Father Girzone mourned

Joseph F. Girzone, a priest known worldwide for his books on “Joshua,” a modern-day Christ-like figure, died on Sunday.

ALTAMONT — A priest whose quest in life was “to make Jesus real” is described by those who knew him best as being like Jesus himself.

Joseph F. Girzone died on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015, at St. Peter’s Hospice Inn in Albany. He was 85. His books were read by millions of people around the world.

“He is the gentlest, kindest, most humble, loving, most Jesus-like person I will ever know,” says Deborah Leach. “I was at his bedside for his last three years. He never altered.”

Ms. Leach, who describes herself as a “jack of all trades,” has cared for Father Girzone in his turn-of-the-last century, pillared house — once a summer home of the Pruyn family — perched on the hill above Altamont since she was 26; she’s now 43.

“I call it heaven,” she said of the sprawling home with sweeping views. “I think he chose it because it was close to heaven.”

Father Girzone lived on Joshua Lane for more than two decades. Five years before moving to Altamont, he accomplished two extraordinary things: He published his first novel, “Joshua: A Parable for Today,” and he lived to tell about it, despite grave heart and blood-related health problems that forced him to retire from the priesthood at age 50.

The success of his novel was so instant that Girzone was able to pay for the first printing of the book in two months despite having so little money that he had to make the desk upon which he wrote the book because he couldn’t afford to buy one. Millions of copies have since been sold and the novel and its sequels have been translated into many languages.

Peter Della Ratta, of Schenectady, has known Father Girzone all of his life, for 42 years. “He was the parish priest at Our Lady of Mount Carmel...My grandparents lived across the street from the church. Father Girzone helped my grandfather press the grapes to make the wine for the church.”

Mr. Della Ratta went on, “He acted each day how Jesus would have acted. He gave us examples to go by....He was forgiving and accepting. He had a deep understanding of mankind....He taught me how to understand people. Understanding opens up the pathway to forgiving.”

Father Girzone was born in Albany on May 15, 1930, the oldest of 12 children. His father was a butcher and his mother was a homemaker, according to Mr. Della Ratta. “His sisters and brothers all have such a beautiful persona...very caring...His parents just did a wonderful job,” said Mr. Della Ratta.

As a child, Mr. Della Ratta said, Father Girzone went to church every day, and went to seminary at the age of 14.

Father Girzone began his religious education as a young monk in training at St. Albert’s Seminary in Middletown, New York, he said in a 2009 Enterprise interview, describing a rigorous academic schedule that included a wide array of topics — philosophy, medieval mystics, meditation, foreign languages, science, and patrology. Patrology is the study of the Greek, Roman, and African Fathers of the early churches who are, according to Father Girzone, “the bridge between the scriptures and the church.”

Father Girzone’s books in the Joshua series, which spawned a popular movie, are based on the premise that Jesus returns to the modern-day world in the form of an athletic man with walnut-colored hair, graceful hands, and a penchant for table wine. He lives in a shack in the village of Auburn, “an old town, built around the late 1700s, tucked away in the foothills of the mountains.”

 

“Joshua: A Parable for Today,” was self-published by Father Joseph F. Girzone in 1983, becoming a regional sensation, selling 40,000 copies. It was sold to Collier Books, a paperback imprint of Macmillan, in 1987 and has since sold millions worldwide. It was made into a film in 2002 with Tony Goldwyn as Joshua.

 

Joshua’s simple life as a carpenter piques the village’s interest, especially when strange things not unlike miracles begin to occur. His presence is ultimately seen as a threat to some, particularly the local priest who is suspicious when Joshua’s ecumenical tendencies are revealed after he carves a statue for a Jewish synagogue.

Father Girzone’s decision to try to write after his early retirement from the priesthood in 1980 came from a self-described “deep-seated need” to write a book about Jesus.

“A Protestant minister asked me why, as a priest, I was always talking about Jesus,” he recalled in 2009. “A friend of mine said he had never had one class about Jesus in seminary.  I can recall only one class, which was in high school.

