Father Rich Pagano: Making his way home

Palm Coast Observer
Neighbors

Rich Pagano, 31, sat at a high-top table in the rectory at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, sipping Keurig-brewed coffee out of a yellow “Despicable Me” mug. Having recently moved in, he wasn’t able to find the light switch; instead, Pagano opened the blinds to let in a little God-made light. He started talking about his journey.

Hoop dreams

After graduating from Flagler Palm Coast High School in 2000, Pagano moved to New Jersey, where he attended community college with the intentions to play basketball. He had been playing with torn ligaments in his knee for a couple of years at that point, and the coach told him to be serious about the team; he needed to take care of himself by getting the surgery he needed. He did. And he got back on the courts too early. Then, Pagano blew out his other knee.

His hopes of going back to basketball were shattered.

“For me, the doorways that were my dreams closed and I was in darkness,” he said. “There was no sunlight — and I said in prayer, ‘Jesus, if you’re there, I’m doing everything wrong, and I need your help.’”

One day during his rehab, Pagano noticed a Bible on his kitchen counter, a Bible he said he had never seen before. He crutched his way to the counter and back to his room where he opened to the book of Ecclesiastes.

“So many of my ambitions were rooted in superficial desires. While reading the scriptures, my heart was calmed, and love began to fill me,” Pagano said. “So many of my wounds I was carrying up to that point were healed.”

On a date to church

From there, at 20 years old, Pagano started on a journey to explore how deep faith can go; a journey that brought him back to church through the doors of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. A place he used to fight his mom, tooth-and-nail, about going when in high school. Walking back in those doors started a ripple effect in Pagano’s life.

Eventually he ran into his high school crush, while taking classes at what was then Daytona Beach Community College, and asked her out. Her response was that they should go to church. Pagano went to Santa Maria del Mar, excited to see her, never having gone to church on a date before. She did not show. The scriptures went by and the gospels went by, and he was not paying attention. All Pagano could think about was that he got stood up at Mass. Until the priest began to preach.

“The way he was preaching caught my attention — it felt like he was preaching directly to me,” Pagano said. “I watched him interact with such an authentic joy.”

That morning led to attending weekly Mass at Santa Maria and also working with the youth group. Eventually, Pagano was offered a position as the youth director and then a full-time position at the church. Over that time, he fell in love with the church and learned a lot about priesthood through the Rev. John Tetlow.

A difficult decision

Never thinking that priesthood would be his calling, Pagano continued on, taking more classes at DSC and entering into a committed relationship with a woman named Anne. This was around the same time that Pope John Paul II was dying and Pagano was reading a lot of his teachings.

“He was such an incredible witness of the love of God,” Pagano said. “I was so moved to say to Anne that God is calling out to people like me. It was a very difficult moment in our relationship.”

One morning, he woke up and knew God was calling him to the priesthood, a calling that would not allow him to marry.

“I had think, ‘Do I want to be a celibate man?’” he recalled. The decision impacted others, as well.

“Here I am, in a committed relationship, in love with Anne and she’s in love with me,” he said. “I had to go study and discern if this is an authentic call from God. It was very difficult to bring an end to our relationship.”

Back to Mother Seton

That was the start of Pagano’s eight years of transformation. Now, having graduated from the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University, in Omaha, Neb., in 2008, and St. Vincent DePaul, in Boynton Beach, this year, Pagano has been sent back home to the church that started it all, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, where he is full-time as parochial vicar and also has part-time responsibilities at St. Joseph High School, in St. Augustine.

“To be home with my family is something that I was not expecting but something that I’m very grateful for. I don’t know if it’s my Italian blood that desires family time, but I am a family man,” he said. “I have missed my family so much over the past years, so to have the opportunity now to come back and be close with them, as well as in the context of my role now as priest, is a huge blessing for me as well as my family.”

Pagano’s mother and stepfather, Ellen and Jack Morgan, live in Palm Coast, as well as his sister Jeanelle Pagano, brother Thomas Morgan, grandparents Frank and Ellen Proscia and cousins, the Mahers.

“The Lord has brought me all around the world, and I have been overjoyed to serve Him in every capacity,” Pagano said. “I feel ready to meet the community here in Flagler County with love, affection and the gospel, the good news. I’m very excited about bringing the good news to where I grew up.”