Deacon encouraged Diocese's new priest

"I'm not quite nervous. Maybe I should be, but I feel great!"

That was Rev. Matthew Frisoni's view just 24 hours before his ordination June 11 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany.

He came to his vocation as a priest thanks to the doggedness of a permanent deacon.

Called by deacon

As a student at Siena College in Loudonville and then at The University at Albany in the 1990s, the Schenectady native was studying political science, planning to become a college professor.

Then he was approached by Deacon August DiDonna, who ministered at Father Frisoni's parish, St. Anthony's in Schenectady. The deacon thought the young man would make a fine priest, but the student wasn't interested.

"I wanted nothing to do with the idea," he reported. "I said, 'Thank you for thinking of me, but I don't see myself praying for hours, living in a monastery.' That was my vision of the priesthood at the time."

Persistence

However, Deacon DiDonna didn't give up. A week later, he asked the collegian: "Did you give my idea any thought?"

"No!" the student said, emphatically. He felt he "wasn't holy enough." Besides, he wanted to teach, not preach.

Then Deacon DiDonna pointed out that there was a diocesan discernment group for men considering religious life. A poster on a parish bulletin board said the group discussed "myths and truths" surrounding priesthood, so then-Mr. Frisoni decided he'd go to just one meeting. He ended up going to several.

True view

In the process, he learned that most of what he'd guessed priests did all day was wrong.

"Prayer is not [their] only activity," he said. "The focus of a diocesan priest is to work with the people."

It also occurred to him that becoming a priest "did not remove the possibility of teaching. My teaching is not restricted to the classroom."

Gradual decision

Looking back, Father Frisoni said there was not a "watershed moment" that made him decide on religious life. Rather, it was a gradual urging that he sees as the influence of the Holy Spirit.

He met with priests he knew, Revs. Richard Carlino and John Medwid; and, after much prayer, applied to Bishop Howard J. Hubbard to study for the priesthood.

Going to St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1999 was difficult at first. Father Frisoni remembered that even trying to wedge all of his belongings into a nine-by-12-foot dorm room caused him to pray a lot about his decision.

Crisis time

In addition, he said, the "waters got really rough" in 2002, when, in the midst of his studies, the Albany Diocese began struggling with the clergy abuse crisis.

"This is a difficult cross for anyone to carry, especially someone in the seminary!" he noted. "Some people [were saying], 'All the priests are corrupt.' I certainly don't believe that."

He concluded that it would be cowardly to abandon his plans because of the crisis. "We all have to carry some pain, and I didn't believe leaving would do any good," he told The Evangelist. "I still felt called to the priesthood -- even more so."

Assets

The self-described "talkative, high extrovert" was also in the process of discovering his own gifts, including that of preaching.

"I love to give talks; I love to preach at Mass!" he enthused. "How often does a priest have the audience of the people around him? It's usually at the Sunday Eucharist. The people there deserve to have the Word of God opened for them in a way that really touches their minds and hearts."

Father Frisoni also hopes to be a good listener. "I love to talk, but if I don't listen to people, it's a problem," he explained.

Already assigned

The 30-year-old priest noted that when it comes to parish assignments, he has no preferences. "I'll go anywhere," he said. "I love going to visit the sick, talking to groups. I derive joy from talking with these people about the great walks of life God has sent me on."

However, in an unusual move for diocesan officials, he was told months before his ordination that he would be assigned to the Watervliet-Green Island parish of Immaculate Heart of Mary -- a parish community that needs active listeners, since it's in the process of merging six parishes into one (using three of the churches as worship sites).

"They're going through an experience of hardship and pain as they lose their parishes the way they were in the past," said Father Frisoni. "I'm privileged and honored to be assigned" there.

Vocations

Deacon DiDonna died in 1999, but not before Father Frisoni visited him to announce that he was entering the seminary. "Your question was very important to me, even though I initially dismissed the idea," the future priest told the deacon.

Father Frisoni added: "He was ecstatic. That was the last time I saw him alive."

Father Frisoni noted that when he began studying for the priesthood, he knew that he would probably be the only member of his "graduating class," a prediction that has come true.

However, with nine men currently in formation for priesthood for the Diocese, he said, "the bigger issue is the number of priests for the future. The numbers may be smaller, but I don't think there is a diminished amount of joy among the future priests. While I am ordained alone, I think it's a moment of hope for what the future can hold. Our communities are vibrant."

(Father Frisoni's parents, Anthony and Josephine, live in Schenectady. He also has an older brother and sister who live in the Diocese. Before his ordination, Father Frisoni served at several parishes during summers, including the Northern Points cluster -- St. John the Baptist in Chestertown, Blessed Sacrament in Hague and St. James in North Creek -- and St. Henry's in Averill Park. He spent a year at Annunciation Church in Ilion and last summer at Holy Trinity in Johnstown. He also completed a required ten-week clinical-pastoral education program, serving at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.)

(6/16/05)