web1_TTL071815legos1.jpg

Block-bot: Youngsters turn plastic Lego bricks into robots at Luzerne County Community College

web1_Hugo-Selenski-3-28-15.jpg

Convicted double murderer Hugo Selenski wants a new trial

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; As Sister Immacolata Scarogni SCC made her way through the opening-night crowd at the St. Nicholas Parish Bazaar on Thursday, dozens of teenage volunteers asked her what they should do next.</p><p>&#8220;Where do they need me, Sister?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Is there a booth I can help?&#8221;</p><p>Sister Immacolata, director of youth ministry at the large, bustling parish, had a direction for everyone. Sometimes, she had a joke, too, as when she sifted through a pile of bright yellow &#8220;Helpers &#8216;R Us&#8221; T-shirts and told a boy she didn&#8217;t have any mediums left. &#8220;Maybe you could eat a hamburger,&#8221; she said, suggesting he&#8217;d then fit a larger size.</p><p>Laughter followed her as she made her rounds at the bazaar, playfully asking the pastor for a piece of his potato pancake and cheerfully agreeing with 17-year-old volunteer Marley Mullery that, yes, soon she would be living in a place very far from the nearest Walmart.</p><p>But, behind all the chuckling and teasing was a certain poignancy, because just as all those youthful volunteers asked Sister Immacolata which bazaar stand needed their help the most, she&#8217;s been asking God a similar question.</p><p>Based on the call she heard, Sister Immacolata, 47, will leave Wilkes-Barre July 28 to take charge of St. John the Baptist near Delphos, Ohio, a rural church that has been without a resident pastor for five years.</p><p>&#8220;I feel it&#8217;s God&#8217;s will that I go and help those people,&#8221; Sister Immacolata said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been gifted to be here, where people are so dedicated and active, but I feel they need me there, where they aren&#8217;t so blessed. It&#8217;s a sense of going after the lost sheep.&#8221;</p><p>The decision to leave wasn&#8217;t easy, she said, but the Rev. Dennis Walsh, a priest who visits St. John the Baptist to celebrate its two weekly Masses, worked with her years ago in New York and recommended her for the leadership role, which the Bishop of the Diocese of Toledo urged her to accept.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re losing a gem,&#8221; St. Nicholas pastor Monsignor Joseph G. Rauscher said. &#8220;We&#8217;re happy for her to have this opportunity, but we hate to see her go. She&#8217;s fun, she&#8217;s filled with energy and she&#8217;s very spiritual. She&#8217;s too humble. She&#8217;s so very talented and kind and generous. People love her.&#8221;</p><p>Indeed, if you talk to young people who knew Sister Immacolata as a teacher at St. Nicholas-St. Mary School over the past 10 years or who tidied up the parish cemetery and prepared food for the needy with her as members of the parish youth group over the past six years, you&#8217;ll hear all sorts of good things.</p><p>&#8220;Everything about her is very enthusiastic and very kind,&#8221; said Luke Nealon, 16, of Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>&#8220;She invites you in and welcomes you,&#8221; said Mezue Eneh, 15, of Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>&#8220;She helped us understand how important it is to help other people,&#8221; said Ben Sullivan, 18, of Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>&#8220;She was my favorite teacher,&#8221; said Dylan Weybrecht, 16, of Bear Creek. &#8220;She was interesting. She wasn&#8217;t so serious.&#8221;</p><p>But sometimes Sister Immacolata does turn serious, as when she speaks about her vocation.</p><p>&#8220;I really knew in seventh grade,&#8221; she said. &#8220;My teacher was an SCC (Sister of Christian Charity) nun and she showed us the movie &#8216;Jesus of Nazareth.&#8217; She started crying during the crucifixion and I thought, &#8216;She really believes this.&#8217; That made such an impression on me.&#8221;</p><p>One of the things Sister Immacolata said she&#8217;ll miss about her current church is the annual Feast of St. Nicholas Mass on Dec. 6, when hundreds of people carry Christmas presents for needy children up to the altar. &#8220;I think about the people who give and the people who will receive and I see the Eucharist above the presents,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It&#8217;s God&#8217;s gift to us.&#8221;</p><p>Then on Good Friday, when hundreds of people come forward to kiss or otherwise venerate a large wooden cross, she said, &#8220;I think about the &#8216;crosses&#8217; they&#8217;re carrying in their own lives, and how they&#8217;re probably asking God to help them with those &#8216;crosses.&#8217; It&#8217;s very moving.