Father Timothy Marcoe and a Civil War reenactor prepare to welcome the congregation to Mass on July 4.Christ calls us all in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew to welcome the stranger and see ourselves as welcoming Him when we do.
The stranger shows up many times as groups, families or friends who make their way to tourist attractions throughout the Diocese of Harrisburg, such as Hersheypark or the historical sites of Gettysburg.
That’s where Father Al Sceski, pastor of St. Joan of Arc in Hershey, and Father Timothy Marcoe, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Gettysburg, come in. The priests and their parishioners welcome countless tourists to their churches every weekend, helping them live out their Sunday Mass obligation while away from home.
“Parishioners are very cognizant of the fact that we are constantly having visitors and tourists,” said Father Sceski. “I’ve seen nothing but kindness shown to visitors here at the parish. Our parishioners are very, very easy with welcoming people and greeting people.”
“The town kind of expects tourists,” Father Marcoe said of Gettysburg. “There’s kind of just an overall sense of identity of preserving the patrimony of what happened with the Battle of Gettysburg, but also welcoming those coming.”
Father Marcoe is relatively new to his role as pastor in Gettysburg, with about a year of experience under his belt in the town whose battlefield is known as the turning point of the Civil War. But he recognizes that the parish has had a longstanding history of hospitality over its 196 years, including wartime when the church lived the words of the late Pope Francis as a “field hospital.”
“The church became a triage center, caring for dying soldiers, both Union and Confederacy,” said Father Marcoe.
The congregation arrives for Mass at St. Francis Xavier’s historic church in Gettysburg. The church was a field hospital for soldiers during the Civil War.“The Sisters of Charity actually came up from Emmitsburg, Maryland, and so they cared for soldiers from both sides.”
St. Francis Xavier Parish leans into the Civil War history of the era, as the parish offered a special Mass on July 4 with reenactors and a period musical performance afterward.
Father Sceski says that Hersheypark’s imprint on the town peaks during summer but extends throughout many times of the year, with youth sporting events and a combination of concerts and spectator sports at the Giant Center. All this means an already busy parish gets to add a few more people who are making the effort to come to Mass.
“We always, at every Mass throughout the entire year, welcome visitors at the very beginning, when we’re making announcements before Mass starts,” he said. “Anybody who’s visiting Hershey and has chosen to celebrate Mass with us, we welcome you in a big way.”
Father Al Sceski, pastor of St. Joan of Arc Parish, distributes Holy Communion during Mass.Both priests say that unlike some parishes in tourist areas which boost the number of Masses they offer and the number of volunteers they schedule to meet liturgical needs, they can successfully meet the number of visitors with their current allotment of five Masses each at their parishes.
Each priest, his staff and parishioners all pay attention to how far people are traveling when coming to visit the towns.
“I had (someone) from Rome,” said Father Sceski. “We have people from California, Hawaii, Florida.”
“They’re just people from all over,” Father Marcoe adds. “It would be a neat little thing to see over the course of my tenure here if I see all 50 license plates at some point.”
Both pastors say their parish regularly sees longer-term newcomers to the area, an influx of people for varied reasons that happens on a more regular basis.
“We get a lot of people retiring from D.C. and Maryland that move up, so there’s a lot of need to just help people access the church,” Father Marcoe said about St. Francis Xavier.
Father Sceski added that St. Joan of Arc gets a regular injection of young adults every year, as many medical students choose to call Hershey home.
A congregation fills St. Joan of Arc Church in Hershey for Sunday Mass. The church is within sight of several of Hersheypark’s towering rides.“We have Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center here. This is where they train their doctors,” he said. “We have people who are coming on a three-year cycle as residents. People are coming and going all the time here.”
Even more, Father Sceski says his parish is one of the most used parishes in the area for wedding Masses due to its central location in the state, as well as the Hotel Hershey’s nearby presence.
“Hershey is (often) in between families,” he said. “We’ve had people who had a wedding here at St. Joan of Arc, and the bride is from Philadelphia and the groom is from Pittsburgh, or the bride is from D.C. and the groom is from New York.”
Being present to tourists is old hat to Father Sceski, but still something new to Father Marcoe in his first year as pastor in Gettysburg. He aims to implement new initiatives to even more effectively be present to the stranger and make them a friend in Christ.
“We had a special hospitality training for everybody in the parish, because we’re all called to welcome people in a special way, including ushers and greeters,” he said, “and it was very well attended, kind of an initial step in what we will do, focusing on how we’re welcoming people.”
Both parishes understand that when you live and worship in a tourist setting, the call to hospitality often goes beyond the norm that the Catholic faith asks of us all.
“It is just part of what it means to be a Christian,” Father Sceski said, “to welcome the stranger.”
(Jay Sorgi is a freelance reporter for The Catholic Witness. Photos by Laura Loose, The Catholic Witness.)
By Jay Sorgi, The Catholic Witness
