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Six paths to the sacraments
Two weddings, a funeral, two baptisms and the blessing of a wedding.
It doesn’t make for a movie title but it made for eight spirited days at St. Andrew Church. Mostly joyful, some solemn, the six celebrations were held in the church or chapel, almost back-to-back from Friday, May 13, 2022 through Saturday, May 21, 2022.
A check of church calendars wasn’t definitive but it’s likely that St. Andrew hasn’t had so many liturgical services in so short a time since the pandemic. Some were smaller, family events for a dozen or so people. Some filled the parking lot to overflowing.
From the church office, Carol Hoffman and Marlene Ek got all the documentation, birth certificates and other paperwork where it had to go and made sure buildings were open and ready. Afterward Carol waved a hand over a worktable covered with remnants of work done. “As you can see,” she said, “we don’t have time to clean up. I’m just going to have Rich (Rich Martin, who keeps up the property) put a dumpster outside my window.”
Four of the services were sacraments and the Eucharist was celebrated at all six. Our pastor, Rev. Mark O’Hern, officiated the first four. The last two were officiated by Catholic priests from Butler and Jefferson counties.
Here is a glimpse of each:
Charlie Bender and Jen Golonka-Bender traveled some of the byways of adulthood, careers and parenthood but had returned to Jen’s childhood church by the time their newborn son, Caz Alan Bender, was baptized May 15.
Jen attended St. Andrew School from third grade until her graduation in the early 1990s. The couple was married at St. Hedwig Church on E. 3rd Street and their son, Cole, was baptized at St. Patrick.
Caz was born Feb. 8. “This was very important to us,” Charlie Bender said of Caz’s baptism. “St. Hedwig closed. We were looking for a new church, which turned out to be hard to find.” (In 2017, St. Hedwig merged with St. Stanislaus on E. 13th Street. Mass is celebrated at St. Stanislaus. St. Hedwig became a secondary church, opening for special events.)
Charlie, 43, is in social work. Jen, 44, works in surgical coding for UPMC. Charlie and Jen said a major factor in convincing them to join St. Andrew was being able to enroll Cole in Faith Formation, the religious education classes that used to be called CCD.
While his parents answered questions over the phone, Cole offered commentary from the background on having a baby brother: “I love Caz so much...Caz is so cute...He’s looking at me while he eats.”
Someday Josie Mae Sansone will learn the word “grandparents,” then “ancestors.” Born March 10, Josie Mae is the first child of Dom and Jessica Wasaski Sansone and the latest of many on her father’s side to be baptized at St. Andrew.
The Sansones weren’t sure exactly how many of their kin were baptized here but the line goes back a ways. Sansones and future in-law families were church mainstays by the 1950s. Josie Mae is fourth generation at least.
Upwards of forty of the couple’s relatives and friends applauded her baptism.
“We wanted a child—been wanting one for a while,” Dom said. “With so many family members at church, it was a great experience to have her baptized at St. Andrew.”
Dom is the son of Tom and Joni Sansone. He and his sister Maria were baptized at St. Andrew and Maria was married here. (Maria and her husband, Joshua Guthartz, live in Marblehead, Massachusetts.)
Dom and Jessica, now 30 with their own family started, met at Gannon University. They married in September 2018 at her home church, St. John the Baptist in Monaca, northwest of Pittsburgh. She is a physician assistant in urology at Saint Vincent Health Center. He is the manager of Copy King.
Both sets of grandparents were at Josie Mae’s baptism. Jessica’s parents are Edward and Dorothy Jean Waskaski of Monaca. The baby’s godparents are Jessica’s brother, Brad Waskaski, and Dom’s sister, Maria.
The first wedding, and the first of four sacraments in three days, was the marriage of Tim Sexauer and Dorothy Kaliszewski in the church on May 13.
Tim is a deputy grand knight of the St. Andrew Knights of Columbus council. Dorothy is the daughter of our organist and co-choir director, Chris Pawlowski. She homeschools son Joey.
One Sunday last summer a young couple from out of town went to Mass at St. Andrew. Probably no one in the regular congregation recognized them and vice versa. They were Corbin Kessler and Caroline Miller from Zelienople. They were recent college graduates, engaged and deciding which church they wanted to get married in. Corbin and Caroline rented St. Andrew and were wed here Saturday afternoon, May 21.
“We don’t have a big, old beautiful church close by in our area. I always dreamed of a big beautiful church wedding,” Caroline said. “It (St. Andrew) was everything we wanted; perfect for us.”
Corbin got his degree in business and finance from Mercyhurst University, where he was an energetic tackler at linebacker on the Laker football team, good enough to make all-conference. On his LinkedIn profile he lists Tim Tebow and Mark Cuban as influences.
