PROFILE: Archbishop Joseph Marino ’75
The Call of a Lifetime
An archbishop is called upon to lead the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome, his other alma mater, only the second American to be assigned the post.
He’d gotten many calls during his career, several from the Vatican, that would change the course of his life. Still, this took him aback. Pope Francis was appointing him to the presidency of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome, which trains the Holy See’s diplomats. The Academy meant a lot to Archbishop Joseph Marino ’75, as it was where he was trained, and he would be only the second American ever assigned to this post. “It was a real surprise,” he said soon after the announcement was made public on Oct. 11, 2019. “I wasn’t aware that this was going to be proposed and given. It’s going to be a completely new type of work for me.” Modest and soft-spoken, Archbishop Marino recently expressed his excitement about the new position, which he began at the start of the new year, after six years as apostolic nuncio to Malaysia and East Timor and apostolic delegate to Brunei. Pope Benedict XVI had named him first nuncio to Malaysia in 2013. The call meant he would be going back to Italy. Italian is his most fluent language, after English, and his grandparents emigrated from Sicily long ago. This was all a comfort as he prepared for his new role, but the transition wouldn’t be easy. Experience had taught him that. 32
THE SCRANTON JOURN A L
From Birmingham to Scranton After high school in Birmingham, Alabama, the devout Catholic was sent to the Diocese of Scranton’s St. Pius X Seminary in Dalton, which closed its doors nearly 30 years later due to low enrollment. At the time, though, there were more than a hundred seminarians, a couple dozen of whom attended The University of Scranton. He hadn’t known what to expect at Scranton when he had arrived in 1971. “You get used to the cold weather. That’s one thing you have to get used to,” said Archbishop Marino, laughing. “When I saw it snow in May one year, I said ‘Oh! Where am I?’” Although most of his time was spent with his friends from the seminary, he got to know the other Scranton students at lunch and between classes. The University was “well-disciplined,” he said, and had a “wonderful spirit.” “Scranton gave me a wonderful foundation for all that was going to happen in my life,” he said. “I look back on that and really appreciate what the community gave, the University, the church there, the seminary. It was really outstanding.”
