Rev. Daniel J. Menniti,STD, PhD
Deceased: 2015-04-09
Diocese: HARRISBURG
Seminary Graduation Year: 1954
Father Daniel J. Menniti, priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg for over 61 years passed away on April 9, 2015, after a short illness. Father was born at home on September 11, 1928, to Mose and Rosina (Vivino) Menniti, of Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania. He attended the Catholic Slovak Elementary School where he was class valedictorian. He also won awards for his accomplishments in Slovak languages a skill he used in caring for parishioners and the sick who came from eastern Europe (which he always corroborated by singing the Slovak National Anthem even upon no request). After attending Catholic secondary schools in Mt. Carmel and college at St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia, he studied for four years at the Ponitifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained into the priesthood on December 19, 1953. In 1954, he completed his Licentiate in Sacred Theology and began his doctoral dissertation in Sacred Theology, but was called back to the Harrisburg Diocese by the Bishop.
Upon his return to the Diocese in 1954, he was appointed as an assistant at St. Patrick’s In Carlisle, PA. He was called to be vice chancellor of the Diocese. While chancellor, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Bishop McDevitt School and Trinity High Schools, as well as superintendent of schools. He also founded, and was the first director of the diocesan Catholic Campus Ministry, receiving for his accomplishments, the highest award given by the Newman Apostolate, membership in the National John Cardinal Newman Honorary Society. During this time he also served as school visitor, procurator advocate of the Diocesan Tribunal and was a member of the Seminarians and Vocations Advisory Committee. He created a Cathechism for Confirmands in the diocese of Harrisburg in 1957. While in residence at St. Joan of Arc in Hershey, he was instrumental in founding the Church of the Holy Spirit Parish in Palmyra. He was also in residence at St. Theresa’s in New Cumberland.
Despite this schedule, he traveled daily to Catholic University in Washington DC to earn his doctorate in Psychology. His dissertation on the relationship of class size to student learning is one of the first scientific studies of this issue and is cited in scholarly research today. Father Menniti’s research found that the effect of class size depended on the subject taught and that the critical variable in student learning was the personality of the teacher. Awarded his psychology degree in 1964, he became an assistant professor at Catholic University.
In 1966, he was again recalled to Harrisburg to become pastor of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church. As Pastor there, he founded St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist Church in Dauphin, PA, became a member of the adjunct faculty of Harrisburg Area Community College, a member of the faculty of the University Center at Harrisburg and a member of the adjunct faculty of DeSales University in Allentown, PA, all while practicing psychology and teaching high school at Bishop McDevitt, and serving as an Instructor in the Polyclinic School of Nursing,
After this, Father Menniti took a leave of absence to work on his law degree. While attending law school, he did special research for his professor, Nicholas Kittrie, who was a nationally known expert on law and deviant behavior. Father served as a consultant with State Attorney General, J. Shane Creamer and the PA Department of Justice, conducting studies of life prisoners. In 1973, he completed his law degree from American University as he continued to serve in Harrisburg diocesan parishes. As an attorney, he became a member of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the U.S. District Middle Court of Pennsylvania, and the United States Supreme Court.
He was appointed Pastor of St. Catherine of Siena in Quarryville, PA in 1975 and in 1977 created a new Parish in honor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, carved out of the rapidly growing Mechanicsburg parish of St. Joseph’s. Initially, the parishioners were graciously offered a place to say Mass by Pastor Paul Jones of St. Peter Lutheran Church. Over time, Father Menniti guided parishioners to create the beautiful church of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton that stands today in Upper Allen Township.
In 1978, Governor Shapp appointed Fr. Menniti as the psychologist member of the Board of Pardons. Reappointed by successive governors, Father served for over 20 years, a record that stands today. By virtue of his service on the Board of Pardons, Father Menniti has been properly addressed as “the Honorable Daniel J. Menniti.”
For the next several years, Father was actively engaged in Catholic and secular communities: he was a consultant on the commission on Bio-Ethics of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, member of the Board of Health of Upper Allen Township, Member of the Institutional Review Board of the Polyclinic Medical Center in Harrisburg and of the Rehabilitation Hospital in Mechanicsburg, PA. He was a Member of the Trinity High School Board of Supervisors, the Talbot House Board of Directors, Yokecrest Board of Directors, member of the Board of the Pennsylvania Lifers’ Association, the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens, and the Pennsylvania Fellowship Plan. He was a founding member of Channels, an organization which continues to serve the needs of the poor. He was a psychological consultant for Three Mile Island Litigation. He was a professor at Shippensburg University, taking a one-semester academic leave to serve the poor as Public Defender in Cumberland County. He taught at St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Father continued to share his many talents to help the parishes and parishioners of the diocese, even as he formally retired in 2002. He was often busier after retirement than before working at many different parishes whenever there was a need for help. He also continued legal and psychological counseling. In 2002, he completed the unfinished dissertation for his Doctorate in Sacred Theology which he received from St. Elias School of Orthodox Theology.
Although the academic and secular honors were important and led many to call him the PPL (Priest, Psychologist and Lawyer), his true gift was his ability to help the individual. Nothing made him happier than to solve the spiritual, legal, or psychological problems of one single person whether Catholic or not. He always held true to supporting the basic dignity of all people including the poor and underprivileged. He demonstrated this many times by endowing scholarships for students from Mount Carmel to attend college, multiple contributions to the works of the Church in particular at Saint Patrick’s where he endowed a number of works of art in memory of family. He also endowed a Priest’s Circle, for the burial of priest’s, at Saint Patrick’s Cemetery.
We bid farewell to one of God’s chosen ones who touched us all in so many ways. We believe that he is now enjoying the rest he himself never took to minister to the needs of those who sought his assistance and to the needs of those whom he never met but whose needs he recognized. We will always remember his “homely” stories of Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania, which he wove into his homilies to make the sometimes difficult demands of our faith understandable and far easier to comply with. He made Catholicism part of our daily lives and understandable even to those of other faiths.
Father Menniti is survived by his sister, Rosemarie Pachence (husband Robert), his nieces (Marlane, Dina, Dara, Maria, Suzanne, Tina, Nancy, and Mary Ann), nephews (Bill, Mark, Matthew, Robert, Richard and Daniel), as well as many grandnieces and grandnephews and their spouses and by many cousins. He is also survived by his colleague, Joanne Marino McGreevy, her children (Juli, John and Marc) and grandchildren and their spouses.
He was predeceased by one sister, Mary Menniti Stecker (wife of Charles), three brothers, William of Scottsdale, Arizona, Samuel (Husband of Mary Lou), of Allentown, PA, and Fred of Mt. Carmel.
Visitation will take place at St. Patrick’s Church, 85 Marsh Drive, Carlisle, PA, on Thursday, April 16, 2015, from 12 noon until 6:30 p.m. with a Mass of Remembrance at 7:00 p.m.
On Friday, April 17, 2015, visitation will take place at 85 Marsh Drive from 9-10:30 a.m. with a Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 a.m., with The Most Reverend Ronald W. Gainer, D.D., J.C.L., Bishop of Harrisburg, as Celebrant.
Interment will be at 3:00 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Cemetery, McClure’s Gap Road, off of Route 641 in Carlisle, PA
Contributions in Father’s name may be made to Channels Food Rescue, 3305 N. 6th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17110; St. Vincent de Paul Society, c/o St. Patrick’s Church, 152 E. Pomfret Street, Carlisle, PA 17013; or Carlisle C.A.R.E.S., 50 W. Penn Street, Carlisle, PA 17013.
