The 2024 diocesan Catholic Man of the Year, Henry Szabo, said he’s happy to spend about 30 hours a week volunteering as sacristan and with other duties at Hilliard St. Brendan the Navigator Church because of inspiration he receives from many people.
After receiving the honor from Bishop Earl Fernandes at the Catholic Men’s Luncheon Club meeting at Columbus St. Patrick Church on Friday, Feb. 2, Szabo said that when people ask him why he does so much for his parish, he replies, “Because I can,” noting that he has the time for volunteer work because he is retired and there are unfulfilled needs at the church.
He said his inspiration comes from many sources, including “a mom or dad bringing their five young children to a Saturday Mass; a wife weekly assisting her husband into church and back to the car, regardless of the weather; a gentleman with stage 4 cancer coming to Sunday Mass; a non-Catholic wife bringing and picking up her husband for daily Mass; teenagers coming to the 6:30 a.m. Mass; (and) my best friend, Don, who gave up everything to be the caretaker for his ailing wife.”
He said other inspiration comes from “my wife (of 37 years, Kelly), a registered nurse who went to work every day during the COVID pandemic; my son (Paul, 35), who chose a career in law enforcement and made lieutenant in the Columbus Division of Police in about 11 years, and my daughter (Ashlyn, 27, an occupational therapist in New Hampshire), who at age 13 was diagnosed with diabetes.
“She pushed the technician to complete 10 required training sessions in two days so that on the day of discharge, we went directly to the softball field where she participated in a tournament game,” he said.
Szabo said that even while doing so much at church, he wondered whether he was doing God’s will. “Maybe (in) being named the 2024 Catholic Man of the Year, God has acknowledged the fact that I do desire to please Him,” he said.
Szabo, 71, an instituted member of the ministry of acolyte, assists at nearly all the parish’s 16 scheduled weekly Masses as well as funeral Masses. He also trains altar servers and masters of ceremonies and is an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist, lector and usher at the parish and helps at food pantries in Hilliard and Belleville, near Mansfield.
“I began working more closely in the church in June of 2021, just after life started becoming more normal after COVID,” he said a few days before receiving the award. “I had just retired from working in information technology at OhioHealth. I already had been involved at church to some degree. People were slowly coming back to church, and I was attending some weekday Masses anyway, so I just thought I’d help because now I had the time to do more.
”One of the best things about being sacristan is that you’re usually so close to the altar and the Eucharist,” Szabo said. “It makes me feel that much closer to Jesus.
“Maybe the best part other than that is working with the seventh- and eighth-graders who are lectors at Masses, the grade school students who serve weekday Masses and the high school students who are masters of ceremonies at Sunday Masses. I get the chance to teach them reverence and respect for the Eucharist which I hope will continue through their lives.”
“I got involved with the Belleville pantry kind of by accident,” he said. “I was taking food to Lutheran Social Services and some other places in Columbus. One day a year or so ago, I was going to lunch with a nephew in Mount Vernon and while driving along State Route 3 in Belleville, I saw a sign for a pantry there. I had some cereal with me and dropped it off there, got to talking with the people at the pantry about what they needed, and I’ve been going there ever since between two and four times a month.”
He also delivers food to Resurrection Lutheran Church in Hilliard and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Columbus, which his wife attends.
“A few years ago, it occurred to me that I had all I needed to eat and it was a shame some people had to go hungry, so I started working with pantries,” he said.
“Winning this award caught me totally by surprise. I had no idea I was being considered. I was looking stuff up on the computer one evening in mid-January when Joe Testa from the luncheon club called to congratulate me and that’s the first I knew about it.”
During his luncheon talk, Szabo said he is frequently reinforced by comments from people who notice him performing small gestures of reverence. “God always seems to put me in the right place at the right time with the ability to handle the situation,” he said,
One of those gestures is his wearing of faith-related ties for more than 20 years. “It is my small way of evangelizing,” he said. “I am amazed as to the number of favorable comments I receive at church and outside of church” about the ties.
Szabo’s talk was preceded by comments from Father Bob Penhallurick, pastor of St. Brendan Church, and Deacon Doug Morris, who also serves the parish.
The luncheon took place on the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus and Father Penhallurick said the description in that day’s Gospel of Simeon, who first proclaimed in the Temple that Jesus was the Messiah, also could fit Szabo. St. Luke calls Simeon “a “man who was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.”
Deacon Morris described Szabo as “the center of the parish” and said that he provided great help in making sure St. Brendan’s three priests and three deacons are working together in pursuing the parish goals.
“He greets everybody before Mass and people ask him questions before they ask us because he usually has the answer,” he said. “He helps bring everything together every time he’s there.”
Szabo was chosen from among six nominees for the Catholic Man of the Year award by representatives from the Catholic Men’s Luncheon Club, Young Catholic Professionals, the Catholic Men’s Ministry, the Knights of Columbus and the Serra Club.
The other nominees were Jeffrey Gardner of Columbus St. Catharine Church; Thom Lisk of Columbus St. Patrick Church; Ralph Melcher of Portsmouth Holy Redeemer Church; Joe Tapcsi of Danville St. Luke Church and James Vonau of the New Albany Church of the Resurrection.
The club established the honor in 1957, awarding it to John Igoe of Columbus St. Agatha Church, and presented it every year through 2020. No 2021 award was presented because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2023 recipient was Dr. Eric Yang of Columbus St. Peter Church.
