Latrobe parishioners celebrate priest's 50th anniversary but keep social distance

For a man accustomed to praying for the health and well-being of others during a career of 50 years in the ministry, a Latrobe priest was the subject of countless prayers when he was treated recently at Excela Latrobe Hospital for covid-19.

“I was hospitalized for three days. I guess I had a mild case,” the Rev. Daniel C. Mahoney, pastor of Holy Family Church of Latrobe, said Saturday after his parishioners organized a surprise celebration for his 50th year as a priest.

It was conducted within the boundaries of social distancing as required under current state rules for Westmoreland County.

Escorted by Latrobe police vehicles and fire trucks, about 200 vehicles containing parishioners — current and former — drove from nearby Legion Keener Park to the church parking lot along Chestnut Street. Mahoney stood outside, whipped by the cold wind, and waved to the longtime parishioners who drove by, holding congratulatory signs and wishing him the best of luck.

Ryan Coyne, parish director of evangelization and youth ministry who helped to organize the celebration, said he told Mahoney shortly before the event started he had to leave the rectory to see something.

“He had no idea about it,” Coyne said.

Coyne said the parish had plans to hold a 50th jubilee in the traditional manner, with a large gathering of close to 1,000 people. Back in the early planning stages, the challenge was where to find a facility large enough for such a crowd, but the coronavirus crushed those plans.

Instead, it was a drive-by salute to a longtime priest — 13 years at Holy Family Church.

The celebration just happened to fall on the same date, May 9, as his ordination by the late Bishop William G. Connare at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Greensburg.

The event was a celebration of sorts for Mahoney’s recovery from covid-19. He said he passed out in the midst of a Mass that was streamed online in March, then went about his work for the week before becoming ill.

Even though Mahoney said he had a mild case of covid-19, “it knocked the strength out of me.”

One of the toughest parts of the covid-19 ordeal was the test he underwent to see that he no longer had the virus.

Mahoney said he underwent multiple tests in which a long probe is pushed up the nose and into the nasal cavity, the memory of which still makes him cringe.

How long he might have immunity from another infection, Mahoney does not know.

What Mahoney does know, and very clearly, is he had wanted to be a priest for as long as he can remember.

“When I was 3-years-old, my mother said I announced that I was going to be a priest,” Mahoney said. As a young boy growing up in Harrisburg, he was so bold as to run past the gates at the altar and into the sanctuary.

After earning an undergraduate degree in philosophy at Resurrection College in Kitchener, Ontario, he earned his master’s of divinity degree from Saint Vincent Seminary near Latrobe.

His earlier assignments

He was parochial vicar of the former St. Mary and Holy Trinity parishes in Ford City; the former St. Charles of Borromeo Parish in Sutersville, St. John the Baptist Parish in Scottdale and St. Regis Parish in Trafford. His first pastorate was in 1981 at St. Patrick Parish, Brady’s Bend, Armstrong County.

He was pastor at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Latrobe and Mother of Sorrows Parish in Murrysville. He served for eight years at St. Paul Parish in Carbon, before being assigned to Holy Family Parish.

To Mahoney, the biggest challenge to serving decades as a priest is “keeping up with the times and keeping them coming to church.”

With parishioners being forced to “attend” Mass by computer, Mahoney said it is likely some of the changes will remain, once the church can fully open its doors to Mass for the masses.

“They’ll probably will be people who will be afraid to come back,” for fear of getting ill, Mahoney said.