Msgr. Scollen recognized for work with people in need

By William T. Clew | The Catholic Free Press

Msgr. Francis J. Scollen, pastor of St. Peter Parish and St. Andrew the Apostle Mission, will receive the 2018 Madonna Della Strada Award on April 29 at Boston College High School.
The award will be presented by the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, New England, (IVC) to recognize Msgr. Scollen’s 46 years of service and outreach to people in need.
The Madonna Della Strada Award is named after Sancta Maria Della Strada, the first church where St. Ignatius, the founder of the Society of Jesus, and his early Jesuits, based their ministry to serve the urban poor in Rome in the 16th century.
An IVC summary of Msgr. Scollen’s career said that he “is well-known throughout the Worcester community as someone who has improved the Diocese of Worcester’s direct services to the poor, helped combat racial discrimination, and has joined ecumenical efforts for peace and social justice.” St. Peter Parish, including St. Andrew Mission, “is home to the African Catholic community in Worcester.”
The summary cited Msgr. Scollen’s “long record of service to the  Black Catholic community in Worcester. He directed the Urban Ministry Commission in 1972 until the program was phased out in 1989. Then, he approached Bishop (Daniel P.) Reilly and asked that the ministry be restarted. The bishop approved his request and the Black Catholic Ministry began. It includes an annual Gospel Mass, educational activities and the distribution of a Black Catholic calendar.”
 The Thanksgiving program at St. Peter’s, in which Msgr. Scollen has been involved for about 30 years, provides food baskets, including turkeys, to those who come to the parish. In a 2016 news story in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, he estimated that the parish helped about 50 families at Thanksgiving when he arrived at the parish. He estimated that it had grown to more than 500 and included newly arrived immigrants from Burundi, Kenya and Rwanda and from many Latin American countries. He said the people who come to the parish around Thanksgiving for the baskets are needy.
“We have to help them. ... We are doing God’s work here,” he said.
“What’s there to say about Msgr. Scollen?” asked Father John F. Madden, pastor of St. John Parish in Worcester, who is scheduled to be celebrant of the Mass at 4 p.m. before the awards ceremony and buffet at 5 p.m.
Father Madden is a past recipient of the Madonna Della Strada Award and a close friend of Msgr. Scollen.
“He’s just the most extraordinary priest, and he has been for a long time.
“What is most important to Frank, I think, is inclusivity. We’re all brothers and sisters. We’re all God’s children, and there should be nothing that comes between us. We’re all one.
“And that’s how he’s lived his life. That’s how he treats people. There’s a recognizing of people’s uniqueness and their experiences. And that’s how he conducts his ministry. St. Peter’s Parish is a diverse, wild place, but it’s all one. … They’re all one.” Father Madden commented.
Jesuit Father Frederick Enman said, “When I first met Msgr. Frank Scollen I was a senior in high school and he was a very young priest.  To my knowledge he was Worcester’s first “Street Priest” who walked the streets and looked for people in need in order to minister to them.  Although he has gone on to many other positions he has always had the needs of the poor, the marginalized, and the vulnerable close to his cheerful heart.  Msgr. Scollen’s life gives witness to God’s love for all, especially those most in need.”
Father Enman, a Worcester native, founder and executive director of Matthew 25 and assistant dean and chaplain of Boston College Law School, also is a past recipient of the Madonna Della Strada Award. Matthew 25 buys abandoned houses in Worcester and Boston, engages volunteers to renovate them, and rents them to low-income families at a percentage of their income.
Annette Athy Rafferty, founder and former director of Abby’s House, also is a local past recipient of the Madonna Della Strada Award.
Msgr. Scollen was named the Vernon Post, American Legion’s Man of the Year in 1992. In 2010 he received the Eleanor Hawley Community Service Award, presented at the city’s Martin Luther King breakfast. In 2014 he received the Center for Nonviolent Solutions’ Way of Nonviolence Award.
He was born Oct. 11, 1945, in Worcester, the son of Francis J. and Helen M. (Sexton) Scollen.  He graduated from St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, and prepared for the priesthood from 1963 to 1967 at Our Lady of Providence Seminary and, from 1967 to 1971, at St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore.  He was ordained a priest on May 14, 1971 in St. Anthony’s Church, Worcester, by Worcester Bishop Timothy J. Harrington.
He was appointed associate pastor of St. Anthony’s Parish. In June 1972, he was named director of the Urban Ministry Commission with residence at St. John’s Rectory. Its work included ministry to and with Black Catholics and the Black community, including advocacy for correctional change and support of farm workers’ unions. He also was chaplain of the Department of Youth Services from 1972 to 1990.  
In 1977 he was named temporary administrator of St. John’s Parish. In 1984  he was named pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Worcester. In 1989 he was appointed pastor of St. Peter Parish in Worcester.  He was raised to the rank of monsignor by Pope John Paul II on Feb. 2, 1992.
He has had numerous diocesan and community appointments.  He chairs the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and serves on the diocesan Finance Committee and Priests’ Salary Committee.  He also served for 10 years as a commissioner on the Worcester Housing Authority.  
Three others will also receive 2018 Madonna Della Strada Awards. They are Sister Deborah Thompson,  RSM,  and Mary Reilly, founders of Dorcas Place in Providence;  and Jim McCarthy, an eight-year Ignatian Volunteer at Casserly House, the longest serving  IVC volunteer in New England.
According to its website, the IVC, founded by two Jesuit priests in 1993, is a national non-profit service organization that provides men and women, most aged 50 or better, with opportunities to serve others — to address social injustice — and to transform lives.
The IVC provides mature men and women the opportunity to serve the needs of people who are poor, to work for a more just society, and to grow deeper in Christian faith by reflecting and praying in the Ignatian tradition, according to the IVC mission statement.
Ignatian Volunteers, who are recruited and supported by IVC’s regional staff, typically serve two days a week for 10 months a year, and many volunteers renew that commitment year after year. Volunteers spend their time in local service sites that are identified as IVC partner organizations. These community organizations work directly with people who are materially poor or in organizations that address the structures that affect people who are poor. Volunteers tutor, advance literacy skills, help find jobs and housing, provide healthcare and companionship, and work to overcome poverty. They may also engage in counseling, administrative tasks, fund-raising, and more.