Caroline said her husband’s time at Mercyhurst U. was their only connection to Erie. The couple were in the same grade at Seneca Valley High School in Butler County, started dating as sophomores and maintained their relationship long-distance while she graduated from Penn State. Caroline got her degree in chemical engineering there and now works in the field.
There are breathtaking old churches in Pittsburgh, too, 25 miles south of their hometown. Instead they worked their way north to Erie looking for the right church. Caroline said they considered St. Peter Cathedral downtown and St. Patrick on E. 5th Street before choosing St. Andrew.
“These are some of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever seen. I am surprised Erie has so many of them,” she said.
Corbin and Caroline were married by the Rev. David Egan Jr., a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. Ordained in 2019, Fr. David is a parochial vicar (a priest serving under a pastor) for three churches—St. Gregory in Zelienople, St. Ferdinand in Cranberry and Holy Redeemer in Ellwood City.
“It was a nice wedding,” Fr. David said. “Your church was beautiful, and very conveniently located.”
Calling it convenient was a surprise given that Zelienople is a 99-mile drive. But about 220 guests came to the wedding, many from Cleveland, Buffalo and Pittsburgh, making Erie a midpoint.
Music included violin and cello instrumentals. The wedding flowers next went to Meadville to decorate the newlyweds’ reception at an events venue.
The three-church parish Corbin and Caroline belong to was called Cities of God. The name was informal and temporary. Fr. David said its official designation was Grouping No. 444, but the parishioners used Cities of God “as a placeholder.” Starting July 1 the three churches will merge and be called Divine Grace Parish.
Close to a thousand Erie kids, maybe more, had Ann Williams for their teacher when they were very young. Ann’s family moved into the St. Andrew neighborhood when she was a high schooler at Villa Maria Academy. She went on to teach in Erie public schools for 30 years, always kindergarten or early elementary grades.
Two of Ann’s sisters were at her side when she died at age 81 in Kissimmee, Florida, a week before Christmas. Because of COVID and other concerns she wanted her funeral to wait until spring. The memorial Mass for Ann Williams Lux was celebrated at St. Andrew on May 14. About 40 relatives and friends were there from Erie, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Monterrey, California, Washington, D.C., Maryland and New York City. The funeral became a weekend family gathering, which she’d have liked.
Ann was one of six children of the late Rogers and Ann Burke Williams, all members of St. Andrew while in Erie. Ann moved to Kissimmee when she retired in 1992 and lived there with her husband, the late Dick Lux. She was a member of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church there.
The marriage of Rich and Jean Zack is a union now going on 40 years, just not performed in the Catholic Church. Rich and Jean had their wedding blessed Saturday, May 21, in a convalidation service in our parish’s Annunciation Chapel.
Presiding was the Rev. Bill Barron, Rich’s nephew. The future priest grew up in a parish peppered with Barron and Zack households, including Zack grandparents who lived across the street from St. Andrew for more than four decades. Barrons still hold seven entries in the St. Andrew family roster--individuals, couples and families. Almost all still live within walking distance of the church, albeit at compass points now.
“It was particularly meaningful, the fact we were able to do it at the church we all grew up in and the neighborhood we all grew up in,” Fr. Bill said.
So their choice of church was unsurprising, but when a long-married couple, each reaching age 70, decide to have their wedding blessed in the church—that doesn’t happen often.
“I think they felt like they wanted to be more involved in the Catholic faith,” Fr. Bill said.
“The past couple of years, I think the whole COVID shutdown thing was part of the reason, believe it or not,” he said. “They want to get more involved in the life of the church.”
Fr. Bill is constrained by confidentiality in talking about people he has counseled. In the context of the convalidation service, he said Rich’s and Jean’s marriage is the second for both. Both were previously married in the 1970s, later marrying each other in a civil ceremony.
“All the previous generations were churchgoing. I think Rich and Jean might have fallen out of the practice. We all go through a lot of seasons,” Fr. Bill said.
The word “convalidation” is unfamiliar to most, who know the kind of ceremony that Rich and Jean had as the blessing of a wedding—accurately as far as it goes but without mention of the preparation the church requires of the couple for marriage as a sacrament. Fr. Bill said he helped his uncle get his first marriage annulled; Jean’s first husband had died.
“That opened the road for their wedding convalidation in the chapel,” he said.
Because husband and wife are both Catholic, the Eucharist was celebrated.
Fr. Bill is the pastor of two churches in Reynoldsville and Sykesville in Jefferson County. In July he will move eastward to Clearfield County on his next assignment as pastor of three churches in Morrisdale, Osceola Mills and Hawk Run.
