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Bishop Joseph Bambera, new head of the Diocese of Scranton, meets and greets people at a Wilkes-Barre free kitchen

By Mark Guydish mguydish@timesleader.com
Education Reporter
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WILKES-BARRE – Newly anointed Diocese of Scranton Bishop Joseph Bambera made dinner with the disadvantaged his first pastoral outreach in his new job, visiting St. Vincent De Paul Kitchen on Wednesday to slap a high-five with a 5-year-old, chat with others while standing in line for a chicken entr�e and dining -- by pure chance – with a woman appropriately named Faith.

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Bishop Joseph Bambera gets acquainted with a 5-year-old ‘Money’ at the St. Vincent De Paul Kitchen in Wilkes-Barre Wednesday. The kitchen was the first place in the diocese that Bambera visited as bishop since his ordination Monday.

AIMEE DILGER/THE TIMES LEADER

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Diocese of Scranton Bishop Joseph Bambera talks with volunteers at the St. Vincent DePaul kitchen Wednesday during a visit that included brief remarks and lunch with some of those who eat at the kitchen regularly.

AIMEE DILGER/THE TIMES LEADER

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“He’s a regular guy,” Faith Beamer said after Bambera had chatted with her and two others at a table while eating. “I thought he would come in gold or something like that.”

Bambera opted to leave behind the more ornate outerwear of his office, arriving in traditional black pants, shirt, suit coat and the white “Roman collar” trademark of priests.

The only indication he held a higher office was the thin gold chain flashing from beneath the coat, a traditional sign of the bishop.

As the first wave of people waited in a long line along the wall for the serving of dinner – cafeteria style – to start, Bambera thanked them for letting him share the meal.

“You really honor us and we’re so happy to serve you. It’s a real blessing for us,” he said. “This is where we feel the Lord most, when we gather together as his people, when we share food, when we share our lives with one another. This is a sacred space.”

Bambera was introduced by Monsignor Joseph Kelly, executive director of Catholic Social Services, the outreach agency of the diocese responsible for the kitchen. Kelly told the crowd Bambera “came specifically to meet you,” then quipped “and also he heard the chicken is very good.

“It’s very important for you tell him how wonderful this place is because he’s the boss, and he owns the place,” Kelly said, evoking more laughter.

Before sitting down, Bambera said he had come to the kitchen as his first visit because, “this is where the Church is the most visible, and is where it is most alive.

“It’s important for people to see me, but it’s more important that we recognize what this is about, not just a place where people eat, but a place that really reflects precisely what the church is about.”

Kelly said the visit was entirely Bambera’s idea, and that he had proposed it nearly a month before being anointed bishop on Monday. “This is his very first pastoral visit,” Kelly said, noting it sends an important message of his priorities. “He wants to be with the poor and powerless.”

The kitchen serves 300 to 400 dinners per day, according to attorney Carl Frank, the president of the board of trustees that runs the kitchen. A clothing store and a food pantry are also in the same building, and – though not connected to Catholic Social Services – The Rural Health Corporation runs a medical clinic there as well.

The kitchen depends heavily on food donations from parishioners at area churches and from grocery stores, as well as financial donations from area residents. Frank said a $125 contribution will make a donor a “sponsor for the day,” with the option of having his or her name put up on the wall that day.

Before his remarks, Bambera stopped to talk to “Money,” a 5-year-old in a stroller waiting for his parents, who were in line for food, and gave the tyke a “high-five” hand slap – or, considering he had to bend a bit to reach, a low-five from the bishop’s perspective.

When he wasn’t eating, Bambera walked around chatting with people and shaking their hands. Brooke Hartman, 17, asked him for his autograph and, unprepared, proffered a post-it note for the purpose.

“I’m going to put it on my bedroom wall,” Hartman enthused, adding that she had never met a bishop.

Hartman said she is in a program at Coughlin High School that has her taking classes half the day and working the other half to help out her family, many of whom were at the table with her. She proudly added she will graduate this year.

Shawn Manning, who said he lives off Social Security disability payments and dines regularly at the kitchen, said the bishop “needs to be here, he needs to see what’s going on.” A frequent visitor for five years, Manning said he had never seen a bishop visit before.

Not entirely true, Kelly said. Bambera’s predecessor, Bishop Joseph Martino, had also visited the kitchen a few years back but had not let the media know, opting to show up quietly and join the diners.

Martino had largely avoided secular media during most of his tumultuous six years in office.

When Bambera sat to eat, he joined Beamer, Charlie Sokolas Jr. and Shelley Longfoot, and immediately commented on Charlie’s attire, a Boston Red Sox sweatshirt. “Charlie and a Red Sox fan? We’re OK!”

Bambera asked about them and their family and was told their grandmother was in the hospital. He offered words of encouragement.

After dinner, Sokolas gave an opinion many who have dealt with Bambera seem to share.

“He’s great. He’s a normal, everyday person.”

Mark Guydish, a Times Leader staff writer, can be reached at 829-7161