New Turf Field Awaits Cardinals - St. Charles Preparatory School

Happy family
Marion E. Smithberger ’72 with wife, Carol Sheehan,
and daughter, Mandy, at his 25th anniversary party at
the Columbus Bar Association.
Former alumni president
studying for diaconate
Marion Smithburger ’72 of Columbus is
studying to become a permanent deacon
in the Columbus Diocese. He began his
journey a year and a half ago and is more
than halfway to his goal after receiving
the Rite of Lector last December. He is
scheduled to receive the Rite of Acolyte
in November. His ordination as deacon
is tentatively scheduled for November-
December of 2008 and currently he’s
doing his internship at St. Peter and at
St. Timothy parishes.
He is on the board and is past president
of the St. Charles Alumni Association.
He’s executive director of the Columbus
Bar Foundation and director of the
lawyer referral service. Marion joined
the Columbus Bar Association (CBA) as
assistant executive director in 1978 and
with the CBF in 1985. He splits his time
with the two groups.
Smithberger has a number of
professional affiliations. He’s a trustee
for The Ohio Center for Law-Related
Education, past president of the Legal Aid
Society of Columbus, and currently serves
as chair of its development committee.
He is a consultant on the American Bar
Association’s peer assistance and review
team. Smithberger is past president of
the ABA’s National Conference of Bar
Foundations and is active with youth
education in his parish of St. Peter.
He and his wife, Carol Sheehan, have
been married 22 years. She is a partner
at the law firm of Carlile Patchen
and Murphy. The couple’s 21 year-old
daughter, Mandy, will be a senior at
The Distinctive Leader in Catholic Education
Smith College.
“Our wives are critical to the formation
process,” Smithberger said. “While they
are not required to be involved, their full
and free consent is required. We could not
do the school work and ministry without
them (picking up additional work at
home).”
Deacon Frank Iannarino ’71, director
of the diocese’s Permanent Diaconate,
notes that the Catholic clergy has three
holy orders: deacon, priest, and bishop.
Once ordained deacon, Smithburger no
longer will be considered a layperson but
a member of the clergy. Unlike the orders
of priest and bishop, the diaconate is open
to married men.
Orthodox leader
Archbishop Lorenzo Casati ’71
Archbishop Casati came
long way to attend 30year
class reunion
Archbishop Lorenzo Casati made quite a
trip to attend his class’ 30-year reunion
last summer. Wanting to “see old friends,
people I’ve known almost all my life,” the
Archbishop of the Orthodox Church said
he extended his annual trip to the U.S. to
attend the event.
After graduating from St. Charles, he
went on to the University of Dayton and
earned a degree in theological studies
with minors in philosophy, history,
and languages (Italian, Spanish, and
English). He continued his studies at the
Athenaeum of Ohio, pursuing a master’s
of arts in biblical studies and in sacred
theology. After teaching a few years he
completed another year of Byzantine
theological studies.
Archbishop Casati was ordained to
the priesthood of the Orthodox Church
in 1983, pastored an old parish in the
Cleveland area, and later founded a
mission in southern Ohio. While visiting
relatives in Italy in late 1989, he was
asked to consider serving the Church
in Italy. He was granted necessary
permission of his bishop in the U.S., and
then moved to Italy in early 1990.
“In Italy,” he said, “I travel around
helping out in various parishes, spending
several months in Rome serving there
in the Russian Orthodox Church. I also
support myself doing demographic,
historical, and genealogical research
in old archives up and down the length
of Italy. This gave me many wonderful
opportunities to know the country, hone
my language skills, meet people and
publish the results of my research,” he
said.
Archbishop Casati said that in those
early and subsequent years, he also spent
a lot of time in England and Ireland and
traveled elsewhere in Europe.
After founding a mission in Palermo,
Sicily, he was consecrated bishop in 1996
and is now Archbishop of Palermo and
All-Italy for the Ukrainian Autocephalous
Orthodox Church. “The title may be
impressive, but the responsibilities
are many and our financial resources
are extremely limited,” he explained.
“We have many faithful -- Italians,
Romanians, Serbs, Ukrainians and
others, but very few structures and not
enough clergy!
“As all my priests and their wives
have secular jobs, I, too, support myself,
working as a certified English teacher,
teaching the language at a local high
school and part-time at the University of
Palermo. I also care for a small diocese in
the U.S. which has four mission parishes,”
he said.
The Archbishop credits the academic
preparation he received at St. Charles
in providing him an excellent basis for
his subsequent studies and for living in
Europe, whose cultural and historical
milieu he says require “a level of cultural
appreciation not generally available in
most American schools.”
“Their acute interest in our education
and the knowledge that they imparted
defy comparison. Monsignor Bennett is
especially to be thanked for helping us to
acquire knowledge on our own by teaching
us proper research and study methods.
I have often said to family and friends
that, after my four years at St. Charles,
university and graduate school came
easy.”
The Archbishop has two brothers
who attended St. Charles: One brother,
Mark J. ’73 , lives in Connecticut and
another brother Christopher G. attended
St. Charles from 1971-1973 but had to
complete high school in Findlay as the
Casati parents moved there at the end of
his sophomore year.