Monsignor Thomas J. Caroluzza

1931 - 2015

Monsignor Thomas J. Caroluzza

Virginia Beach - Monsignor Thomas J. Caroluzza, 83, retired priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond, died on Tuesday, February 24, 2015, in Virginia Beach.

There is a saying among storytellers, often repeated over the years from the pulpit by Father Tom:

"All stories are true. And some of them actually happened."

Thomas Joseph Caroluzza was born June 9, 1931, in Crum Lynne, Pennsylvania, to Gennaro ("Gennai") and Julia (Fizzano) Caroluzza, 3 years following the birth of his sister, Jeanne.

He grew up amongst a throng of aunts, uncles and cousins, taking, among other things, from his mother a sense of gracious propriety, and from his father a love of food and hospitality.

He attended St. Rose of Lima (pronounced like the bean) elementary and St. James High School for Boys, in Chester. He talked his parents into buying a corner grocery store so that they could earn money to pay for him go to college. He had learned all there was to know about this by watching his grandmother run her own store when he was a young child.

He enrolled at Mount St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, graduating four years later as a high school English teacher. By that time he had discerned a vocation to the priesthood, and entered the seminary at Mount St. Mary's in pursuit of that calling. Because he hadn't been in the seminary college prior, Tom was required to "catch up" with his seminary classmates by spending two semesters studying Greek and philosophy. It was a lost year.

He then completed four years in the major seminary in preparation for ministry as a diocesan priest. Those were the days when there was a "surplus of vocations," particularly in the north, and Tom went looking for a diocese in need of clergy, most of which were in the south and west. He heard about the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, and the apostolate of "mission bands," where priests travelled rural areas of the state pulling a trailer that could be set up as a speaker's platform, with a public address system, to promote what might have been called a revival ministry of the Catholic church in the mountains of Virginia. It appealed to his idealism and sense of romance. Tom signed up for Richmond.

Tom was ordained in 1958, the same year Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was elected pope, who, as John XXIII, in January of 1959 announced the convening of what came to be called Vatican Council II. So Tom's early years in ministry coincided with an era of enormous change in the Roman Catholic church, dubbed by now-Saint John 23 as the "aggiornamento," loosely translated, "bringing up to date," of a community whose theretofore most recent serious self-examination and reform had taken place during the Council of Trent, 400 years before.

He began his journey in ministry at St. Rita's, Alexandria, under the tutelage of Msgr. Emmett Gallagher, a survivor of tuberculosis who emerged from the marginalized world in which TB patients lived back in the day to become an exemplary curate of souls to priests and many others on the "outs" with whatever establishment they previously happened to have been related. This awakened in Tom a particular sympathy for outsiders that never left him. His most memorable piece of feedback at St. Rita's came early on, from a middle-age female parishioner who, after he had delivered himself of his most authoritative, magisterial pastoral wisdom, cocked her head, looked him in the eye, and said, "Oh, father, you are VERY young . . .." At St. Rita's he established friendships that lasted his lifetime.

In 1960, he was invited, by another of the unique (some would have said, "crazy") visionary priests of the diocese, Msgr. Chet Michael, to join the faculty of the about-to-be-opened St. John Vianney high school seminary, on the James River in Goochland County. For the next six years he served as the school's English department, where he opened the minds of several hundred young men to the world of language, of literature, and of meaning. Their appreciation and gratitude remains to this day.

In 1966, he was named principal of Norfolk Catholic High School, a position for which he lacked the requisite credentials, but which he was allowed to take on condition that he obtain a master's degree within a prescribed period of time. He got the degree, completing his thesis about three minutes prior to the commencement ceremonies, a scenario that became thematic for the rest of his life in ministry.

His influence on the lives of Catholic High students from the sixties is testified to by the number and range of people all over Hampton Roads who, when Tom's name is mentioned, say fondly! -- "he was MY principal . . .."

As coordinator of the regional Catholic school in Portsmouth, his consolidation plan kept the option of Catholic education viable for parishioners in Portsmouth and Chesapeake through a time when many schools were closing due to financial problems. Forty-five years later, the school continues to thrive.

