A shepherd who radiates God’s love

 Humble, compassionate, faith-filled, devoted.

These are all words parishioners at St. Patrick Parish in Providence use to describe their former pastor, Bishop James Ruggieri.

“He just touches you. It’s like it’s magical. He gives you this feeling, this cuddly, cuddly feeling, and you don’t want to let it go. I am almost in mourning that he is going,” says Eileen Soltys, a parishioner from Providence.

“He just radiates God’s love. The first thing you notice about him is God’s love, and he makes that known to all whom he encounters, and that just draws you closer to the Church,” says Veronica Seda, who works at St. Patrick Academy in Providence. “He is what a priest should be.”

“We’re so happy for him,” says Vilma Corsi, age 90, a parishioner from Cranston. “I said, ‘Father, remember this, you’re going to be a pope in years to come.’ I won’t be here. I’ll be up in heaven, but I’ll be saying, ‘See Father, I told you.’”

Parishioners say it was with a mixture of rejoicing and regret that they received the news that their pastor had been named the new bishop of Portland. While they say they think Pope Francis made the right choice, they know it is a loss for them and their parish.

“He is the best you would ever want to meet. You are stealing our man,” says Father Joseph Brice, who served as parochial vicar under then-Father Ruggieri and succeeded him as pastor. “From the time I was in seminary, he was my role model, the man that I wanted to be like, and I was very blessed to be assigned with him for three and a half years. It has been the time of my life.”

“We cried for weeks when we got the news. We said, ‘Father, are you kidding? Can you tell him no?’” says Soltys. “Maine is getting an incredible, incredible bishop. We can’t explain it to you. He is like God walking on earth. He really and truly is. He helps everybody.”
 

Prior to becoming bishop, then-Father Ruggieri served at St. Patrick Parish for the past 20 years and St. Michael Archangel Parish, also in Providence, for the past four. Both parishes are known for welcoming people from different cultures, backgrounds, and situations. Established by Irish immigrants, St. Michael is now home to a multiethnic community, most especially people originally from Haiti and the Dominican Republic. St. Patrick has active English-speaking and Spanish-speaking members who came from countries throughout Latin America.

St. Patrick is also known for its outreach to the community through its food ministries. The parish has a food pantry, a meal kitchen that serves dinner every Monday, and a food truck that goes out onto the streets of Providence on two other days. Then-Father Ruggieri was often the man behind the wheel.

“He loves working with the poor. When he comes down here on Monday nights, he goes around talking to all the people, and he makes them feel so special,” says Linda Corry of Chapatchet, who has volunteered in the food ministry for 12 years.

“He’s got a genuine love for the poor and the needy, but it’s more than social work, which is wonderful in itself. He has a care for their souls as well, and he has demonstrated that his whole life,” says Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Robert Evans of Providence. “He really lives what he preaches.”

The food truck ministry was inspired by a parishioner who, on Thanksgiving 2018, invited then-Father Ruggieri to join her and some friends in distributing food to residents of Crossroads Rhode Island, the state’s leading provider of housing and homeless services.

“I thought, ‘Wow, this is great,’” he says. “And just going on the spontaneity of the Spirit, I said, ‘Let’s go out in January and February on Fridays and distribute food.’”

They parked a van on a street corner and did just that. After pausing for Lent, he talked with a benefactor of St. Patrick Academy, the parish’s high school, about using some leftover funds to buy a food truck.

“We wrapped it in a particular kind of wrap that shows Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, and Our Lady of Guadalupe, and we called the ministry Project Emmanuel,” Bishop Ruggieri says.

The truck now goes out every Friday and Sunday, stopping at the same locations at the same times so that people know where and when to find it.

“The ideal would be to solve the problem of food insecurity and have people have access to food more regularly, but I think, as a parish, this helps us to do something very practical, very concrete that does make an impact,” says Bishop Ruggieri. “I see it as a win-win. We’re winning by being able to serve, and hopefully, our dear people who we’re serving are winning because they’re getting good food.”

Such is his commitment to feeding the hungry that Bishop Ruggieri’s coat of arms includes a depiction of the five loaves and two fish that Jesus multiplied to feed five thousand men and those accompanying them.

“Attending to the poor, feeding the hungry, has been an important part of my pastoral ministry over the years. I know it’s different as a bishop. You can’t get as involved at the parish level, but I think a vibrant Church needs active social ministry on both the parish level and the diocesan level, so that symbol captures a lot for me. We always have to be mindful of the poor and try our best to help alleviate some of their plight,” he says.

St. Patrick Parish also has Courage and Encourage groups, which minister to people with same-sex attraction and their families. It offers Mass in American Sign Language. And it has an active SPRED (Special Religious Development) program, serving adults and children with developmental disabilities. The parish was honored in 2018 with the Loyola Press Opening Doors Parish Award for welcoming people with disabilities into the life of the Church.

Under then-Father Ruggieri’s leadership, the parish also founded St. Patrick Academy in 2009. With the parish’s elementary school facing closure, he and some parishioners led an effort to transform it into a high school. He says that while Providence has a high quality, independent Catholic high school, it is financially out of reach for many inner-city families.

“Myself and other leaders in the school community felt that there was a need for an affordable Catholic high school model,” he says.

Bishop Ruggieri admits he had no idea what that would entail, but he says his goal was to just get the doors open and get donations to run it. On average, students attending St. Patrick Academy pay only $1,200 a year, but no one is turned away for financial reasons.

