Learn More About the Lenten Appeal

For 75 years, our Diocese has been built on the faithful service of priests, religious orders, and laity who answered God’s call.  Father Alexander Pleban, now 95, has served our Diocese since its earliest days.  Living at Neumann House for retired priests, he continues to celebrate Mass, share wisdom, and inspire with his deep love for the people he served.  Father Pleban reminds us that although times change, the heart of the priesthood remains the same – being present to God’s people.  Through your gift to the Diocesan Lenten Appeal, you help care for our senior priests in retirement while also forming the next generation of seminarians who will faithfully lead our parishes into the future.

Seventy-five years ago, our grandparents, many of the immigrants, built our parishes after long days in mines, mills, and factories.  From their sacrifice and faith came churches that became the foundation of our communities.  These sacred spaces are where families gathered, sacraments were celebrated, and faith was passed from one generation to the next.  Through your generosity to the Diocesan Lenten Appeal, the Office of Faith, Family, and Discipleship continues this legacy by providing essential faith formation for children, adults, and seniors.  Your gift helps ensure our parishes remain holy places where future generations of your family will gather – in joy, in sorrow, and in faith – just as our ancestors once did.

The first Mass in what would become the Diocese of Greensburg was held in 1754 on the banks of the Monongahela River near Brownsville by French troops marching east to confront George Washington at Fort Necessity, east of Uniontown.  But growth of the Catholic population was limited to the area east of the Allegheny Mountains until the 1840s, when German immigrants began to settle on vast farmlands in Western Pennsylvania.  Immigration boomed between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the beginning of World War I in 1914 as Europeans, carrying their Catholic faith with them, poured into Western Pennsylvania to work in the coal, steel, and coke industries.  After World War II, an economic and population boom boosted the Catholic population.  Pope Pius XII responded to that growth by canonically erecting the Diocese of Greensburg on March 10, 1951.  The vibrancy in our clergy, our religious, our parishes, our schools – it remains after 75 years!