Bishop Mark Eckman, newly appointed as the 13th bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, is known as a tech-savvy leader whose favorite meal is pea soup and salmon. Those close to him describe a man just as comfortable building a booth for a church festival as he is offering comfort to someone grieving a loss.
At Resurrection Parish in Bethel Park, where Eckman resides, staff gathered Wednesday morning to reflect on the honor of one of their own stepping into the diocese’s top role.
“We love him,” said Mary Swindal, pastoral associate at Resurrection Parish. “He is an amazing shepherd and has a true pastor’s heart.”
It was Eckman who helped Swindal in her calling to ministry. The Rev. Michael Ackerman, who also lives at Resurrection, saw Eckman on Wednesday morning and congratulated him.
Ackerman said Eckman, 66, is savvy with smart phones and computers.
“Bishop Mark knows the diocese well,” Ackerman said. “He was pastor here twice. He has a real heart for people and a great knowledge of people. He knows so many people by name in this parish. He knows their story. He cares for everyone.”
Bulletin editor MJ Beckham doesn’t usually work Wednesday.
She got a call at 7:30 a.m. from Ackerman and Swindal about the new bishop while she was feeding her 18-month-old daughter Philomena breakfast. She called her mother to watch the child and rushed in to the office to update the bulletin. Beckham said her older daughter Ella, 18, will be so happy for Eckman — she is on a mission trip in Jamaica, inspired by Eckman.
This is only Beckham’s fourth bulletin because she is a new hire. She wanted it to be perfect. She created three pages about the announcement and sought feedback from former co-worker Paula Mattern. Beckham and Mattern knew Eckman from when he said Mass at St. Bernard Church, which is now part of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Mt. Lebanon, where they worked.
“Any time he walked in the office he would tell my co-worker Paula and I, ‘Seeing you is like a ray of sunshine,’” Beckham said. “This is so exciting. He is down to earth and humble.”
Ackerman agreed.
“He is a true shepherd,” he said of Eckman. “He has a heart for people. He is committed to the people. He goes on mission trips and will get right in there and build ramps and install roofs. He cares about the youth. When I saw him this morning I said, ‘Your excellency, you have a busy day.’”
“We are on cloud nine over here,” said Colleen Pauley, parish receptionist who makes the Mass schedule. “We are sorry he is leaving us, but we are happy he will still be in Pittsburgh.”
Pauley texted Eckman to congratulate him.
“He replied, ‘Thanks, and the Mass schedule for July will have to be changed,’” said Pauley. “He is always super organized, and he cared about our Mass schedule.”
Eckman will be invited to celebrate his first Mass as bishop at St. Valentine Catholic Church in Bethel Park, said the Rev. John Skirtich, pastor of Our Lady of Hope, where St. Valentine is one of the parishes. It’s also the school where Eckman received the sacraments of Baptism, first Holy Communion and Confirmation. Eckman was an altar server and had his first Mass as a priest at St. Valentine.
“I, along with fellow priests and parishioners in the parish, am so excited to have a native son elevated to bishop,” Skirtich said. “I love that Bishop Zubik said Pope Leo knows who Mark is and who we are in Pittsburgh.”
He attended Saint Valentine Elementary School in Bethel Park and is a graduate of the former South Hills Catholic in Mt. Lebanon, now Seton LaSalle Catholic High School.
“He represents the very best of our community as a well-formed person, prepared to say ‘yes’ to the goodness that God calls us to. We are lifting him up in prayer as he prepares to be the next shepherd of the Diocese of Pittsburgh,” Seton LaSalle Principal Will Merchant said.
Eckman has an undergraduate degree from Duquesne University on the Bluff in Pittsburgh and received a master of divinity degree from St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe.
He was ordained a priest on May 11, 1985, and primarily served in the South Hills.
Eckman’s been a diocesan leader for more than a decade, serving as episcopal vicar for clergy personnel from 2013 to 2020.
He has served on the National Advisory Board of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Gary Slifkey, the diocesan Catholic campus minister at Robert Morris University in Moon, said he has known Eckman for three decades.
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“He makes a connection wherever he goes,” said Slifkey. “He has done a lot of good in this world. He is humble.”
Mary Starceski Caruso, a Pleasant Hills native who lives in Corning N.Y., said she has such great memories of working with Eckman. She said she plans to attend his installation in July.
“I am overjoyed to have someone who knows charity and love and service and who is humble leading the diocese,” Caruso said. “I always knew he had my back.”
She met him when she was working at St. Thomas More and was looking for a second job. He hired her as a youth minister at St. Sylvester Church in Brentwood. Eckman always was encouraging, Caruso said.
“I knew I could talk to him and he would listen,” Caruso said.
Eckman’s installation Mass will be July 14 at St. Paul Cathedral.