Former Pittston Sacramental Minister elevated to Catholic Bishop

SCRANTON — When Scranton native Jeffrey Walsh graduated from the University of Scranton in 1987 with a degree in Health and Human Resources, he could have never imagined where he would be 35 years later — Bishop-elect of the Diocese of Gaylord in the state of Michigan.

Growing up in North Scranton, Walsh hung out at Weston Field with his buddies, graduated from Scranton Central High School in 1983, before completing his studies at the University of Scranton.

After college graduation, he worked at various jobs and went through a relationship breakup before he turned his attention to a higher calling and making the biggest decision of his life — to become a Catholic priest.

“I had been dating in college and that relationship broke off and I was free in the sense I could choose to go into the seminary,” Bishop-elect Walsh said, on deciding to become a priest. “The second thing was my grandmother was very sick and ended up dying in the hospital and a young priest had come to visit her and pray with her daily and he had a big influence on me. Also, there was a seed planted about a vocation to the priesthood when I was a student at the University of Scranton from Fr. Joe Simmons while on a retreat. He asked me if I had ever thought about becoming a priest and he made me put it on the radar.”

Walsh saw what an impact a priest could have on lives and that was the deciding factor to enter the seminary.

Walsh was accepted and eventually graduated from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, Md. Seven years after graduating from the University of Scranton, he was ordained a priest in the city he grew in up on June 25, 1994.

When asked if he was pious as a child, his response was, “If you were to talk to any of my family or friends, they would have not used that word,” Walsh laughed. “I might have been one of the least that would have expected to choose a vocation into the priesthood.”

After his ordination, then Fr. Walsh’s assignments in the Diocese of Scranton included: Parochial Vicar of Saint Rose of Lima parish, and Director of Religious Education at Sacred Heart High School in Carbondale (1995); Parochial Vicar at the Cathedral of Saint Peter (1996); Pastor of Our Lady of the Lake parish in Lake Winola (1999); Director of Education at St. Pius X Seminary (1999); Director of Vocations (2002); Pastor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Tunkhannock (2004); Regional Episcopal Vicar (2006); Administrator of Saint Rita parish in Gouldsboro (2008); Administrator of Saint Anthony parish in Throop (2009); Secretary for Catholic Social Services (2009); Pastor of Saint John’s parish in East Stroudsburg (2010); and Vicar for the clergy (2015).

Currently, he is the pastor of Saint Rose of Lima parish and of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish in Carbondale as well as being a member of the diocesan College of Consultors and of the Presbyteral Council.

On Dec. 21, 2021, the son of Jerome and Nancy Walsh received the biggest phone call of his 27 years as a priest; he was notified by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, Washington, D.C., that the Holy Father Pope Francis elevated him to the status of Bishop.

Bishop-elect Walsh, at age 56, will be the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Gaylord, Michigan.

The Diocese of Gaylord is comprised of 11,171 square miles and has a total population of 506,623 of which over 44,000 are Catholic.

Bishop-elect Walsh will be ordained Bishop and installed on March 4, 2022 at St. Mary Cathedral in Gaylord.

“With gratitude to our Holy Father Pope Francis, and joy in the Lord, I am eager to begin a new chapter in my life of discipleship among the good people of the Diocese of Gaylord,” Bishop-elect Walsh said in his official Diocese of Scranton statement. “I am also most grateful to God for 27 years of priestly ministry in the Diocese of Scranton.”

Bishop-elect Walsh spent five years serving as the Sacramental Minister at Our Lady of the Eucharist Catholic Church, Pittston, for the Diocese of Scranton from 2015 to 2020, a year after the retirement of Fr. Thomas Maloney. Sr. Mary Ann Cody serves as the Parish Life Coordinator at the church.

“This was the first of its kind in our diocese with the Parish Life Coordinator model,” Bishop-elect Walsh said. “I was the very first Sacramental Minister in the diocese and that’s what my role was there at the church.”

According to Bishop-elect Walsh, there are five or six Sacramental Minister models in the Diocese of Scranton based on the success at Our Lady of the Eucharist.

“I loved my time there at Our Lady of the Eucharist,” Bishop-elect Walsh said. “It was five years in the (Pittston) junction and I got to know a lot of other people in the Pittston area as well.”

While serving in the City of Pittston, Bishop-elect Walsh’s most memorial moments was spending his 25th anniversary as a priest as well as Sr. Mary Ann’s 50th anniversary as a sister while at Our Lady of the Eucharist Church.

Bishop-elect Walsh was a recent guest celebrant at the Oblates of St. Joseph at the request of long time friend, Fr. Paul McDonald, to celebrate the Mass of the Holy Spouses. At the conclusion of Mass, many of his former parishioners were in attendance to wish him well as the new Bishop of Gaylord.

“I have been blessed with a solid, but by no means ‘perfect,’ family that also includes my two brothers (James and Joseph), two nieces, one nephew, aunts and uncles and many close first cousins,” Bishop-elect Walsh added, according to his official press release. “Looking forward, I hope to bring a missionary spirit to my episcopal ministry under the mantle of Divine Providence. From ‘Penn’s Woods’ to the land of ‘Great Lakes,’ I trust God’s loving plan.”