Pitchin’ in at the Parish: Catholic Convert Helps with Centennial Celebration and Church Renovations in New Haven

Story by Shelley Wolf

NEW HAVEN – Every parish is blessed with selfless volunteers who are willing to pitch in to make good things happen. Some volunteers even share their professional expertise to assist their parish priest in numerous ways.

That pretty much defines Kenneth Maltese, a member of SS. Aedan & Brendan Parish in New Haven, who was awarded the St. Joseph Archdiocesan Medal of Appreciation by Archbishop Leonard P. Blair and the Archdiocese of Hartford in 2022 for his many volunteer efforts to serve his faith community. Chief among them is his ongoing assistance with repair and renovation projects at St. Aedan Church as well as his leadership in the parish’s 100th anniversary celebrations this year.

“Ken is a parishioner of service,” says Father Robert Morgewicz, who nominated Maltese. “He sets a wonderful example of cooperation and service to the parish.”

“I was very flattered, honored and surprised,” Maltese says about receiving the honor. But when it comes to helping out, he simply says, “You do it because it’s the right thing to do.”

In addition to serving in past years as parish council president and currently as coordinator of the lectors, Maltese stepped up this year to chair the parish’s Centennial Committee. Maltese and the team coordinated a 100th Anniversary Mass and reception that was celebrated by Archbishop Leonard P. Blair last May as well as other activities throughout the year to commemorate the anniversary of St. Aedan Church, which is located at 112 Fountain Street in the Westville section of New Haven.

The classic English Gothic stone church was built under the direction of Father John McGivney, the brother of Blessed Michael McGivney, and was dedicated on April 2, 1922.

“Four of us started to do the research, and I just consolidated the material and moved it along. I sort of sat there and watched other people come up with wonderful ideas,” Maltese says humbly about the anniversary preparations.

To plan for the anniversary, the parish created a Centennial Committee from the parish council and volunteers. “Some people liked the catering end of it. Some people liked the decorating. Different people had different skills to offer,” Maltese says. “Our group did the title research, we made posters with pictures of the church through the decades as displays for the Centennial Mass.”

Maltese also personally authored articles on the church’s history and various church renovations over the years, which were published in the parish’s Sunday bulletin. Others researched the religious orders, such as the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, that once served the parish and school, and invited them to the 100th Anniversary Mass and reception with Archbishop Blair.

“It was a really massive effort. We had 30 people working on it. It wasn’t just me. I was just one of the cogs in the machine,” Maltese insists.

As part of the years’ anniversary activities, SS. Aedan & Brendan also celebrated Solemn Vespers in Latin for St. Joseph’s feast day. “I was just in awe of how beautiful it was,” he adds.

In addition to his work on the anniversary festivities, Maltese was also nominated for helping his parish write requests for proposals for the contractor bidding process for a number of different church and school maintenance and renovation projects over the years. And he helped the parish find a contract manager to oversee the 2020 repairs and renovation of St. Aedan Church.

“I actually started out as a chemist in water utilities. As I got into management, I ended up working with engineers to do construction activities,” he explains. “My group looked at the engineering designs to make sure that what was being built was maintainable and safe.” So Maltese simply offers his professional expertise to help the parish whenever it comes in handy.

This giving spirit is partly what drew Maltese to the Catholic faith more than 40 years ago. Raised in the Episcopal Church, he eventually married his wife Diane, who was a Catholic, and they had two children.

“Her faith and especially her mom’s faith was so strong that it made me feel I was missing something,” Maltese recalls. “So I started to attend Mass with her.”

The priest and women religious at St. Aedan Church also factored in. “When Father Joseph McCann was there, he was very warm and made me feel welcome even though I wasn’t Catholic. When the kids went to church, a sister there was a wonderful person to know too, and made it very easy for me to become a Catholic,” he now says.

“The Episcopal tradition isn’t too far off. As far as the rites, it wasn’t too much of a stretch,” he adds, “but it was the faith that really drew me in.”

Though he could not name it at the time, Maltese quickly recognized the call to holiness in the Catholic faith through service. “It was the sense of community that was beyond just friendship,” he says. “It was a sense of people willing to do things for others without being asked, without worrying whether it was a sacrifice for them. They just did it.”

And Maltese has been happy to pitch in as well, ever since joining SS. Aedan & Brendan Parish. Today, Maltese thinks people who don’t attend a Catholic church or participate in the community don’t know what they are missing.

“People are missing out. There are a lot of things distracting people from faith. Everything’s online, and everybody is looking for quick answers and black and white answers, but I think there’s a lot more to human beings than that. And I think sometimes faith gets lost in the noise,” he says.

Maltese especially loves the peace he gets from spending time in prayer and communal worship.

“It’s nice to sit in church for about an hour and have nothing pressing on you except your relationship with your faith, to get away from everything else and just be there,” Maltese stresses. “I pray more than that but even if it’s just that, sometimes that’s all you need to be able to reset and go back and face things.”