By Christina Leslie | Staff Writer

For some people, the word “retirement” can be a relative term. That is the case with Msgr. Leonard F. Troiano, retiring pastor of St. Pio of Pietrelcina Parish, Lavallette. Just a few days removed from his farewell Mass in his parish, he expressed his eagerness to begin yet another chapter in his long, illustrious life of service to the Church and her people. Sitting in his new office at the Chancery, and now bearing the title of episcopal vicar for diocesan planning, Msgr. Troiano noted his new environs and schedule would take a little adjustment. “It’s surreal,” he admitted. “For 43 years, from the seminary until last week, I lived in a church-owned environment, and I used to get up 6 or 6:30 a.m.” Since his 1979 ordination by Bishop George W. Ahr, Msgr. Troiano has served in St. Thomas Parish, Old Bridge; St. Rose Parish, Belmar; St. David the King Parish, West Windsor; Sacred Heart Parish, Trenton, and St. Bonaventure Parish, Lavallette, which was merged with Normandy Beach’s Our Lady of Peace Parish to form St. Pio of Pietrelcina Parish. Recalling the farewell dinner in December and the elaborate retirement Mass celebrated Jan. 3, Msgr. Troiano said, “The parish planned a wonderful celebration. I felt a mix of emotions: melancholy and joy.”

Msgr. Troiano relished the many blessings he experienced during his lifetime of service, and said the thousands of parishioners who passed through the church’s doors week after week, year after year, that had brought him the most joy.

“The thing I most enjoyed about being a pastor is being with the people,” Msgr. Troiano asserted. “As I said in my homily [at the Jan. 3 Mass], it’s like a priest weds the parish. There is a parallel between that and marriage,” he continued, noting that a man and woman must put aside the lives they had before once they are joined as one.

“For a priest, the bride is the parish. You work there every day, go through [the parishioners’] life experiences, the good and the bad, the joyful and the sorrowful. I was there for 18 years,” Msgr. Troiano said of his tenure in St.

Pio of Pietrelcina and its predecessor parish. “You get to be a part of their lives and their families’ lives. You marry them and baptize them and bury them.” His biggest challenge as pastor, the monsignor revealed, was the effects Superstorm Sandy had on the Ocean County parish and its people. “We had to not only rebuild the facilities, but rebuild the community,” he said.

But through it all, the sense of one family of faith prevailed. As he encountered parishioners in the weeks and months of their separation, “it was wonderful to hear, ‘we want to get back to our worship community, we want to get back home together again,’” Msgr. Troiano said.

As much as he relished shepherding the people of the shore parish, he realizes that changes are inevitable. “My philosophy when I leave a parish is ‘Don’t look back,’” Msgr. Troiano said. “There’s no going back, you have to move on. I do maintain relationships at every [pastoral] assignment, but I will not look back at what the new pastor is doing.”

The priest now resides in a private home in a shore community and will work two to three days each week at the Chancery in Lawrenceville, telecommuting and attending video conference meetings from home.

In his work with the Faith in Our Future initiative, Msgr. Troiano anticipates facing the challenges and hopes for the diocese that the plan will unfold. “It will lead parishes into the future, help our pastors to re-evangelize and reach people not in the parishes and on the fringes,” he enumerated. “It will also address the mundane of the fiscal aspects. We have to look out for the parishes, schools and institutions.

“In the beginning, some might question the purpose,” Msgr. Troiano admitted, “but I have seen it work. We will put the parishes on a sound foundation. This way we can live the dream of St. John Paul II: the new evangelization.”