[News Archive]

Vito Piazza joins staff of St. Joseph, Eldersburg as Pastoral Associate for RCIA and Initial Sacraments

Vito Piazza is the new Pastoral Associate for RCIA and Initial Sacraments at St. Joseph, Eldersburg.  Vito began his new job January 1 of this year, however he has been an active player at St. Joseph’s for ten years.  He serves as CCD teacher, Baptismal team member, Eucharistic minister and in the past was active in the parish St. Vincent de Paul society.

St. Anthony of Padua, Queens and Our Lady of Graces, Long Island were home parishes to Vito, growing up in New York.  The son of an Irish Catholic mother and Pentecostal Italian father, Vito was raised upon a spiritually strong foundation.  He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hydes, NY, and worked as a chef in New York restaurants, hotels and private clubs.  In 1976 Vito moved to Maryland in order to join the faculty of the Culinary School in Baltimore.  For the past ten years, Vito has owned and operated his own catering business. 

Last year Vito retired from the cooking industry and turned his efforts toward serving up something different  – spiritual nourishment.  Why?  Because, as he explains, he heard a calling: “I listened to a still, small voice and it was the right thing to do.”

And so now he is picking up where his predecessor at St. Joseph, Sr. Rosanna Dorn, left off.  Vito describes the RCIA program at St. Joseph’s as good and solid.  The parish saw 27 adults enter the Church at this year’s Easter Vigil.  It is in the area of initial sacraments where Vito sees his biggest challenge, in accommodating the growing number of children enrolled in the First Reconciliation and First Eucharist programs.  This year close to 200 children received these sacraments.   Vito’s plans for next year include increasing the number of First Eucharistic masses from one to three.

Vito and his wife of 28 years, Doris, live in Eldersburg and have a grown son, Vito, Jr.  When not at St. Joseph’s, Vito is attending the College of Notre Dame, working on a degree in Religious Studies.

The other passion in Vito’s life is his missionary work in Peru, to where he travels two or three times a year.  The Piazzas support two cooperatives in the northern part of the country, the birthplace and childhood home of Doris.  One is a textile cooperative and the other is a ceramic cooperative.  Both co-ops offer employment to the people in the area.  Vito and Doris have recently begun raising funds in order to begin a college preparatory school in Peru. 

Vito has definitely experienced a lot of changes this past year -  selling his business, making a major career move, returning to school, as well as recently moving into a new home.  One thing that doesn’t change for Vito is his trust in God.  “God does things perfectly,” he reflected.  When asked for a psalm that gives him inspiration, Vito answered without hesitation, the 139th psalm:

Lord, you have probed me, you know me:
You know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar.
My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar.
Even before a word is on my tongue, LORD, you know it all.
Behind and before you encircle me and rest your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is beyond me, far too lofty for me to reach.
Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee?
If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, you are there too.
If I fly with the wings of dawn and alight beyond the sea,
Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand hold me fast.
 

We extend our warmest wishes for a long and happy ministry to Vito in Central Maryland!