The idea came from Lee Davis, a longtime parishioner at St. Lucy’s Church. Davis prepared Thursday for a surprise presentation he helped to bring about by doing the kind of thing he does all the time: He wore a yellow vest as he guided visitors to parking spots in the church lot.
Davis, 72, a business agent for SEIU Local 200, was raised on nearby Niagara Street, on the near West Side of Syracuse. He started attending St. Lucy’s as a child, a lifetime allegiance reinforced decades ago by the arrival of the Rev. James Mathews, a Catholic priest for whom Davis offered this testament:
“He’s as close to Jesus,” Davis said, “as anyone I’ve ever met in my life.”
The word legend gets thrown around a lot, but Mathews — with his passionate embrace of immediate outreach to the community surrounding his Gifford Street church — has already achieved it. He turns 90 in less than four months. He formally retires from the role of pastor as of Jan. 1.
According to a statement released this weekend by the Diocese of Syracuse, Rev. Fred Daley — pastor of All Saints parish — will both retain that position and become administrator at St. Lucy’s. The two parish communities will also work toward the creation of a parish life director — “a pastoral leader appointed by Bishop (Douglas) Lucia” — to oversee many day-to-day duties at those city churches, according to diocesan chancellor Danielle Cummings.
For now, St. Lucy’s parishioners can take a breath and focus on the precious and fleeting nature of the next few months: After 35 years, there will be about 15 more chances at St. Lucy’s to show up on Sundays when Mathews celebrates 10 a.m. Mass, gatherings of buoyant and resonant community.
If you have never experienced Mathews on the altar, well, as Davis points out, the sign about the church doors reads:
“Sinners welcome.”
Mathews was in full support of Thursday’s “Sip, Support and Celebrate,” a fundraiser held in the parish hall — the same place where Mass was celebrated for many months after the church steeple was torn off during the Labor Day storm of 1998, a steeple parishioners chose not to replace. They channeled that money, instead, toward community need.
Toward that same goal, Thursday’s gathering was pitched to Mathews as a means of supporting a long list of parish services. His legs are increasingly causing him grief, so Mathews — a passionate golfer — used a sand wedge as a cane before he settled into a chair near the front door, where he greeted visitors.
What he did not know is how Davis had gone quietly to Corinne Driscoll, a parishioner and a coordinator of the event, with an idea for honoring Mathews, who is notoriously resistant to any spotlight. Full disclosure: I have been a parishioner there for around 30 years, and it was the ethic and spirit of St. Lucy’s that brought me back to regular worship in the church, a familiar story in that congregation.
Because of that, I appreciate what Davis and Driscoll were up against: For years, Mathews would help me with any column as long as it was not about him. But Davis had this vision: The community ought to officially raise a street sign on the 400 block of Gifford Street, renaming it as “Father Jim’s Way,” because those words say everything about St. Lucy’s and the Mathews legacy.
Corinne Driscoll told me how she and her late husband Neil, years ago, had grown increasingly disenchanted with what they felt was a sense of dust and dormancy in their old parish. Their daughter Tracy, as part of a student project at Le Moyne College, had visited St. Andrew’s — a parish Mathews also oversaw that was eventually folded by the diocese into St. Lucy’s.
“Mom,” Tracy told Corinne. “You’re not going to believe this priest.”
Corinne and Neil checked it out. What Mathews embodied, she said, was their vision of her faith:
Everyone is welcome at the table.
So Corinne was near the stage in the church hall Thursday with daughters Tracy and Corey, who serves as deputy mayor of Syracuse. The two sisters stepped forward to attempt what is never easy at St. Lucy’s: to try and get everyone to stop talking at the same time. Finally there was quiet, and Mayor Sharon Owens came forward to read a proclamation.
She talked about Mathews and his “humility, humor and commitment to serving others.” She spoke of how he nurtures “a compassionate and inclusive parish,” and how he helps anyone experiencing hardship, “regardless of religious affiliation.”
The mayor concluded by proclaiming Thursday to be “Father Jim Mathews Day” in Syracuse, and then tossed the lightning bolt:
As approved by the Syracuse Common Council, she held up a sign that declares how the 400 block of Gifford Street is now, formally, “Father Jim’s Way.”
Seated on the far end of the hall, Mathews lifted his sand wedge in the air.
Among those applauding was Vinnie Klementowski, a St. Lucy’s maintenance supervisor whose tenure goes back to Mathews’ predecessor and fellow legend, the Rev. James Carey. Klementowski and his prominent St. Lucy’s maintenance colleague, Snake, often provide a shoulder if Mathews needs a little support while moving around, which they see as simply returning the favor.
“A heart of gold,” Klementowski said.
Mary Keough, a fellow parishioner, founded Sarah’s Guest House, which provides hospitality for families or patients who travel to Syracuse for medical care. Keough moved recently to Troy, for family reasons. Yet St. Lucy’s is always “home,” she said, and Keough returned for the celebration, where she and her sister, Pat Eisenberg, emphasized the same point:
“St. Lucy’s changed him,” Keough said of Mathews. They described his years as pastor as “a conversion experience,” which was certainly accelerated by the late Sister Pat Bergan, who died in 2024. Bergan was formally called a “parish associate” but like Mathews — their back-and-forth banter during end-of-Mass announcements was unforgettable — she was a living vessel for the soul of the whole place.
To that point, and this is only a short list: St. Lucy’s offers the Bread of Life Ministry, a year-round volunteer effort to serve regular meals to the hungry. And the Agape Shop, which takes a similar approach with clothing. And a parish food pantry. And an operating base for the Catholic Worker on Wheels, which meets multiple needs. And a massive and joyous Christmas gift giving event, which provides thousands of gifts for Syracuse families in hard times.
Marie Rothbaler, in the parish hall Thursday with her her husband Ed, helps coordinate that giant Yuletide party. She recalled how more than $18,000 in gifts for that program were stolen a few years ago from a warehouse, and organizers feared it would be utterly impossible to recover in time for Christmas.
The community rallied. The gifts were all replaced, and more. To Marie, the tale recalls the Gospel story of the loaves and fishes, involving selfless effort and many true believers, which she sees as both truly Catholic and as, well:
Exactly what Mathews is.
Look, Mathews told me, those folks have it upside-down. “I’m grateful for all the people here, every one of them, for what they’ve taught me,” he said. “They have been my teachers.”
If so, here is one aspect of what he learned:
Paul Wittjung is a retired postal worker. For many years, he and his late wife Carole used to wake up early to prepare meals for people living on the streets, which Wittjung would then deliver to wherever those women and men were, in all weather.
After a while, a guy volunteered to help Wittjung every weekend: Jim Mathews. The gray-haired priest would ride along, sometimes traveling in the back seat for better get-the-food-ready efficiency. Mathews saw it as a bedrock part of his ministry. When Wittjung’s car was totaled in an accident, Mathews quietly used his own savings to buy another one so Wittjung did not miss a beat.
One day, while on their rounds, they came upon a man who desperately needed a pair of size 11 shoes. Wittjung was upset at himself. He had planned on bringing shoes to the man and it had slipped his mind. He was turning around to go to Wal-Mart to buy a pair when Mathews said, from the back seat:
You did bring them. They’re right here with all this donated clothing, in size 11.
A relieved Wittjung handed the man a beautiful new pair of running shoes, and then drove Mathews back to the rectory. When Mathews climbed out Wittjung noticed, with a jolt:
He was barefoot, not even wearing socks.
The old priest, it turns out, wears size 11.
Wittjung was moved, but not surprised. That is Father Jim’s way.
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