Wearing a broad smile, Father Barry Gearing enthusiastically greeted parishioners, friends and family members before the noon Mass on Aug. 26 at St. John Neumann Parish in Strongsville. It was an important day as he welcomed Cleveland Bishop Nelson Perez who was installing him officially as pastor.
Father Gearing?s appointment was effective in May. He is the third pastor of the 41-year-old parish. Father Bob Kraig, pastor emeritus who served 28 years, retired on April 29. Founding pastor, Father Frank LaRocca served the parish for a dozen years.
The nearly 3,000-member parish was founded in July 1977, less than a month after the June 19, 1977 canonization of St. John Neumann. About 50 families met for Mass at Strongsville High School. Five years later, construction began on a church building. Since then, additional parish buildings, a school and other facilities, including outdoor stations of the cross, have been added.
?I?m very familiar with St. John Neumann,? Bishop Perez told the congregation. ?He was the fourth bishop of Philadelphia. I have his relic in my chapel and said Mass at his tomb in Philadelphia many times.?
St. John Neumann was born in Bohemia in 1811 and came to the United States in 1836 after he was unable to be ordained in his home country because there were too many priests. As a missionary, he came to the U.S. and was ordained in 1836 in New York. His early years as a priest were spent ministering to the faithful in a huge area of Niagara in New York. In 1842 he joined the Redemptorists.
Pope Pius IX appointed him the fourth bishop of Philadelphia in 1852 and he served until his untimely death, at age 48, in 1860. He is buried at the Redemptorist Church of St. Peter the Apostle in Philadelphia, where there is a national shrine in his honor.
Bishop Perez, who spent most of his priesthood in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, told the congregation he served as pastor of two parishes there before his appointment in 2012 as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York.
?At my first parish, I told the people, ?Don?t make it about me. I came here with the ring of a phone and I?ll leave with the ring of a phone,?? the bishop said. ?My first parish was founded in 1793 and I think I was the 17th pastor. One pastor was there for 42 years. In fact, he?s still there. He?s buried outside in the parish cemetery,? Bishop Perez said.
A few years later, he said the phone rang and he was transferred to serve as pastor of another parish. ?I got caught up in the ?domino effect? when one pastor died, someone was appointed to replace him and someone was moved to replace that person, etc. I was the last domino.?
After serving three years, Bishop Perez said the phone rang again and he learned of his elevation to bishop. And five years later, the phone rang again and he was appointed bishop of Cleveland.
?So Father, don?t answer your phone,? he quipped.
?My installation was beautiful. I didn?t have to do anything but show up,? he said. ?I remember walking through the cathedral and looking at portraits of the other 10 previous bishops, eight are dead, and thinking, ?Someday I?ll be just a picture on the wall.? It?s not about me,? he emphasized.
The bishop also spoke about the Gospel, which is part of St. John?s Bread of Life discourse. He said that Jesus told his followers some things ?that got people worked up, yet he continued to attract people
