Local pastor to receive award from Ignatian Volunteer Corps

By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent

WORCESTER - When Father Jonathan J. Slavinskas receives the Madonna Della Strada Award from the New England Regional Council of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps in Boston on April 21, it will be an emotional day for many reasons.

The award will be meaningful to the pastor of Our Lady of Providence Parish at St. Bernard Church in Worcester, not only because it honors those who have shown “exceptional concern for those struggling with poverty, injustice and isolation in their communities,” but also because two of Father Slavinskas’ mentors have previously received it.

Father John F. Madden, pastor at St. John Parish, received the award along with his parish in 2014 and Monsignor Francis J. Scollen, pastor at St. Peter Parish and St. Andrew Mission, was presented it in 2018.

Unfortunately, the same day that Father Slavinskas is scheduled to receive the award, his father, Dan, is supposed to be admitted to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to begin CAR T-cell therapy for triple-hit lymphoma the following day, his 72nd birthday. His T-cells will be removed and treated, then injected back into his body to fight the lymphoma.

Father Slavinskas said his father and mother hope to attend his award ceremony before heading to the hospital.

“There’s just a lot emotionally going on,” Father Slavinskas said. “It (the award ceremony) helps take our minds as a family off everything that’s going on.”

Father Slavinskas will be honored at Boston College High School, 150 Morrissey Blvd., in Boston. Father Madden will serve as celebrant and homilist at a 3:30 p.m. Mass and he will introduce Father Slavinskas at a reception, dinner and awards celebration that will follow from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Proceeds will benefit the New England IVC.

Father Slavinskas said he, his parents and other family members hope to attend the 3:30 p.m. Mass together.

“There will be a lot of emotions,” Father Slavinskas said. “I know my mind going into that Mass will be more probably with my father upon my heart as I concelebrate that Mass. I’ll be offering [it] for [him].”

When Msgr. Scollen was pastor at St. John Parish, he presided over the wedding of Father Slavinskas’s parents, Dan and Debbie, and he baptized Father Slavinskas. Msgr. Scollen was asked to take part in the April 21 event as well, but he had to decline because of his Sunday parish commitments.

Father Slavinskas looks up to Father Madden and Msgr. Scollen.

“There’s not a day that goes by,” he said, “where I am not grateful for that model of priestly ministry that they show and that has influenced and impacted my priesthood. I would not be the priest I am today if it wasn’t for priests like them, if it wasn’t for their guidance and their love and their care that they show each and every day.”

Father Slavinskas was attending Anna Maria College intent on becoming a priest when Father Madden became pastor at St. John Parish in 2004. Father Madden has served as a mentor ever since.

When Father Slavinskas became pastor at Our Lady of Providence, he walked the neighborhood to get to know everyone. He brought donuts and bagels to the school bus stop near St. Bernard Church, opened the gym for youth to play basketball or do their homework and allowed youngsters to read in his rectory.

Once while away for a wedding, he noticed on a security camera that teenagers were sitting on the front porch of the rectory at dinnertime. So he ordered them pizza.

The parish offers everything from ESL classes to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to CYC to the Bucky Sheehan Food Pantry.

Father Slavinskas also serves as chaplain for the police and fire departments and presides over Mass each morning at Notre Dame Health Care in Worcester.

“We have a beautiful opportunity,” Father Slavinskas said, “as pastors entrusted to care for the parish to be able to bring the true presence of Christ beyond the church walls and that means engaging people where they are at.”
With the help of his father and others, he also oversaw renovations inside St. Bernard Church, including the installation of pews from a church in Northampton.

Father Slavinskas said so many people “working their butts off” at the parish deserve to share in receiving this award.

Father Madden is looking forward to introducing Father Slavinskas at the ceremony.

“I’ll be really happy to do it because it’s well deserved,” Father Madden said. “He’s a good friend of mine. I’m happy that he’s being recognized. So, it’s going to be a joyous occasion, for sure.”

Father Slavinskas is honored that Father Madden will introduce him.

“As corny as it is, it brings a warm smile upon the heart,” Father Slavinskas said. “He’s still a pastor to my mother and father. He’s a pastor to my siblings. He’s a pastor to my nieces and nephews and he’s still a pastor to me. He’s my brother priest, but he’s still my pastor.”

Father Slavinskas was named administrator of Our Lady of Providence in 2016 and was appointed pastor a year later. Father Madden remembers telling Father Slavinskas that it was a great assignment for him because he could make an impact in the community there.

“That’s kind of a tough neighborhood over there too over there on Lincoln Street,” Father Madden said, “and he’s really reached out to the neighborhood, specifically the youth.”

After Msgr. Scollen left St. John Parish, he lost touch with Father Slavinskas, but they reunited when Father Jonathan spent a summer as a seminarian with him at St. Peter Parish.

“He’s a very good priest,” Msgr. Scollen said. “He works very hard. He’s done a lot to transform that parish and that neighborhood. He has programs in the gym and he goes to hospitals at night and he does sick calls. He does it all and he’s a very, very good priest and I think the fact that they honored him for that is a great thing.”

Msgr. Scollen agrees with Father Slavinskas in believing the Madonna Della Strada Award should be considered a community award, not an individual award. Father Madden and St. John Parish, for instance, received the award for the success of St. John’s Food for the Poor. Msgr. Scollen said he appreciated that the “people in the trenches” are recognized.

The Madonna Della Strada Award is named after Sancta Maria Della Strada, the first church that St. Ignatius and the early Jesuits obtained to serve the poor in Rome.

Donna Wrenn, a parishioner at North American Martyrs Parish in Auburn and a New England Regional Council member for Ignatian Volunteer Corps, nominated Father Slavinskas for the award.

When Ms. Wrenn informed Father Madden that he needed to limit his introduction of Father Slavinskas to 250 words, Father Madden said he couldn’t promise that. There is too much to say.

With the exception of one year during the height of the pandemic, the NE IVC has presented the Madonna Della Strada Award annually since 2012 to individuals from Boston, Worcester and Providence.

This year, in addition to Father Slavinskas, Sister Christine Kavanagh of Providence and NE IVC board chair Michael Mc-Gonagle of Boston will be honored.

The mission of the NE IVC is to provide men and women aged 50 and older the opportunity to serve the needs of people experiencing poverty, to work for a more just society, and to grow deeper in Christian faith by reflecting and praying in the Ignatian tradition.

To register to attend the Madonna Della Strada Award event or to make a donation, visit www.ivcusa.org/NewEnglandDellastrada. The suggested donation is $150 per person.