“The mission of the school is really what sells it to donors. They see the work that the school does, providing that college prep education and human formation that prepares students for the next steps in their lives, kids who would not have had a chance to attend a Catholic school,” he says.

Bishop Ruggieri says he is a firm believer in the importance of Catholic education, saying it helps young people to realize their dignity as persons created in the image and likeness of God, it gives them positive interaction with the Church, and it provides an opportunity for evangelization.

“When they’re out in secular society, they’re going to hear a variety of opinions and ideologies, but we’re going to tell them the truth,” he says. “I want to help them to be thinkers, not just people who regurgitate information back but people who think and process.”

While money must be raised each year in order for the academy to remain open, this year’s graduating class is its 11th, and all of the graduates have been accepted at colleges.

“I think we have momentum now,” says Bishop Ruggieri. “Money follows the mission.”

 “I think people look at what he represents and how he represents it, and the flock follows him. They really do,” says John Ruggieri, Bishop Ruggieri’s brother, who serves on the school’s advisory board. “He’s always targeted those most in need. He’s always looked to where he could be of greatest service.”

That was something instilled in all four Ruggieri brothers by their parents, John and Irene, as well as their grandparents, who lived next door.

“I am not saying it was Leave it to Beaver, but we had stability. We had a house where values and principles were taught to us. We had faith,” Bishop Ruggieri says.

“‘Nonni’ and ‘Pop’ are what we called our grandparents, and every Saturday at 5 p.m., they would go to Holy Angels Church and sit in the same pew. I remember my grandfather sitting outside on a cement table shaving every Saturday at 3 p.m. He would take the white Impala out of the garage at 4 p.m., and my grandmother would come out, and they would go,” says John. “That was an important aspect of their lives, which became our lives.”

The brothers say their father, who died in 2002, particularly influenced his sons by the way he lived his life.

“He was a man of great integrity, honesty, hard work, a man of faith devoted to his family. All the good qualities you would want to find in a man were present,” says Bishop Ruggieri.

At times, Bishop Ruggieri’s father worked three jobs, including one as a bank branch manager. In those days, that carried the responsibility of determining whether to give someone a loan.

“My father would tell me that he could talk with someone and know right away if they were not telling the truth. And at other times, he could tell, yes, this person is sincere. He had this really strong intuition that helped him be a good banker,” says Bishop Ruggieri.

“He looked at the quality of the person, rather than the red tape,” says John.

Hard work was a family trait. Their grandfather ran an engine that transported bricks from a brickyard. Their mother stayed at home and took care of all the shopping, cooking, and cleaning. Their Uncle Aniello “Chips” Ruggieri was an ironworker who later owned his own steel company. Bishop Ruggieri remembers working for him two summers to help pay for college.

“It was the best-paying job I ever had but the hardest work I had ever done,” he says. “We were members of the union at the time. Local 37, which was the union, had their anniversary, and they asked me to go. I was the only priest that was a member of Ironworkers Local 37.”

John Ruggieri says, from a young age, you could tell there was something special about his youngest brother. Take, for instance, their experiences on the basketball court.

“He was the only Ruggieri brother who, if he knocked you down, he would stop and help you get up,” John says.

He says his family wasn’t surprised when James told them he wanted to be a priest.

“We were all so happy, and tried and true, he never wavered. He never, never wavered. It just got stronger and stronger,” says John.

When his brother was ordained to the priesthood, he remembers thinking that wherever his brother went, he would have a positive impact on people. He says that is what happened in Rhode Island and what he anticipates will happen now that he is bishop of Portland.

“We were all very proud, obviously. We were just in shock for a week or two. Then, it wore off, and we said that it makes all the sense in the world,” says John. “There is no one more deserving than him, even though I know I’m totally biased.”

“I think it’s great because he is a good priest,” says Irene Ruggieri, Bishop Ruggieri’s mother. 

Mrs. Ruggieri admits, however, that it was difficult to learn that her son would be leaving.

“I said, ‘Why do you have to go to Maine? It’s far away. I live here, and that’s far away,’” she says.

While parishioners say they, too, were saddened to see him leave, they won’t forget the impact he has had on their lives.

“I lost two sons, and when my second son had pancreatic cancer, he came to my house four times, and he told me, ‘Linda, if you need me during the night or whatever, just call.’ That is the kind of priest he is, and I have never forgotten that. I always say that God brought him here at a time when He knew I was going to need him,” says Corry..

“He has been such an influence on my son. He was about 8 or 9 years old when he started altar serving, and he still serves at the altar [at age 21]. He always says that Father is his inspiration,” says Seda. “Nowadays, when it is so dark outside, when you’re able to see God’s light, it’s just very special. How does he bring that light? It’s innate in him. It’s just naturally in him.”

“He just has a genuine heart. Actions speak louder than words, and he has proven that,” says Diane Silvestri of Cranston.

“He tries to solve every problem there is. He knows he can’t do it, but he’s going to try to solve it. He is a great soul, really, deeply,” says Buddy Quinn, a parishioner from Providence.

“He is such a good priest, and he has a love for parishioners,” says Lorraine Rita Cournoyer, the secretary at St. Patrick Parish. “On the practical side of it, he is organized, and he can see the big picture. He doesn’t miss the details. His skills are good. His personality is great, and his big heart runs it all.”