A Lifetime Vocation: Father Alexander L. Pleban walks us through the history of the Diocese

GREENSBURG – Listening to Father Alexander L. Pleban, 95, is an auditory version of the history of the Diocese of Greensburg. Father Pleban, who lives at the Neumann House, the Diocesan home for retired priests, is the only living priest whose ministry has spanned nearly 70 years and all of the Diocese’s six bishops.

He was born in Wynn, Fayette County, in 1930. The town located between Hopwood and Fairchance was home to two coal mines and beehive coke ovens. John and Roselia Pleban, his parents, raised their three sons, Alexander, Leo and John, in a home where their Catholic faith and participation in Mass at Saints Cyril and Methodius Parish, Fairchance, and other liturgies were a part of life — but sometimes came with a reward.

“We would have Stations of the Cross on Fridays, and my dad would say, ‘If you go to Stations, we’ll take you to the movie after,’” Father Pleban recalled with a laugh.

As a youngster, Father Pleban noticed that the most important person in the community at that time was the parish priest, specifically his pastor, the late Father Thomas Harnyak.

“He was ancient, in my opinion, at that time, but that’s what made me want to be a priest like him. Once he found out that I wanted to be a priest, he helped me go to the seminary,” Father Pleban said.

Father Pleban was ordained to the priesthood May 23, 1957, by Bishop Hugh L. Lamb, the first Bishop of Greensburg, at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, Greensburg.

The family’s devotion to their faith and their parish would ultimately produce two priests, Father Pleban and his younger brother, Father Leo Pleban, who served the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, from his ordination in 1960 until his retirement. He died in 2022.

With his brother also serving as a priest, Father Pleban said it reminded him of Scripture passages that describe Jesus calling his fishermen brothers to be His disciples.

“Leo was a great priest,” Father Pleban said. “We were very competitive. We were golfers and very active in sports and we always preferred to beat one another than anybody else.” In some way, he looked at his older brother and followed along in his footsteps.

Following his ordination, Father Pleban was assigned by Bishop Lamb
as an assistant pastor at Saint Florian Parish, United, in 1957, and then onto
Saint Edward Parish in Herminie in 1959. That year, Bishop Lamb died
after an eight-year episcopacy of steering the Diocese of Greensburg through its infancy.

“Bishop Lamb was responsible for Jeannette District Memorial Hospital, a Catholic hospital staffed by the Sisters of Charity,” Father Pleban recalled. Under Bishop Lamb’s leadership, a $300,000 gift was provided to start construction of the facility, and additional loans were provided to make the hospital a reality. “Today it doesn’t even exist; it’s been demolished,” said Father Pleban.

Father Pleban also recalled that it was Bishop Lamb’s vision that led to the building
of eight Catholic schools, including Greensburg Central Catholic High School (now Greensburg Central Catholic Junior-Senior High School), where he made his final public appearance before his death from a heart attack on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

For priests, the young Diocese was far different than it is today.

“Today we have the Pastoral Center. In my time, we called it the Chancery Office,” Father Pleban said. “As a young ordained priest, I went to a three-story house at the corner of Park and Maple Streets in Greensburg where the museum is now located. That was our Pastoral Center,” Father Pleban said, reminding us of the current Pastoral Center on East Pittsburgh Street.

The 1960s ushered in a series of changes in the Diocese and for Father Pleban. In May 1960, Pittsburgh native, Father William G. Connare, was named by Pope John XXIII to become the second Bishop of Greensburg. Through the end of the 1950s and into the mid-1960s, the Second Vatican Council would meet in Rome.
Their meetings resulted in a variety of changes that would transform the universal Church.

“Bishop Connare attended all of those sessions,” Father Pleban recalled. “Remember, when I was ordained a priest, my first years of celebrating Mass were in Latin facing away from the congregation.” 

Among the changes Vatican II brought was Mass celebrated with the priest facing the congregation and in English in the American Church. Father Pleban recalled that changes were made at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral by Bishop Connare to ensure that the liturgy under Vatican II would be carried out in the local Church. Father Pleban said that Bishop Connare also realized the importance of connecting with his flock. Up until that point in time, Bishops were not as visible as they are today.

In 1961, Bishop Connare, with the help of then Chancellor Father Norbert F. Gaughan, established The Catholic Accent, the new Diocesan newspaper. Father Gaughan would be appointed Vicar General in 1970 and named Monsignor. He would be ordained as the only Auxiliary
Bishop for the Diocese in 1975. Bishop Gaughan was a nationally syndicated columnist, was involved in the first television program
called “Real to Reel” and hosted a weekly ecumenical program on
WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh.

Seeing a momentum gathering in Diocesan communications and a need, Bishop Connare felt to better communicate with the faithful, and he sent Father Pleban to Duquesne University to audit classes in journalism, television and radio and appointed him executive secretary and liaison for The Catholic Accent in 1965.

Father Pleban believes parishes became unified because of the publication. The Catholic Accent connected them with others across the Diocese. At that time, the newspaper was a weekly publication. Father Pleban remembers bringing Bishops Connare and Gaughan proofed copies of the latest edition of the newspaper for their review before publication.

“I would go down to the Accent office and wait, and sure enough, Bishop Gaughan would come down to the Accent office with red marks all over it,” Father Pleban chuckled. “When I look back, those were great days.”

Father Pleban worked very closely with Bishop Connare in his role with The Catholic Accent and in the public information office. It was a position that Father Pleban held until 1969 while serving as Pastor of Saint Joseph Parish, Everson, an assignment given to him in 1966. Father Pleban would go on to become Pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Youngwood and its former mission of Saint Gilbert in Hunker in 1973. He would return to Saint Edward Parish in Herminie in 1982 as Pastor for the next 12 years.

