Diocese of Greensburg marks 70-year milestone

GREENSBURG – The Diocese of Greensburg celebrated its 70th anniversary March 10.

The event was commemorated with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Larry J. Kulick at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral that attracted a nice-sized crowd and was livestreamed on the Diocese website, www.DioceseofGreensburg.org, Facebook page and YouTube channel.

“We come together to give thanks to God for the blessings of these past 70 years, and we come together to ask God’s continued blessing as we move forward, entrusted with the mission of the Church in proclaiming the gospel and being faithful disciples of or Lord,” Bishop Kulick said during his homily.

On March 10, 1951, Pope Pius XII created the Diocese of Greensburg, taking the counties of Armstrong, Indiana, Fayette and Westmoreland from the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Also on that day, Most Holy Sacrament Parish, which had been staffed for decades by the Benedictine Fathers of St. Vincent Archabbey, was raised to the status of a cathedral – Blessed Sacrament Cathedral.

Bishop Hugh H. Lamb, an auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia, was appointed as the first Bishop of the Diocese.

With a nod to that history, Bishop Kulick used Bishop Lamb’s crozier (pastoral staff) during the celebration of the anniversary Mass. In Bishop Kulick’s mind, the crozier made of solid brass was built to last, just like the Diocese of Greensburg.

“Over the last 70 years, our Diocese has been a part of the changing landscape of our region,” Bishop Kulick said. “It has stood witness to the monumental historical moments of the times, as well as journeyed with the faithful through their everyday joys and sorrows, their triumphs and challenges, and together we have witnessed miraculous and amazing achievements.

“We’ve been able to celebrate key spiritual moments in our faith communities, and we have time after time over these years reached out in care for the less fortunate and underprivileged of the greater community, educating our youth and pastorally caring for all, including the sick and the dying, those on the fringes of society, the immigrants and the migrants, all the while bearing witness to Christ’s love, his mercy and his justice in the world.”

Bishop Kulick called for the faithful of the Diocese to continue to move forward, taking the lessons learned throughout its history and working to shape a positive future, educationally and spiritually.     

“We know that there have been times when we as a church have not lived up to the expectations that Christ has called us to,” he said. “We know too well some of our institutional, parochial and personal failures, but we strive to move forward with a renewed sense of hope, utilizing the knowledge we have gleaned through careful discernment, oriented to purposeful and meaningful reform to correct our failures and move even more committed into the future to fulfill the mission entrusted to us by Christ and to help shape the future of our parishes, our Diocese, our local communities, and even our nation and the world itself.”

Bishop Kulick also stressed that the mission of the Diocese remains the same as it was on March 10, 1951, and will always stay the same.

“We are called united in faith, nurtured by God’s grace and resilient in hope to fulfill the mission that Christ has entrusted to us through the Church,” Bishop Kulick said. “As his disciples, we are called to proclaim the Gospel, to serve his people and to embrace the gift of eternal salvation.”

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