“Before the Reformation, all theology was centered on Jesus,” he went on. “Once the Reformation took place, all denominations started writing catechisms, which are the things that the different denominations teach. Now you can be baptized without knowing Jesus. The church is the medium and Jesus is the message but we’ve made the medium the message. I had this need to make Jesus real.”

The message from Father Girzone’s written and spoken words, Richard Della Ratta said, is, “Help those in distress, even if you don’t like them....People don’t want to share their emotions and their souls. You have to love one another — that doesn’t mean roll in the hay. Be kind and tender to them...Black and white and yellow souls will all be together in heaven.”

Richard Della Ratta, just three years younger than Father Girzone, was best friends with the priest for half a century. Richard is the father of five sons, including Peter, all influenced by Father Girzone.

“Father Girzone had a very simple philosophy,” said Richard Della Ratta. “Jesus Christ believed we need to love,” he said, spelling out the word with force, “L-O-V-E our fellow man. He wrote ‘Joshua’ and set up the foundation in Altamont to do the work of Jesus...If it’s OK with Jesus, it’s OK with Joe. If it’s not OK with Jesus, it’s not OK with Joe....If most of us stopped being so damned judgmental, just take the weeds out of our own backyard...Just follow Jesus; he’s the savior.”

The Joshua Foundation, set up in 1983, he said, is to “study, emulate, and apostylize the philosophy of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Projects include feeding the poor and “building small houses in Middleburgh after Irene,” he said referring to severe flooding from the 2011 tropical storm.

“We’re all trying to walk in Joe’s footsteps...Joe’s philosophy is to work with Jesus...We wouldn’t have any wars if we followed Joe’s books,” concluded Richard Della Ratta.

“He was very Jesus-like. He got along with everyone. He was very humble,” said John Della Ratta, Peter’s brother, one of Richard’s five sons.

John Della Ratta went on, “He never taught us to ask Jesus for anything. He taught us, when you pray, you don’t ask for things; you say thank you for what you have.”

Father Girzone baptized both Peter Della Ratta and his brother, Joseph.

Joseph Della Ratta died in a car accident in 1994. “He was 25, a Julliard trumpet player, driving back on the Northway from a concert in Lake George,” recalled Peter Della Ratta.

Father Girzone wrote a book about him called “Joey,” which Peter described as “an intimate depiction of Joe’s relationship with God and Jesus as Fahd saw it.” “Fahd” is Peter’s nickname for Father Girzone, based on his attempts as a child to say “Father.”

“Fahd wants everybody to feel warm, feel included, feel good,” said Peter Della Ratta.

Joseph Della Ratta’s ashes are at a memorial on Father Grizone’s property on Joshua Lane.

 

In an allegory for children, Father Joseph F. Girzone told how a falcon developed a conscience.

 

Peter Della Ratta first read a book by Father Girzone when he was 6 years old — “Kara, The Lonely Falcon.” The memory is still vivid today. He recalled, “It’s about a falcon who develops a discomfort killing small animals for prey. He develops a conscience and starts protecting the animals, feeding on berries instead.”

Like, “Joshua,” “Kara” was first self-published by Father Grizone. And, also like “Joshua,” the children’s allegory was then published by Collier, a paperback imprint of Macmillan.

Peter Della Ratta said, “It was a simple story I could read myself and I shared it with my elementary school.”

He is also fond of one of Father Girzone’s more recent books, “The Homeless Bishop.” The book was printed in 2011 by Orbis Books, the publishing arm of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers meant to “explore the global dimensions of the Christian faith and missions,” the publishers say. “Orbis picked him up when he was dropped” by the larger publisher, Peter Della Ratta said.

 “It’s about an Italian bishop living in disguise as a homeless person in New York City. He goes back to Italy, becoming a pope. It’s similar to the story of Pope Francis,” said Peter Della Ratta, noting Father Girzone wrote the book five or six years ago, before Francis was pope.

