By Lois Rogers | Features Editor

In naming Msgr. Thomas N. Gervasio as diocesan vicar general and moderator of the curia, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., chose a native son of the diocese with 30 years of experience in parishes, schools and diocesan offices.

Msgr. Gervasio, who will continue as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony Parish, Hamilton, assumed the role July 1, succeeding Msgr. Gregory D. Vaughan, whom the bishop appointed full-time vicar for vocations.

Reflecting on this new challenge, Msgr. Gervasio said he’s counting on the perspective gained from pastoring urban and suburban parishes with schools and without, serving as a pro-life and college chaplain and as director of the diocesan Office of Family Life/Respect Life to stand him in good stead in this new role.

“(Vicar general) has been described to me as vice president of a corporation and an alter ego of the bishop…a stand in for the bishop,” said Msgr. Gervasio. “When the bishop approached me about it, I was very honored.”

Canon law requires the appointment of a vicar general in each diocese to assist the bishop in governance and to exercise his executive powers when the bishop is not available.

The vicar general shares all the administrative powers of the bishop except what the Code of Canon Law restricts specifically to the diocesan bishop, a challenging concept, Msgr. Gervasio acknowledged during a recent interview in his new office in the diocesan Chancery in Lawrenceville.

“I never envisioned I would hold this role,” he said. “At heart, I’m a parish priest – it’s what I know best,” said Msgr. Gervasio.

Indeed, he anticipates applying many of the skills he learned in dealing with the challenges of parish life to the new position. The challenges, he said, included working through parish mergers and the closing of some schools including his own boyhood alma mater, St. Joachim, which he described as difficult for him.

Msgr. Gervasio said that having served on the parish or diocesan level throughout the diocese made him aware of the demographic size and ethnic diversity of the Trenton Diocese.

With an estimated population of 850,000, the Trenton Diocese is said to be the 20th largest in the nation and in the first few weeks since assuming his new role, Msgr. Gervasio has been devoting a lion’s share of his time to studying how those demographics dovetail with the overall scope of diocesan ministry.

“When you see how vast the work of the Church is in the four counties and how it applies to day-to-day concerns, it is the parish magnified 100 times,” Msgr. Gervasio said. “The work of the Church is the same wherever you go to work. It is the same pastoral Church.”

Born in Trenton in 1956, the son of the late Tammaro and Orsola Gervasio, he prepared for the priesthood in St. Mary’s Seminary and University, Baltimore and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, Md.

His 94-year-old mother and large family were very thrilled by the appointment, he said. “It was a great surprise for them.”

Ordained by Bishop John C. Reiss, he was named parochial vicar of St. James Parish, Red Bank, serving there until 1987 and then went on to become parochial vicar of St. Gregory the Great Parish, Hamilton Square, from 1987 to 1991.

After serving as administrator of Holy Trinity Parish, Long Branch, from 1991 to 1995, he returned to home ground as pastor of St. Joachim Parish, Trenton, for four years. In 1999, he was named pastor of St. Anthony Parish, Hamilton, and in 2005, he was named pastor of the newly-merged Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony Parish.

Along with his chaplaincies and his time as director of the Office of Family Life/Respect Life, he also served as diocesan director of Catholic Relief Services/Campaign for Human Development. He was a member of the steering committee for the Diocesan Millennium Celebration for the Great Jubilee Year 2000 and a member of the diocesan Board for Vocations.

He described his diocesan appointments as “wonderful experiences. It was a privilege for me to work for the bishop in the four counties of the diocese. The priests were wonderful at the parish level, helping to promote the mission of the diocese.”

In his new capacity, Msgr. Gervasio said he looks forward to meeting with each department of the diocesan team. “We have very good people working here and it makes working with them very pleasant,” he said.

Among the many duties he’s looking forward to is confirming young people throughout the diocese and visiting parishes and schools. “I’m a product of Catholic schools,” said Msgr. Gervasio, who attended St. Joachim’s School and Cathedral High School, Trenton. “I know what the education I received in them meant for me. It helped me to look at things in a different way, to face big challenges calmly, clearly.”

Msgr. Gervasio credits his late mentor, Msgr. Emilio Cardelia, pastor of St. Joachim Parish from 1941-1981, with leading the way in that regard. “He was instrumental through his priestly example, especially in the attention and love he had for the liturgy.”

And, he spoke warmly of the Religious Teachers Filippini who staffed St. Joachim School as well as his own large and loving family for setting him off on the path he follows