Our new chaplain, Father Roth, joins us from Saint Joan of Arc, Hershey. He’s looking forward to meeting all of the students and staff at Trinity. He shared some information about himself with us before we meet him as a school in August.

On the best way for teens to strengthen their faith:
“I think we usually overthink everything the best way to grow stronger is to just give time to it. In terms of getting involved, the Church and local charities always need help. Simply asking how you can help or saying, ‘I am good at these things how can I help’ goes a long way, then just be willing to give the time to God and neighbor. The same is true for faith, this prayer or that prayer, is not that consequential but the giving of the time to God is the important part.”

On how he spends his free time:
“By far my favorite thing is soccer. I’ve played it since I could walk and coached it since high school.  I’m currently following Euro 2020. My favorite novels are sci-fi and the classics, with my favorite novel easily being Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I have numerous hobbies outside of those; I play basically every sport, outdoor type stuff (hiking, fishing, etc), have a large collection of board games, and play some video games. I cheer for all Pittsburgh sports, and Penn State for college. Honestly there is very little I don’t enjoy; I guess heights. I don’t mind a cliff but you probably won’t find me parachuting out of a plane anytime soon, unless it’s going down and that’s the only option.”

On his background:
“I was born in Pittsburgh in 1988, moved to Buffalo NY when I was real young, though would go to Pittsburgh often growing up to the point the accent comes out every once and a while. Finally around 2nd grade I moved to Littlestown (a place that lives up to its name), near Gettysburg. I lived most of my life there working on farms; fruit and vegetable farms when I was little, then a hay farm when I could lift the 50 pound hay bales. I also worked at a restaurant (General Pickets) and a factory (forget the name it closed down years ago). I was on the soccer and wrestling teams in high school. I went to Penn State and got a Physics degree. After that I went to seminary at Mount St Mary’s for the Diocese of Harrisburg and was ordained in 2018. I had an amazing 3 years at St. Joan of Arc, Hershey, and have been enjoying Mechanicsburg these past 2 weeks. This place seems like a truly welcoming place with a bunch of holy people.”