A Holy Man Who Transformed a Church

Growing up Catholic and going to church every Sunday of my young life transformed me into the person I am today. I find myself now thinking back on transformational leaders in my life and only one comes to mind. (Northouse, 2013.). There was a priest named Father Pistone who served in my church for more than ten years of my life. Father Pistone will never be famous like the pope or a bishop, but he should be the pope. He changed the status quo of the church by appealing to the values and morals of the churchgoers. (PSU, WC, 2015.). I was an altar boy for ten years under his tutelage. Pius, kind, and understanding comes to mind every day I was around him. The moral values he instilled in me every Sunday transformed me as well as the church that was dying.
Father Pistone’s strongest characteristic as a transformational leader was vision. Transformational leaders with vision are “future-oriented” and they “recognize the problems of the present system and offer a vision to overcome the problems.” (PSU, WC, 2015.). St. Mary’s church was one of the oldest churches in my town and was falling apart when Father Pistone took it over. The art in the church was in disrepair and covered with years of suet from candles and incent smoke. People also did not come to church. I recall sitting in church prior to father Pistone becoming our priest and there were ten to fifteen people at Sunday mass. From the moment Father Pistone walked in the church, the pews were full. The Spanish people of the area started coming to church to hear him talk. The sermons Father Pistone wrote were simple and littered with common sense things like, “be kind to ten people this week”. He always set up small goals for people every week. The biggest area he changed was the cultural diversity in the church. No one in my entire life ever moved more diverse people to support each other. My hometown had a huge community of people from Puerto Rico and Germany or Anglo- Saxon dissent. To bring together these two communities in one church was nothing short of amazing.
Father Pistone improved the church in very small ways to bring about huge change. Music was a big part of it. He befriended musicians, he convinced the estranged organist to come back to church, and most importantly, he brought singing back to St. Mary’s. Father Pistone’s personalized leadership skills were superb. He created such “strong, personal bonds with followers”. (PSU, WC, 2015.). The next thing he did was raise money to re-build the church. One of the most important abilities of a transformational leader is motivating followers to do more than the expected. (PSU, WC, 2015.). The church roof was leaking, the paint was peeling from the ceiling, and the floor was coming up. It was one thing to ask for help, but to get the help from the parishioners is another. People wanted to help Father Pistone transform the entire church system. Father Pistone put his heart and soul into St. Mary’s church. He built such trust in the followers through his self-sacrifice. (PSU, WC, 2015.).
My mother was a driving force for the Anglo-Saxon people of the church. All five of her kids took part in the mass as altar boys. My family ran the mass at least twice a month, or more if other altar boys didn’t show up. My brothers and I served a great deal. Father Pistone asked my mother to repair and repaint the station of the cross at our church. I was young when she first started repainting the church and was with her in the church for hours. I called her the Michelangelo of the church. She did not like this but, father Pistone did. He had found his next piece to re-building his church; an Artist. Our family were devout followers of Father Pistone and his transformational leadership abilities.
“Transformational leadership places a strong emphasis on morals.” (PSU, WC, 2015.). There is no doubt Father Pistone had morals and he instilled these morals in every decision he made to transform that church. He was a role model and involved himself in the culture of the church and helped to shape it into a diverse, supportive environment. (PSU, WC, 2015.). This was miraculous at the time because several churches in the vicinity had already closed. Thankfully, Father Pistone transformed everyone’s idea of the future of the church with his vision, social architecture trust, and creative deployment of himself (Northouse, 2013). The parishioners saw the church come to life every Sunday with music, art, and attendance. People got involved in the transformation of the church. Instead of this church closing down, it started to thrive. Every year the church improved through constant care from all the Father Pistone’s followers. He built the church again like Peter. “From this rock you can build a church” (Matthew 16:18).
Father Pistone put his faith in people like my mother who put her whole family at the forefront and created an image of faith from the heart. Although it could be argued that the followers in this relationship were religious by nature and perhaps easier to persuade to transform the church by appealing to their religious insecurities, I believe it was more than that. In this particular transformational leader/follower relationship, it was more about Father Pistone’s superb abilities to motivate and less about the religious nature of the followers that created this successful transformation.

References:
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
The Holy Bible. (2001).King James Version. Zondervan Publishing House. United States of America.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2015) PSYCH 485, Module 10: Transformational Leadership. Retrieved from: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp15/psych485/001/content/10_lesson/printlesson.html (Links to an external site.)