Father Pleban, who taught religion classes at Greensburg Central Catholic High School from 1960-64, said Bishop Connare was also dedicated to Catholic education with the creation of Geibel Catholic High School, Connellsville (now Geibel Catholic Junior-Senior High School), and the former Saint Joseph Hall, a minor seminary that now serves as a retreat center (Christ Our Shepherd Center) near Greensburg, in 1964.

Bishop Connare led the Diocese of Greensburg for 27 years, until 1987, under Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul I and Saint John Paul II. He died June 12, 1995, at the age of 83.

Bishop Anthony G. Bosco was installed as the third Bishop
of Greensburg at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral June 20, 1987.
For nearly three decades, Bishop Bosco served in the Diocese
of Pittsburgh as a priest and Auxiliary Bishop.

“It wasn’t like he was unknown to us,” Father Pleban recalled.

He remembered a time when he and his classmates at Saint Vincent Seminary, and some of the seminarians were having some academic issues. At the time, Bishop Bosco was a deacon, serving his last year in formation. Then Deacon Bosco tutored the students to help them in their studies.

“I always thought that was so good of him,” Father Pleban remembered, saying the future Bishop could have been out playing ball or enjoying his downtime.

As a communicator himself, Father Pleban recalled how Bishop Bosco embraced new media technologies as a means of evangelization and education. He was very active in the media for much of his priesthood. He worked collaboratively with KDKA radio during Vatican II, hosted a television program, wrote a column, “A View from the Bridge,” for The Catholic Accent, and provided commentary for “Accent on Air,”
the former diocesan radio newsmagazine.
He also chaired the U.S. Bishops’ communications committee.

Under his leadership, “New Wine, New Wineskins: Revisioning the Parish through the Ministry of the Parish Pastoral Council,” a process that focuses on parish leadership, was established. He began a regionalization effort to help parishes in an area work together to fulfill the mission of the Church and promulgated the Diocesan-wide efforts “Journey of a Lifetime,” which focused on education in the Catholic faith as a lifelong process, and “Taste and See: Catechesis as Food for the Journey,” catechetical guidelines.

Under Bishop Bosco, Father Pleban was named Pastor of Saint Joseph Parish in Uniontown in 1994. At age 75, Bishop Bosco submitted his letter of resignation to Pope Saint John Paul II in 2002 and became Bishop Emeritus upon the ordination of Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt, the Fourth Bishop of Greensburg, on March 4, 2004. Bishop Emeritus Bosco died July 2, 2013,
at age 85.

After a life serving in Diocesan offices and in parishes, Father Pleban turned 75
on May 9, 2005. At that point in ministry, many priests retire but remain active.
Father Pleban, still the pastor of Saint Joseph Parish in Uniontown, was not looking for retirement.

“It was Bishop Brandt who was gracious enough to allow me to continue for as long as I wanted,” Farther Pleban said.

He recalls Bishop Brandt promulgated a Prayer for Vocations and established three vocation prayer chapels — in Latrobe, Indiana and Uniontown — to help raise awareness for prayer to increase vocations, and his work to establish poverty relief funding for those in need across the Diocese.

“He really had the foresight to take care of his priests and his Diocese,” Father Pleban remembered.

“Under Bishop Brandt’s leadership, the Diocese became solvent, financially and in many other ways,” Father Pleban said. Bishop Brandt ordained the Diocese’s first two permanent deacons in 2009, and four more in 2015. In 2010, he invited the first two Filipino priests to serve in the Diocese to begin the International Priests Program, and also ordained eight men to the priesthood during his tenure.

In 2009, the capital campaign, “Today’s Challenge ~ Tomorrow’s Hope,” was launched. Despite taking place during the Great Recession, the campaign received overwhelming support, raising $55 million in pledges and exceeding the original $45 million goal.

Father Pleban also recalled Bishop Brandt’s involvement in the renovations at the Diocesan Mother Church, Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, and
noted that he created the
Diocesan Heritage Center
at Christ Our Shepherd Center to remember the history of the Diocese of Greensburg.

Bishop Brandt submitted his resignation to Pope Francis on his 75th birthday. After the ordination of Bishop Edward C. Malesic as the fifth Bishop of Greensburg April 24, 2025, Bishop Brandt became Bishop Emeritus, serving in that role until his death June 8, 2025 at age 86.

After 16 years as pastor at Saint Joseph Parish, in 2010 Father Pleban, at age 80, announced his retirement. While his service as an active priest ended under Bishop Brandt, the Diocese would be served by Bishop Malesic and Bishop Larry J. Kulick, J.C.L., sixth and current Bishop
of Greensburg.

While time and technology moved on from party lines to the iPhone, Father Pleban does not feel that the technology and changes he’s seen over his 95 years have moved us away from God. He does think faith experiences shared in the families of today are very different from those shared when he was young. And he says the priesthood has changed with the times but the role remains the same. His advice to newly ordained or younger priests is to always make sure homilies resonate.

“Your time with the people is limited. You have that time at Mass for the homily, and that homily, to me in my priesthood, was one of the most important things. It was there that I touched the people, and I felt that the people reached back and
touched me. Make it worthwhile,” Father Pleban advised.

While no longer active in parishes, Father Pleban does celebrate Mass with his retired brother priests, relationships he’s formed and cherishes while living at the Neumann House. He remains spry and quick with a smile or a joke. On occasion, when he is out and about, he is recognized by former parishioners or their families for the important role he has played in so many lives.

“ I run into somebody and they tell me they remember the jokes I used to tell and the homilies that I preached, or that I visited the funeral home or married them, and that makes me feel good.”