Father Girzone, in 2009, described the character he was creating, an archbishop being trained by the Vatican for diplomatic work. Shielded in ivory towers, the character is unable to grasp why Jesus made eternal salvation dependent on the better treatment of the poor. He announces to his rather exasperated superiors that he wants to take a one-year sabbatical to become a homeless beggar himself, whereby he ultimately learns compassion.

What follows is a series of plot twists that read like an action novel, including the involvement of the Italian mafia. To find out what happens next, Father Girzone said then, he must first finish the book.

Interpreting Jesus made Father Girzone a somewhat controversial figure among his religious peers. Father Girzone spoke of the struggle of teaching about Jesus as a priest and said that it “could have created problems with my superiors.” He did not apologize for the liberties he took in his books.

“It was tempting to write as we were taught, in the theological way,” he said. “I decided to write “Joshua” as simply as I possibly could but my first critic read “Joshua” and asked me why the book was so poorly written.” Father Girzone explained that the books were written simply to appeal to all audiences, including the very young and the very old.

“In a sense, he was Joshua. He was very concerned that Jesus be made known to people, even to the church,” said Father Jeff L’Arche, with the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, who lives just down the road from Joshua Lane on Leesome Lane.

“He had some resistance,” said Father L’Arche. “Some clergy felt he was taking liberty with the Bible. They thought his theology was too liberal. He lamented institutionalized religion and killing the spirit. For him, Jesus was the center, attending to people’s needs.”

He went on, “There were certain places he was not welcome. People felt he took liberties translating the life of Christ. He enfleshed Jesus,” said Father L’Arche, pointing out that the name for Jesus in Hebrew is Yeeshue, the same as Joshua. “He made a play on words,” said Father L’Arche.

He also said, “One of his fears was the institutional church can shield Christ. His concern was Jesus be made known and the gospel be made known.

“I read them as historical fiction, not gospel,” Father L’Arche said of Father Girzone’s books, which he enjoyed. “He enfleshed the life of the Lord, especially if Jesus were here today, how he’d look at people, politics, the state of our world and church.”

Father L’Arche first heard of Father Girzone in the 1970s when he was at a heavily Hispanic church in Hartford, Connecticut. “It was a crossroads of humanity with a lot of social outreach; we had a food bank, and homeless men in the basement.”

The Spanish housekeeper brought him a bag full of donated books, all by Father Girzone, and said, “Padre, I think these should go to you.”

But, it wasn’t until Father L’Arche returned to Altamont and learned that Father Girzone was a neighbor that he took to reading the books.

 
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Perched on a hill above Altamont, at the end of Joshua Lane, this rambling house, built in 1895 as a summer retreat for Albany’s Pruyn family, was home to Father Joseph Girzone for more than two decades. He held retreats here and twice-monthly Tuesday gatherings to, in his words, study “the mind of Jesus and his relevance to the difficult times in which we live.” All were welcome.

 

He was surprised when he first saw the palatial home on Joshua Lane. “I thought he would be living in a cold-water flat, writing from light from a hanging bulb,” said Father L’Arche.

He once brought a deacon to Joshua Lane to see the sweeping views. “As we’re going up the driveway, the deacon says to me, ‘Wait a minute, isn’t this the guy who writes about the carpenter?’ I said, ‘Look what the carpenter built.’”

L’Arche went on, “We got to be very good friends. He was a wonderful Italian cook. He’d invite us up for meals. I think he felt sorry for Brother Anthony, Brother Donald, and me,” he said, as they lived modestly.

“He used to have a yearly block party, to bring people together, and he helped at the Peter Young Center, counseling the men there,” said Father L’Arche. The nearby center, founded by a priest, helped men with drug addictions and other problems.

In his house on the hill, Father Girzone meditated on the life of Jesus as he was taught to do as a monk in training. On the first two Tuesdays of each month, he gave talks on Jesus for anyone wishing to attend.