Six paths to the sacraments
Written by Gary WesmanTwo weddings, a funeral, two baptisms and the blessing of a wedding.
It doesn’t make for a movie title but it made for eight spirited days at St. Andrew Church. Mostly joyful, some solemn, the six celebrations were held in the church or chapel, almost back-to-back from Friday, May 13, 2022 through Saturday, May 21, 2022.
A check of church calendars wasn’t definitive but it’s likely that St. Andrew hasn’t had so many liturgical services in so short a time since the pandemic. Some were smaller, family events for a dozen or so people. Some filled the parking lot to overflowing.
From the church office, Carol Hoffman and Marlene Ek got all the documentation, birth certificates and other paperwork where it had to go and made sure buildings were open and ready. Afterward Carol waved a hand over a worktable covered with remnants of work done. “As you can see,” she said, “we don’t have time to clean up. I’m just going to have Rich (Rich Martin, who keeps up the property) put a dumpster outside my window.”
Four of the services were sacraments and the Eucharist was celebrated at all six. Our pastor, Rev. Mark O’Hern, officiated the first four. The last two were officiated by Catholic priests from Butler and Jefferson counties.
Here is a glimpse of each:
Charlie Bender and Jen Golonka-Bender traveled some of the byways of adulthood, careers and parenthood but had returned to Jen’s childhood church by the time their newborn son, Caz Alan Bender, was baptized May 15.
Jen attended St. Andrew School from third grade until her graduation in the early 1990s. The couple was married at St. Hedwig Church on E. 3rd Street and their son, Cole, was baptized at St. Patrick.
Caz was born Feb. 8. “This was very important to us,” Charlie Bender said of Caz’s baptism. “St. Hedwig closed. We were looking for a new church, which turned out to be hard to find.” (In 2017, St. Hedwig merged with St. Stanislaus on E. 13th Street. Mass is celebrated at St. Stanislaus. St. Hedwig became a secondary church, opening for special events.)
Charlie, 43, is in social work. Jen, 44, works in surgical coding for UPMC. Charlie and Jen said a major factor in convincing them to join St. Andrew was being able to enroll Cole in Faith Formation, the religious education classes that used to be called CCD.
While his parents answered questions over the phone, Cole offered commentary from the background on having a baby brother: “I love Caz so much...Caz is so cute...He’s looking at me while he eats.”
Someday Josie Mae Sansone will learn the word “grandparents,” then “ancestors.” Born March 10, Josie Mae is the first child of Dom and Jessica Wasaski Sansone and the latest of many on her father’s side to be baptized at St. Andrew.
The Sansones weren’t sure exactly how many of their kin were baptized here but the line goes back a ways. Sansones and future in-law families were church mainstays by the 1950s. Josie Mae is fourth generation at least.
Upwards of forty of the couple’s relatives and friends applauded her baptism.
“We wanted a child—been wanting one for a while,” Dom said. “With so many family members at church, it was a great experience to have her baptized at St. Andrew.”
Dom is the son of Tom and Joni Sansone. He and his sister Maria were baptized at St. Andrew and Maria was married here. (Maria and her husband, Joshua Guthartz, live in Marblehead, Massachusetts.)
Dom and Jessica, now 30 with their own family started, met at Gannon University. They married in September 2018 at her home church, St. John the Baptist in Monaca, northwest of Pittsburgh. She is a physician assistant in urology at Saint Vincent Health Center. He is the manager of Copy King.
Both sets of grandparents were at Josie Mae’s baptism. Jessica’s parents are Edward and Dorothy Jean Waskaski of Monaca. The baby’s godparents are Jessica’s brother, Brad Waskaski, and Dom’s sister, Maria.
The first wedding, and the first of four sacraments in three days, was the marriage of Tim Sexauer and Dorothy Kaliszewski in the church on May 13.
Tim is a deputy grand knight of the St. Andrew Knights of Columbus council. Dorothy is the daughter of our organist and co-choir director, Chris Pawlowski. She homeschools son Joey.
One Sunday last summer a young couple from out of town went to Mass at St. Andrew. Probably no one in the regular congregation recognized them and vice versa. They were Corbin Kessler and Caroline Miller from Zelienople. They were recent college graduates, engaged and deciding which church they wanted to get married in. Corbin and Caroline rented St. Andrew and were wed here Saturday afternoon, May 21.
“We don’t have a big, old beautiful church close by in our area. I always dreamed of a big beautiful church wedding,” Caroline said. “It (St. Andrew) was everything we wanted; perfect for us.”
Corbin got his degree in business and finance from Mercyhurst University, where he was an energetic tackler at linebacker on the Laker football team, good enough to make all-conference. On his LinkedIn profile he lists Tim Tebow and Mark Cuban as influences.
