OSDIA Nation

NEW YORK

The Cellini Lodge #2206 in New Hyde Park kicked into overdrive when COVID-19 hit. With 383 members, the third largest lodge in New York went to work in support of healthcare workers in their area. In the beginning of May, they sent food to four local hospitals in a four-day span, delivering lunch to NYU Winthrop Hospital and St. Francis Hospital, The Heart Center and delivering dinner to North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center. The staffs from all four hospitals were so thankful that they returned the lodge’s generosity with several letters of appreciation.

The lodge has also continued to hold its monthly general meetings and officers’ meetings via Zoom. During the officers’ meeting at the end of May, they received information about the local food pantries who were in need of food. Once again, the lodge went into overdrive, sending out an email blast and requesting that members drop off food at their lodge office on June 2. In just two hours, lodge members had donated enough food to fill three local food pantries. The lodge delivered the food to the Notre Dame Church and Church of

Cellini lodge members with NYU Winthrop Hospital staff. Cellini lodge members delivering food to Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

the Holy Spirit in New Hyde Park. They also contacted St. Brigid’s Catholic Church in Westbury, who came to the lodge’s office to pick up donated food.

“I am so proud of our lodge,” said Lodge President Anthony Calabro. “Whenever I ask the members to step up, they do it.

Cellini lodge members with Long Island Jewish Medical Center staff.

Not to be outdone, the lodge’s scholarship committee also held Zoom meetings in May to make sure they awarded the lodge’s annual scholar ships in spite of the pandemic. After the meetings, the lodge presented scholar ships to three members’ children and two members’ grandchildren, all of whom were graduating high school. The lodge also presented one gradu ate scholarship. In addition to this, the lodge granted scholarships to seven neighboring high schools. This year, a total of $15,000 in scholarships were given out by the Cellini Lodge.

CONNECTICUT

In response to COVID-19 re lief efforts, the Amerigo Vespucci Lodge #160 in Danbury presented a $1,000 check to Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton to supply those in need of essential groceries. The mayor accepted the check on behalf of the Hillside Food Outreach, which deliv ers these groceries to families who are not able to access local pantries.

Lodge President Bruno Tropeano (right) presents Mayor Mark Boughton with the donation from the Amerigo Vespucci Lodge #160.

Have you or your lodge done something remarkable that makes a difference to your community or promotes our heritage and Italian studies? If so, send details including your lodge’s name/ number, a brief write-up, and digital photos of 300 dpi to Editor Miles Fisher at mfisher@osia.org

PENNSYLVANIA

Because in-person meetings have not been possible, the Central Penn sylvania Lodge #2651 in Mechanicsburg missed its lodge family too much and decided to do something about it.

On May 27, the Lodge used Zoom to hold their monthly meeting. Thirty-nine attendees were present, including State Lodge of Pennsylvania President Joseph Marino. Prior to this meeting, the lodge had already been using Zoom to host their weekly Italian language lessons. The Lodge looks forward to continue using this technology in the future to benefit, for example, older members who would like to participate, but due to weather or other circumstances cannot drive to meetings.

Although virtual, their Zoom meeting was just like any other monthly meeting, beginning with prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and a discussion of financials. They memorialized the recent passing of longtime OSDIA member, William R. Montone.

Lodge member Bernie Costanza gave a fascinating presentation on the story of two Italian men who immi grated to Pennsylvania more than 100 years ago. They created what would ultimately become the Planters Peanut Company.

Another highlight of the meeting was the announcement of the re cipient of the 2020 Central PA Lodge Annual Scholarship and the John Kendrick Memorial scholarship, both of which were awarded to Cristina Marcellus of Trinity High School in Camp Hill. Cristina will be attending Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania, and majoring in English Education. She has participated in the lodge’s activities ever since she was a toddler—attending La Befana parties, picnics, bocce events, and Italian lan guage classes.

Bravo e buona fortuna, Cristina!

FLORIDA

Last April, the Perry Como Lodge #2876 in Tequesta organized a food giveaway to help those in need. The giveaway was put together with the help of the Mayor of Tequesta, the Te questa Fire-Rescue, and the American Legion along with many volunteers and six restaurants. More than 700 meals were given out in total, due in large part to the lodge’s $1,000 dona tion toward these efforts.

“It’s great to have such wonderful people always willing to go the extra mile to help out when needed,” said Lodge President Jo Demerac.

