The eleven counties of Northeastern Pennsylvania, which comprise the Diocese, became conspicuous very early on, for their ethnic diversity. There was hardly a country in Eastern or Western Europe not represented. All the Catholic groups brought a deep faith, and were determined to enhance the Diocese’s physical plant, by constructing magnificent houses of worship, not to mention parochial schools. During the administration of Scranton’s second Bishop, Michael J. Hoban (1899-1926), however, ethnic problems, which he did nothing to cause, became a reality. It was Bishop Hoban’s wise and charitable handling of the problem that prevented a schism from reaching national epic proportions.

     The decade of Bishop Thomas C. O’Reilly’s tenure, 1928-1938, witnessed the economic ravages of the Depression. Known as a strong administrator, he tried his very best to minimize the effects of financial hardship on the ever-increasing number of parishes, institutions and religious communities, and experienced a fair bit of success. His Coadjutor, Bishop William J. Hafey (who had formally served as Ordinary in Raleigh, North Carolina), succeeded to the See of Scranton on Bishop O’Reilly’s death. An enormously competent man, Bishop Hafey presided over the Diocese during the years of the Second World War, and the subsequent post-war inflation. This pastorally oriented man had an amazing foresight about him, and saw clearly the Diocese’s future needs in education, health care, youth activities, and, as always, the foundation of new parishes. His "House of Charity" proved a very successful fund raiser, and as the twenty-first century emerges, the Diocese still reaps the benefits of an exceptionally insightful Prelate.

     The vacancy caused by Bishop Hafey’s death in 1954 was filled with the appointment of Jerome D. Hannan. A scholar, professor of Canon Law at Catholic University of America, and co-author of a two-volume study of the same, Bishop Hannan was a devoted academic. At the same time, this Pittsburgh native was to build the Chancery 

St. Peter's Cathedral

Building in Scranton, and a theologate (later changed to a college seminary) dedicated to the Diocese’s patron, Saint Pius X, and located in Dalton, Pennsylvania. During Bishop Hannan’s tenure, his holiness Pope John XXIII would convoke the Second Vatican Council, a renewal of the entire church. In the four years of its active workings, Bishop Hannan never missed a session. He would die in the Eternal City of Rome in December, 1965, just as this world-shaking event had drawn to its conclusion.

     Scranton’s seventh Bishop, John J. O’Connor, was to become the Cardinal Archbishop of New York. A retired naval Admiral, who had been an auxiliary Bishop in the Military Ordinate, his less than nine month stay in Scranton won him the acclaim of all sectors of society, and allowed him opportunity to convoke the Second Diocesan Synod. His transferal to New York facilitated the naming of Auxiliary Bishop James C. Timlin, the only Diocesan native to become Ordinary, as Scranton’s eighth shepherd in 1984.

     Bishop Timlin, a native of Holy Rosary Parish in North Scranton, would be in office during the one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary of the creation of the Diocese. In addition to bringing the Diocesan Synod to a successful conclusion, the Bishop had implemented a greatly successful plan of parish mergers, brought about by the unfortunate (and nationwide) shortage of Catholic clergy. In the area of Catholic education, the Bishop was faced with declining enrollments and escalating costs. By means of regional mergers, construction of modern facilities, innovative fund raising efforts, and a more equitable sharing of operating costs between families, parishes and the Diocese, a financial crisis has been successfully met. This, in addition to the "Bishop’s Annual Appeal," to meet funding for retired priests, seminarians, media efforts and evangelization, has singled out Bishop Timlin’s administration for its financial acumen and strong pastoral sensitivity.

     There was great joy in the Diocese of Scranton in the fall of 2001, when Bishop Timlin, joined by his Diocesan Presbyterate, celebrated his golden jubilee of priestly ordination and his silver jubilee of Episcopal ordination.  In less than a year, having reached the required age for Bishops to submit their resignations to the Holy See, His Excellency dutifully complied.  It was a curious and difficult time in the history of the Universal Church , and scores of American dioceses needed to be filled.  It would be an entire year before Bishop Timlin received official word that his resignation had been accepted, and he could begin the somewhat more leisurely pace of life his over half century of work for the Church had surely earned for him.  

     In the person of his successor, Philadelphia Auxiliary Bishop Joseph F. Martino, the Diocese received a shepherd of the highest intellectual, spiritual and personal gifts.  Blessed with an extraordinarily down to earth, outgoing manner, Joseph Martino was born in Philadelphia on May 1, 1946, the son of Rose Devlin Martino and the late Joseph F. Martino, Sr.  On his father’s side, he was the grandson of Italian immigrants from Calabria.  His mother was born in Ballinderry, County Derry, Northern Ireland, some twenty miles north of Belfast.  

     The Bishop was raised in Saint Columba’s Parish, North Philadelphia, graduated Saint Joseph ’s Preparatory School run by the Jesuit Fathers, and entered Saint Charles Seminary, Overbrook, to study for the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  His theological studies took him to the North American College in Rome, and upon their completion, he was ordained to the Sacred Priesthood on December 18, 1970, in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome, by the College's then Rector, Bishop James A. Hickey, later Cardinal-Archbishop of Washington.  

     The young Father Martino’s parochial assignments in his native Archdiocese included assistant pastorates at Epiphany of Our Lord Church in Philadelphia and Our Lady of Grace in Penndel.  He would return to Rome for graduate studies in Church History in 1977 and was awarded his Doctorate after the completion and successful defense of his dissertation on Philadelphia 's Second Archbishop, Patrick John Ryan, who served from 1884 until 1911.  One of the immediate advantages accruing from his historical studies was his natural talent for scholarly research - a talent quickly put to use as he immersed himself in the life and times of Mother Katharine Drexel, foundress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (for Indians and Colored People), and heiress to an enormous Philadelphia banking fortune.  It was Father Martino who presented the official “positio,” which he compiled from the multi-volume collection of her writings and testimony given by her contemporaries.  This task would take two years to complete and would make him the unquestioned authority on Philadelphia 's second saint.  

     The future Bishop’s career would take him back to the institution where his priestly studies began, Saint Charles Seminary in Overbrook.  There he would become assistant professor of Church History and dean of formation in the theology division.  During these years he would also distinguish himself for his work in ecumenism and interreligious dialogue.  His selection as an auxiliary Bishop in Philadelphia came as no surprise to those who had known and closely followed his very distinguished career.  

     Upon his installation as Scranton ’s ninth Bishop on October 1, 2003, it was remarked by many who knew him that he was a man of the Church, a man who truly loved his priesthood.  He showed great reverence for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and devotion to Our Lady.  He sincerely emulates Pope John Paul II in all he does.  The Scranton Diocese has been very richly blessed.

                                                   Reverend Charles P. Connor, Ph.D.
                                                         Diocesan Historian