Rev. Thomas Lewandowski, BLS '75
Pastor of Christ the Light of the World and St Joseph's in Duquesne
The following article first apeared in The Pittsburgh Catholic, June 30, 2000, the week following his ordination.
By Chuck Moody, Staff Writer
During the five years he was on the road as a cross-country truck driver, Thomas Lewandowski repeatedly heard the call to priesthood. Father Lewandowski, 43, was one of six priests who were ordained June 24 by Bishop Donald Wuerl. "The time when I was on the road, that’s when the call to priesthood became more and more evident," he said. "It was there all along probably, but I apparently just didn’t want to accept the gift. I was asking questions such as, 'Why me? I’m not worthy.'"
While on the road, Father Lewandowski said he had a lot of time to think, meditate and pray.
"When you’re driving, you come to a sense of yourself with the time to think,” he said. "Also just the people who I encountered, I felt that things were very evident that God was calling me even then. He was working through strangers and people who I just met once just by what they said. I just came to a greater sense of God’s presence around me in people and also in creation. I saw a lot of sunsets and sunrises, and they were very beautiful. I just came to a greater sense of God during that whole time."
He is the son of Blanche and Edmund Lewandowski of Duquesne and a member of Christ the Light of the World Parish.
"He will be an excellent priest," said Father Dennis Colamarino, pastor. "He has a sensitivity towards people. He is a good worker. He has a vision of church, which is caring and compassionate. It’s people oriented. His varied background, having been a truck driver, helped him maybe be more sensitive to where people are at. He is not ‘clerical’ in the good sense. He does not use power or control to be above people."
Father Lewandowski said all of the priests he met throughout his life have influenced him including the Jesuits he encountered while attending the Bishop's Latin School in Pittsburgh. After later graduating from Wheeling Jesuit University, he worked as a busboy/dishwasher; did warehouse work and drove a truck for eight years for the Flavoripe Company in the Strip District before entering the seminary in 1993.
“I’m very happy with where I’m at,” he said. “When I was on the road as I was thinking, meditating, I was looking for something about myself. There was like this void that I was searching to fill. I just couldn’t fill it. Once I accepted the gift of priesthood and I just said ‘yes’ to it, well then that void became full. I can say honestly that I am a completed person, a fulfilled person. this is where God wants me to be at this time.”
Fr. Lewandowski had his initial assignment at St. Basil's in Carrick. Other assignments along the way included Immaculate Conception in Washington, Pa, North American Martyrs in Monroeville, and St, Camillus in New Castle, PA. Later he was appointed as an administrator to assist Fr. Dennis Colamarino at his Duquesne parishes after Fr. Colamarino had been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). Since Fr. Colamarino's recent passing, Fr. Lewandowski has recently been named pastor of those parishes (Christ the Light of the World and St Joseph's in Duquesne) by Bishop David Zubik.
Returning to his home parish, "Was a gift," Lewandowski had said at the time. "It was awesome to have Father Dennis as a mentor. He was a strong witness of how to live and love and how to die with dignity and still be joyful no matter what,” he said. He was the epitome of what it means to give of yourself."
Fr. Dennis was certainly a legend in the Diocese, having served 32 years in Duquesne as well as being nicknamed, affectionately, "The Bishop of Duquesne" by many of his admiring fellow priests due to his unusual length of years there. But now, with these gigantic shoes to fill, it will be Fr. Tom Lewandowski's turn to lead the people of his hometown parishes in Duquesne, a daunting task to be sure, but certainly one which he is most capable of performing.
So what does he do now in his spare time during the summer? "In the past four years, I have been empowered by God to deliver five tractor trailer loads of goods each summer to the Fr. Beiting Appalachia Mission Center."
He may now be a priest, but apparently inside he's still a truck driver at heart. Being "on the road again" will obviously always be a great pleasure for this former tractor trailer operator now-turned priest!
Fr. Lewandowski will be blessed to have his father, Edmund, 92, in attendance for his award as well as his older brother, Dennis, also a B.L.S. graduate and from the Class of '72. His mother, Blanche (2004) and another brother, Anthony, are now deceased.
