America's Largest Catholic Newspaper
Richard Marrano attended Mass every Sunday with his family when he was growing up. “I used to hate going to Church,” he said with a laugh, adding, “I always gave my mother a hard time.”
That all changed when his mother urged him to become an altar server. In seventh grade, he said, he discovered a great role model in Father Robert Grippo, the pastor of St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus in the Bronx, the parish where he grew up. “Looking at him, how reverent he was, I remember as a kid that I had a tremendous admiration of him and the priesthood,” he said.
During his discernment process, he had to overcome a few obstacles. “Just because we dress different doesn’t mean we don’t have the same struggles,” he said. “I was always used to working for myself, I was very independent,” he said.
“God has put me on a different path and those things pale in comparison to the gifts I’m going to receive as a priest,” he said, adding, “Any challenges that come into my path, I’ve learned something significant about myself.”
Father Marrano, 34, was born in New York City to Ricardo and Rosalie Marrano. He has one sister.
During his years at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, he had good days and bad days. “We are not perfect, but the people deserve someone who is properly trained, we owe it to them,” he said. He continually seeks to develop a deeper prayer life and spends an hour each day in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
“You are dealing with people’s lives; to care for their souls. You can’t shortchange them,” he said.
He said he looks forward to celebrating Mass, and also to conducting the sacrament of reconciliation. “I’ve always wanted to bring Jesus to the people,” he said. In the confessional, a priest hears people pour out their souls and gives them the gift of the mercy of Christ, he said.
“I’ve felt that mercy in my life,” he said. “The fact that Jesus chose me to be his instrument is incredible to me.”
Being ordained as a transitional deacon last September was a high point of his life because it allowed him to perform baptisms, preach, assist in the Mass and counsel people.
As a priest he will be ordained to do all that and much more, and for that he had a firsthand witness of the beauty of the priesthood at a difficult time in his life.
Father Marrano’s grandfather, Vito DiFoglia, 91, died just a few weeks before his ordination. He told CNY that they were very close to each other. On Easter Sunday, Father Marrano went to church and brought the Eucharist to his grandfather. He said he will always remember his grandfather who gave him the chalice he will use when he celebrates Mass.
He was present when a priest came to administer the sacrament of anointing of the sick to his grandfather. “God gave me a window to what he is going to give to me in a month from now,” he told CNY.
“I saw what a priest’s presence can do; he properly prepared my grandfather for death.”
He said, “ I got to witness Jesus pour out his mercy on my grandfather.”
Father Marrano will celebrate his first Mass at St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus in the Bronx on Sunday, May 25, at 2:15 p.m. The homilist will be Father Robert Grippo, pastor of St. Theresa’s.