Caroline said her husband’s time at Mercyhurst U. was their only connection to Erie. The couple were in the same grade at Seneca Valley High School in Butler County, started dating as sophomores and maintained their relationship long-distance while she graduated from Penn State. Caroline got her degree in chemical engineering there and now works in the field.
There are breathtaking old churches in Pittsburgh, too, 25 miles south of their hometown. Instead they worked their way north to Erie looking for the right church. Caroline said they considered St. Peter Cathedral downtown and St. Patrick on E. 5th Street before choosing St. Andrew.
“These are some of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever seen. I am surprised Erie has so many of them,” she said.
Corbin and Caroline were married by the Rev. David Egan Jr., a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. Ordained in 2019, Fr. David is a parochial vicar (a priest serving under a pastor) for three churches—St. Gregory in Zelienople, St. Ferdinand in Cranberry and Holy Redeemer in Ellwood City.
“It was a nice wedding,” Fr. David said. “Your church was beautiful, and very conveniently located.”
Calling it convenient was a surprise given that Zelienople is a 99-mile drive. But about 220 guests came to the wedding, many from Cleveland, Buffalo and Pittsburgh, making Erie a midpoint.
Music included violin and cello instrumentals. The wedding flowers next went to Meadville to decorate the newlyweds’ reception at an events venue.
The three-church parish Corbin and Caroline belong to was called Cities of God. The name was informal and temporary. Fr. David said its official designation was Grouping No. 444, but the parishioners used Cities of God “as a placeholder.” Starting July 1 the three churches will merge and be called Divine Grace Parish.
Close to a thousand Erie kids, maybe more, had Ann Williams for their teacher when they were very young. Ann’s family moved into the St. Andrew neighborhood when she was a high schooler at Villa Maria Academy. She went on to teach in Erie public schools for 30 years, always kindergarten or early elementary grades.
Two of Ann’s sisters were at her side when she died at age 81 in Kissimmee, Florida, a week before Christmas. Because of COVID and other concerns she wanted her funeral to wait until spring. The memorial Mass for Ann Williams Lux was celebrated at St. Andrew on May 14. About 40 relatives and friends were there from Erie, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Monterrey, California, Washington, D.C., Maryland and New York City. The funeral became a weekend family gathering, which she’d have liked.
Ann was one of six children of the late Rogers and Ann Burke Williams, all members of St. Andrew while in Erie. Ann moved to Kissimmee when she retired in 1992 and lived there with her husband, the late Dick Lux. She was a member of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church there.
The marriage of Rich and Jean Zack is a union now going on 40 years, just not performed in the Catholic Church. Rich and Jean had their wedding blessed Saturday, May 21, in a convalidation service in our parish’s Annunciation Chapel.
Presiding was the Rev. Bill Barron, Rich’s nephew. The future priest grew up in a parish peppered with Barron and Zack households, including Zack grandparents who lived across the street from St. Andrew for more than four decades. Barrons still hold seven entries in the St. Andrew family roster--individuals, couples and families. Almost all still live within walking distance of the church, albeit at compass points now.
“It was particularly meaningful, the fact we were able to do it at the church we all grew up in and the neighborhood we all grew up in,” Fr. Bill said.
So their choice of church was unsurprising, but when a long-married couple, each reaching age 70, decide to have their wedding blessed in the church—that doesn’t happen often.
“I think they felt like they wanted to be more involved in the Catholic faith,” Fr. Bill said.
“The past couple of years, I think the whole COVID shutdown thing was part of the reason, believe it or not,” he said. “They want to get more involved in the life of the church.”
Fr. Bill is constrained by confidentiality in talking about people he has counseled. In the context of the convalidation service, he said Rich’s and Jean’s marriage is the second for both. Both were previously married in the 1970s, later marrying each other in a civil ceremony.
“All the previous generations were churchgoing. I think Rich and Jean might have fallen out of the practice. We all go through a lot of seasons,” Fr. Bill said.
The word “convalidation” is unfamiliar to most, who know the kind of ceremony that Rich and Jean had as the blessing of a wedding—accurately as far as it goes but without mention of the preparation the church requires of the couple for marriage as a sacrament. Fr. Bill said he helped his uncle get his first marriage annulled; Jean’s first husband had died.
“That opened the road for their wedding convalidation in the chapel,” he said.
Because husband and wife are both Catholic, the Eucharist was celebrated.
Fr. Bill is the pastor of two churches in Reynoldsville and Sykesville in Jefferson County. In July he will move eastward to Clearfield County on his next assignment as pastor of three churches in Morrisdale, Osceola Mills and Hawk Run.