Ms. Leach said, “He’d pray to God, and God would tell him the subject” to be addressed. She described the Tuesday sessions as “casual, humorous, deep, and intelligent.” Sometimes as many as 60 people gathered at the house on Joshua Lane. “Everybody was welcome,” said Ms. Leach.

“The gatherings are not convert classes,” said Father Girzone. “They are studies into the mind of Jesus and his relevance to the difficult times in which we live.”

One of those who regularly attended was Marcia Scott. Ms. Scott, of Guilderland, met Father Girzone over a decade ago when she went with a friend to his house on the hill, delivering a dog he was adopting. “When you first meet him, you feel like you’ve known him all your life,” said Ms. Scott.

She kept coming back because of the way he made faith accessible. “You know how, when you go to church, you can’t grasp what they’re saying?” she asked. “He talked like Jesus was his best friend. His books make you see that. It makes it so real.”

The Tuesday gatherings did the same. “He would talk about Jesus like a real person,” said Ms. Scott. “I wanted to bring all my friends.”

Father Girzone was especially helpful to Ms. Scott after her mother died, she said. “He gave me a recording he made — all about heaven. It made me feel so at ease after all the crying I’d done....Just hearing his voice describe it, so serene, with no more worries, and everybody coming together, a place where everything is beautiful. Knowing heaven is that good, I don’t have to worry about my mother anymore.”

Still, Ms. Scott said, she is having a hard time with Father Girzone’s death. “Because he was so down to earth, many people weren’t afraid to talk to him. You could tell him anything. He understood and tried to help,” she said.

Ms. Scott helped Father Girzone with his website and kept a mailing list of over 400 followers. “He traveled all over the world,” she said. “He gave his message everywhere.”

Father Girzone spoke at her church, Helderberg Reformed, in Guilderland Center. He wanted to speak to everyone, she said, regardless of their faith tradition.

Ms. Scott hosted a birthday party for him several years ago. “People donated a lot of money,” she said. “He was having trouble affording the heat.”

“He was aware of problems with society but he always had that twinkle in his eye,” said Father L’Arche. “He always gave you that big hug. He was very Christ-like, a wonderful ambassador for the faith....He didn’t look at people in terms of their denomination; he was accepting of everyone.”

Peter Della Ratta said, “He was always extremely humble. His books were on the New York Times Best Seller list...He gave everything away.”

Peter talked with Father Girzone on the phone each night, he said. Every night, before Father Girzone went to bed, he’d post a message on his website blog, said Mr. Della Ratta.

“People called him from all over the world. He always answered the phone himself,” Mr. Della Ratta said.

Ms. Leach said the phone at Father Girzone’s house started ringing at eight in the morning. “He was always there for others, at any given moment,” she said. He did this despite mounting health problems in recent years, she added.

Peter Della Ratta spent time with Father Girzone in hospice. “Last Sunday morning, I brought him communion,” he said. “That was the last time he was able to be vocal...Our time the last few months was just quiet peacefulness, just to be in each other’s presence.”

****

Father Joseph F. Girzone was ordained a Carmelite priest on June 4, 1955 by Bishop William A. Scully at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. He was incardinated as a priest of the Diocese of Albany in May 1970, according to the Office of the Vicar for Clergy.

He served as an associate pastor at St. Clare’s in Colonie, Assumption in Latham, Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Schenectady, and St. Joseph’s in Scotia. He also ministered as a part-time faculty member at Mercy High School and as chaplain at the Schenectady County jail.

He was appointed pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Amsterdam in 1973 where he served for six years. In 1979, he was appointed pastor of St. Patrick’s parish but had to resign for health reasons in 1981.

Reception of the Body will take place on Saturday, Dec. 12, at 9 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church in Schenectady. Visitation will continue until 10:45. The Funeral Liturgy will be celebrated at 11 a.m. with Edward Bernard Scharfenberger, bishop of the Diocese of Albany, as the principal celebrant.

Memorial contributions may be made to The Joshua Foundation, 1071 Joshua Lane, Altamont, NY 12009.

 

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