(L. to R.) Mayor of Tequesta Abby Brennan, Lodge President Jo Demerac, Then-Commander John Baker of the American Legion, and Jack Demerac.

Members of the Central Pennsylvania Lodge at their weekly Italian language lesson via Zoom. The tents in line, where the restau rants delivered their food.

BY MILES RYAN FISHER

Every other Sunday, ten-year-old Adam Forno would go for a car ride with his parents and his little sister to his grandparents’ house in Geneva, a small town in Upstate New York. There, his Neapolitan grandmother, Esther Raimondi (née Visco), would already be in the kitchen preparing the Sunday meal, letting the tomato sauce simmer, its fragrance permeating the house. Meanwhile, Adam would be outside on the side porch, before an altar he’d built of cardboard and pre tending to say Mass. He practiced and practiced until it came time for him to

Father Forno’s grandparents, Esther and Adolf Raimondi, who hosted Sunday meals while he was growing up in Upstate New York. say the prayer before the Sunday meal. Even then, young Adam knew he wanted to live a life of priestly service.

When he turned 18 years old, Adam entered a junior college semi nary to determine what kind of service he’d want to do—whether that en tailed something more contemplative as the life of a monk or something reflective of a more moderate path. Before graduating from Syracuse University, he spent several months with the Benedictine monks of Mt. Saviour in Elmira, New York. There, it became apparent that the monk’s life was too extreme a path.

So after graduating from Syracuse University, he traveled to Austin, Texas, where he spent a year as a youth minister before he entered the Discalced Carmelite Friars. There, he was introduced to their middle path of service and prayer.

After three years of discernment, he left the friars and returned to Upstate New York, serving developmentally disabled adults in the Albany area for four years. It was then that he real ized he wouldn’t feel at peace unless he pursued the priesthood one more time. So he sought acceptances by the Diocese of Albany and was accepted and enrolled into a Masters of Divin ity program at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Once again, Adam left his life be hind to discern the path to the priesthood. At 32 years old, he traveled to the nation’s capital to determine this once and for all. The moment he walked into his seminary dorm room, laid his suitcase on the bed, and began unpacking, a feeling of panic triggered inside him.

“I’m unpacking, and all of a sud den, I think, ‘What am I doing? Do I really want to do this?’” Adam reflects. “I became really consumed by doubt and began to panic. I was ready to pack the car up, turn around, and drive seven hours back to Albany. ”

At that moment, a diminutive, fresh out-of-college boy came bounc ing down the hallway and into Adam’s room. His name was Brian Brown. Everything about him emitted ex uberance—a love for life and a love for this path. He was certain that the priesthood was his destiny, and yet he confided in Adam that he, too, was intimidated by the commitment. In fact, he told Adam, he was even a little frightened. It was this moment of shared vulnerability that convinced Adam to stay.

From that day forward, he and Bri an began to bond with their other 22

classmates during a time that marked great spiritual, psychological, and theological growth. Upon embarking on this journey, a Sister in charge of discernment said to Adam, “Put out your hands.”

Adam did as he was told and held out his hands.

“Celibacy is like a glove,” she told him and touched his one hand. “Priesthood is like another glove,” she said and touched his other hand. “And we’re going to see how those gloves fit in the next couple of years.”

That following summer, the group of seminarians went on their first an nual retreat. The drive north took them to a Lake George camp in the Adirondacks. The following day, they traveled further north to Pharaoh Lake in order to “experience God in nature.” After arriving, they split into two groups and were on opposite sides of the frigid lake. That’s when Adam’s group heard what sounded like “a bear howling.” Then the howling grew clearer. It was that of human screams.

“Oh dear God, what is it?”

Thoughts raced through Adam’s mind as he and his group ran around the lake to where the sound was rever berating. When they arrived, they saw Mike—a strong, athletic classmate of theirs—uncontrollably shaken and in tears. He was pointing to the water, saying Brian. Brian.

Brian Brown was gone.

Divers later recovered Brian’s body 25 feet off shore, his slight frame hav ing likely succumbed to hypothermia before being swept under and away.

Adam became overwhelmed with a raw emotion that tested his very faith in God. He wondered how he could serve a God that would take away someone so loved, someone so committed to serving God’s people. The very one who persuaded Adam to continue alongside him on the path to priesthood.

