DANBURY—“You can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but you can’t take Brooklyn out of the boy,” says Father Angelo Arrando proudly, even though “the boy” has spent the last 27 years in the quiet green hills of Danbury as pastor of St. Gregory the Great Parish.
Father Arrando, who will retire as pastor of St. Gregory’s on August 15, brought far more than his Brooklyn experience to his assignments in this diocese. As a young man working in the business world, he discovered and fell in love with the global vision of the Maryknoll Missioners during a visit to Maryknoll in Ossining, N.Y. He studied at Maryknoll Seminary in Glen Ellyn, Ill., and at Maryknoll, and was ordained to the priesthood at Maryknoll in 1971 by Bishop James E. Walsh, M.M.
“Maryknoll really defined my understanding of the priesthood,” he says. This May, as he marked the 46th anniversary of his ordination, he wrote a message to parishioners expressing the legacy of Maryknoll that he has treasured throughout his priesthood. Among those, he emphasized a global perspective of the universal Church, the importance and strength found in diversity, the universality of God’s love and mercy and the inherent sacredness of humanity created in the image and likeness of God.
Father Arrando spent a dozen years with Maryknoll and was studying at a language school in Korea when his father suffered a stroke. During his year as a transitional deacon, he had served at St. Peter Parish in Danbury and was familiar with this diocese. Following the double imperative to care for his family and minister to God’s people, he became incardinated into the Diocese of Bridgeport, serving first as parochial vicar at St. Aloysius Parish in New Canaan. His next assignment brought him back to St. Joseph’s in Danbury, and he was then assigned to Sacred Heart Parish in Stamford. He also served as spiritual director of the permanent diaconate from 1980-83.
In 1990, he was named pastor of St. Gregory’s by Bishop Edward M. Egan.
“I love these people,” he says. “It really is a family here. I never wanted to leave them, and they know that. Of everything in my 27 years here, leaving is the hardest.”
Father Arrando brought his global outlook of the Church to the people of St. Gregory’s, and they embraced it wholeheartedly. “I challenged the people to grow, to look beyond their comfort zone and discover the universality of God’s love. We had a March for Immigrants in Danbury in 2000, and again in 2001. My parish was wonderful. They were so involved.”
Father Arrando became active in the Association of Religious Communities, which works to promote peace between religions through understanding and love. “We have 20 different denominations and faith groups, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Baha’i—people who are different spiritually. We all belong to God’s family. During tense times, at the Jewish High Holy Days our parishioners provided security for a nearby synagogue.”
While he has scaled back his involvement in the past few years, Father Arrando is pleased to note that many parishioners from St. Gregory are still active in the group. A global perspective of faith will be his continuing legacy in this quiet corner of the diocese.
As he prepares to leave St. Gregory’s, Father Arrando still does not know what he will do next. “I may write, or I may go into teaching in Manhattan, or I might land up in Florida,” he says, willing to follow God’s call beyond his own personal comfort zone.
One thing he does know. “I’m not a person who sits back and does nothing.”