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;This place is really &#8216;holy ground&#8217; for my community, &#8221; she added, explaining the founder of the Sisters of Christian Charity, Blessed Pauline von Mallinckrodt of Paderborn, Germany, visited St. Nicholas Parish decades ago. &#8220;She actually walked here.&#8221;</p><p>While she&#8217;s leaving one German-heritage parish for another, Sister Immacolata noted, she&#8217;s 100 percent Italian.</p><p>Second youngest of Ercole and Assunta Scarogni&#8217;s six children, she was the first to be born in America and, yes, Immacolata was her given name at baptism.</p><p>With a first name like Immacolata, was she destined to enter religious life?</p><p>&#8220;Well, God knows what each of us is going to do,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I knew in my heart I would become a Sister.&#8221;</p><p>And, if she hadn&#8217;t been called to serve this way? &#8220;I might have been a marine biologist,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I was always interested in that.&#8221;</p><p>Admitting her heart is heavy at leaving, Sister Immacolata said, &#8220;Every place I&#8217;ve left, I loved. But then I start to love the new place. It&#8217;s been a grace from God.&#8221;</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_immacolata014.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A friend says good-bye to Sister Immacolata on Thursday evening at the St. Nicholas Church Bazaar in Wilkes-Barre. Sister Immacolata leaves July 28 for a position leading a parish in Delphos, Ohio. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_immacolata014.jpg</photo0><caption0>A friend says good-bye to Sister Immacolata on Thursday evening at the St. Nicholas Church Bazaar in Wilkes-Barre. Sister Immacolata leaves July 28 for a position leading a parish in Delphos, Ohio. </caption0><photoCredit0>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_immacolata024.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Running into Sister Immacolata on the opening night of St. Nicholas Parish Bazaar, Dr. Michael Imbrogno of Wilkes-Barre, James McDermott of Laflin and Tom Winarski of Laflin tell her they will miss her. &#8216;She&#8217;s like a Pied Piper,&#8217; with the youth of the parish, Winarski said. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_immacolata024.jpg</photo1><caption1>Running into Sister Immacolata on the opening night of St. Nicholas Parish Bazaar, Dr. Michael Imbrogno of Wilkes-Barre, James McDermott of Laflin and Tom Winarski of Laflin tell her they will miss her. &#8216;She&#8217;s like a Pied Piper,&#8217; with the youth of the parish, Winarski said. </caption1><photoCredit1>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_immacolata044.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Bazaar worker Sean Maloney, 18, of Hanover Township, gives Sister Immacolata a hug, and said he knows she&#8217;ll do well at her new position as a parish leader in Ohio. &#8216;She can do anything,&#8217; Maloney said. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_immacolata044.jpg</photo2><caption2>Bazaar worker Sean Maloney, 18, of Hanover Township, gives Sister Immacolata a hug, and said he knows she&#8217;ll do well at her new position as a parish leader in Ohio. &#8216;She can do anything,&#8217; Maloney said. </caption2><photoCredit2>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_immacolata054.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Sister Immacolata chats with parishioners at the St. Nicholas Church Bazaar in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday. The bazaar, held on the church grounds on South Washington Street, concludes July 18. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_immacolata054.jpg</photo3><caption3>Sister Immacolata chats with parishioners at the St. Nicholas Church Bazaar in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday. The bazaar, held on the church grounds on South Washington Street, concludes July 18. </caption3><photoCredit3>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_immacolata.new_3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">While she&#8217;s sad to leave St. Nicholas Parish in Wilkes-Barre, where she has been coordinator of youth ministry and a teacher at St. Nicholas-St. Mary Elementary School for 10 years, Sister Immacolata believes it&#8217;s God&#8217;s plan that she accept a position at a parish in Ohio. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_immacolata.new_3.jpg</photo4><caption4>While she&#8217;s sad to leave St. Nicholas Parish in Wilkes-Barre, where she has been coordinator of youth ministry and a teacher at St. Nicholas-St. Mary Elementary School for 10 years, Sister Immacolata believes it&#8217;s God&#8217;s plan that she accept a position at a parish in Ohio. </caption4><photoCredit4>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>A beloved Sister accepts a new mission</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Answering the call; beloved Sister accepts new mission