Tom's stint in education came to a close when he was appointed a pastor, first of Holy Angels, in the Cradock neighborhood of Portsmouth, and then, in 1971, as the founding pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, in the Churchland area of Portsmouth.

It was at Resurrection that Tom first hit his stride pastoring a community in the vigorous spirit of Vatican II. This was especially the case in the realm of liturgy and, in parallel with that, architecture ("the building is the container; the church is the people"), Christian formation, and involvement and empowerment of the laity in the ministries of the church.

His involvement was first local, then broad. He saw himself in the context of the diocesan church, to which he contributed much, and of an American experience that had something unique to contribute to the universal church, but always rooted in the parish as the place where faith is caught, lived out, and celebrated.

Perhaps a legacy of his father, hospitality was for Tom the highest duty and pleasure in life. He used to joke that, "for Italians, the only mortal sin is running out of food." He found solid scriptural backing for this, and never missed an opportunity to share a meal, put out a spread, invite the world to his table.

Beneath the parish, he believed that small communities were key to personal spiritual growth and renewal.

He was deeply involved in the movement to reintroduce the catechumenate to the life of the Roman Catholic community.

In the era when many faith communities agonized over mission statements, Tom's friend Jim Dunning used to ask the clarifying question, "Does the church have a mission? Or does the mission have a church?"

Tom's answer, always, was the latter.

He believed that a parish budget was its mission statement, and that a community interested only in self-nurture was missing the boat.

He felt that if the church asked parishioners to tithe, the community itself ought to tithe at least ten percent not just of money but of time, talent and ingenuity -- for something other than "just taking care of ourselves."

The statement attributed to Jesus, "The children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the children of the light," always bothered him. It prodded his restless drive to look for "new ways to be church" the city on a hill, the lamp on a stand, light and salt, a vision of what life is all about.

These were the major themes of his ministry as pastor of Resurrection, then Our Lady of Nazareth, Roanoke, and finally, Holy Spirit, Virginia Beach.

Between Roanoke and Virginia Beach, he spent three years on the staff of International RENEW, a program for renewal of Catholic parishes focusing on the development and support of small faith-sharing communities.

He served at various times as a regional episcopal vicar, a diocesan consultor, member of the presbyteral council, the priest personnel committee, and numerous diocesan committees, commissions, and councils. He was a mentor to many seminarians, deacons and international clergy.

Following retirement, he served for several years as sacramental priest for Good Shepherd, Smithfield. His final years were spent as minister, counselor and friend to his fellow residents at Marian Manor Assisted Living, Virginia Beach.

Tom struggled with Alzheimer's dementia for a number of years, and although his short-term memory disappeared, his recall of songs from the thirties and forties went into high gear, and he could come up with an adaptation of one of these songs for almost anyone he met. You might call it a ministry of music, and it lasted till the end.

He may have lost part of his mind, but he never lost any of his heart.

For Tom, life was a journey, church was a pilgrim community, and ministry was companionship along the way.

This is the story of Tom Caroluzza's life.

Not only is it true; it actually happened.

Thanks be to God.

A funeral liturgy will be celebrated on Monday, March 2, at 6 pm, at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 1396 Lynnhaven Parkway, Virginia Beach VA 23453. A reception will follow the liturgy.

Visitation will precede the liturgy, beginning at 2 pm, in the chapel at Holy Spirit.

Cremation will follow, and inurnment in the church columbarium at a later date.

He is survived by his nephews, George Coombs and his wife Ame, of Hong Kong, PRC, Jerry Coombs and his spouse, Bryan Brandt, of Fairview Heights, Illinois, his great-nephew, Jonathan Coombs, also of Hong Kong, his brother-in-law, George Coombs, of Morehead City, North Carolina, as well as many cousins in the Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware areas and across the United States.

H. D. Oliver Funeral Apartments, Norfolk Chapel is handling arrangements.

Online condolences, tributes and memories may be sent to hdoliver.com.

If you wish to make a contribution in Tom's memory, please consider Oasis Social Ministry, 800A Williamsburg Avenue, Portsmouth, Virginia 23704, or any local Haiti outreach program.