On the ride back to Albany, Adam sat in the passenger’s seat and cried the whole way down I-87. He spent two months in Albany before return ing to the seminary in D.C. What he

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that serves Catholic University in Washington, D.C. The shrine is the largest Roman Catholic church in in North America. (Victoria Lipov)

The late Brian Brown, Father Forno’s dear friend and only classmate from Albany. returned to was a community, one that was growing closer than ever before.

They grieved as one. They bonded as one. They rose as one.

“It was the community that held us together,” Adam said.

It was through this tragedy and rising up as one that Adam could dis cern his future. He was now certain, as certain as Brian had been, that the gloves fit. He would make his prom ises two years later as a priest of the Diocese of Albany.

Upon completion of his pastoral year, and in light of his two years of study as a Carmelite, he was ordained a deacon that May. Because his father was terminally ill, he was ordained a priest just three months later on August 15, 1987. His ordination was celebrated before the eyes of his loved ones—including his 100-year-old paternal grandmother from central Sicily, Maria Grazia Forno.

Throughout his years in the priest hood, Father Forno served parishes in the Capital Region of Albany, spend ing the majority of his ministry in the city of Rensselaer at the parishes of

The Altar of the Dead that Father Forno keeps in his bedroom. St. John the Evangelist and St. Joseph and as a hospice chaplain. He also served as Chaplain to the Rensselaer Police and Fire Departments for two decades while serv ing on many boards in the area as well as the Bethlehem University Foundation Board in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, he rose through the ranks of the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America, serving as Chap lain to the Roma Intangible Lodge #215 in Albany before serving as Chaplain to the Grand Lodge of New York. In 2009, Father Forno became the Order’s National Chap lain, a two-year position that has lasted 12 years, well into his retirement.

“It’s a sense of community,” Father Forno said about the Order. “And in community is where we find recon nection and healing, grace, hope and new life.”

For Father Forno, such words can travel back in time. They can take him back to the community in Washington that helped him discern his calling to the priesthood—the very community that grew out of one tragic death.

And so it remains with him to this day. Every morn ing when he opens his eyes, every night before he closes them, he sets them upon an altar of the dead that he has arranged in his bedroom. Several framed photographs rest upon the altar, among them one of Brian Brown. Taped behind the photograph is a little cross that Brian’s mother had given Father Forno back before he’d put on the gloves of priesthood.

Back when Father was still simply known as Adam.

Miles Ryan Fisher (mfisher@osia.org) is the Editor-in-Chief of Italian America magazine.

A Message from the National Chaplain

From June to December it is Hurricane Season in Florida, where I reside. During this time, we live, as do other vulnerable states, with the potential threat of having our lives upended. Clearly COVID-19 recently upended the world as we collectively endured a “change” that turned our thinking inside out and upside down like a Category Five hurricane. In Greek this change is called “metanoia.” It translates to revolutionizing our way of thinking, acting, and being. Born Raymond Forno, Father Forno adopted the reli gious name “Adam” when it was given In this horrific pandemic we endured to him by the the necessary lock-downs, social disCarmelite Friars. tancing, and economic consequences that we could have never imagined before this havoc occurred. Now following the advent of the coronavirus, and its ongoing threat, our way of thinking, acting, and being must continue to change. Remember when the threat of COVID-19 first appeared how the media reported on hoarding and price gouging? Then we heard in the weeks that followed the stories of everyday heroes who were selflessly sacrificing their lives for the sake of others. Crisis brings this out of us—selfishness or selflessness. Thankfully, today multitudes of these latter folks continue to be generous, courageous, and compassionate. We rely on them for physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being. They remind us that in the process of giving what we can, and receiving what we need, we all build relationships that last. So, it appears to me that this pandemic has helped us remember and return to the reality that we are all connected to one another. We are interdependent and share the bond that makes us one family of humanity under our Creator’s providential care. As such, our responsibilities to one another transcend national, racial, economic, and ideological differences. Brothers and Sisters, during this journey through the COVID-19 pandemic we have drunk from the chalice of shared sorrows and celebrated our joys. As we continue to live with its threat, and the possibility of being upended again, we must commit to the continued call of “metanoia”—changing our way of thinking, acting, and being. It is an opportunity for people of good will, and in particular for members of our Order, to live the dream and destiny God has for each of his creating. Sempre Avanti! Father R. Adam Forno National Chaplain Order Sons & Daughters of Italy in America