were to give the bishop a gift for his anniversary, it would be made of wood. The monk said wood is the element for a fifth anniversary “and it takes a tree five years to be rooted, and I think you’re rooted in Greensburg now.”

Lessons learned

Many friends had been offering congratulations on his anniversary in Greensburg. He had led the small diocese, still roiling from school closings and church consolidations when he arrived, through a period of healing in the wake of the clergy sex abuse crisis, bookended by the opioid epidemic and covid-19.

After he returned from Cleveland on Friday afternoon, Malesic took a break from the congratulatory messages and texts he was answering to talk about his tenure here.

“Holy Infant taught me how to be a pastor, but Greensburg taught me how to be a bishop,” Malesic said.

It also forced him to listen to the heart-wrenching tales of adults who had been abused by priests as children and kept their secrets for decades came forth after the 2018 grand jury report.

“This was pain, real pain,” he said. “As a bishop, I represented the church, and they were angry at the church and they needed to express that.”

The takeaway for him as a church leader is “we have to learn from the lessons of the past.”

Gentle humor surfaces

Through tough times, however, the gentle humor that endeared him to many in the diocese, which includes Armstrong, Fayette, Indiana and Westmoreland counties, was always just below the surface.

Friday, the avid football fan demurred when asked how he’ll decide who to cheer for when Pittsburgh is playing Cleveland.

“I think I’ll follow the advice of a friend and go with Crosby, Stills and Nash and ‘Love the One You’re With,’ ” he said, smiling.

There will be new challenges in Cleveland.

Malesic said as he traveled to the city this week, it was hard to miss the boarded-up windows and damage from riots this summer.

The diocese centered in inner-city Cleveland is five times as large as Greensburg. It includes a significant number of Black and Hispanic Catholics in its 185 parishes, as well as two seminaries, three Catholic colleges and more than 100 Catholic schools, including 20 high schools.

There are countless farewells ahead as Malesic prepares for his next call.

He’s already in trouble in Cleveland, Malesic said smiling, for asking if he could bring “just one Terrible Towel.”