He’ll be able to take some things to his new home in Florida, though maybe not all the cuisine he loves at Reading Terminal Market or the views while running the Schuylkill River Trail.
Pauline Father Timothy Tarnacki, the departing director of the archdiocese’s Office for Ministry with Young Adults (OMYA), will bring 10 years of Philadelphia-based priestly ministry brimming with Eagles gear to his new assignment near Orlando, Florida.
He will more importantly bring memories of ministry and a deeper awareness of God’s presence and love forged through the City of Brotherly Love and the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown.
“In the past several weeks, the two feelings that I have been experiencing regarding my move are gratitude and being overwhelmed with kindness, love, and support as well as seeing the fruits of many things that the Lord has done throughout these ten years,” Father Tarnacki said.
“I am grateful to God for all my time at the Shrine and in the Archdiocese, grateful to see how his grace has been at work in me, in the ministries that I have led and in the gift of the priesthood that the Lord has bestowed upon me.”
The list of people he has to thank is long, ranging from Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez and Father Stephen DeLacy, vicar of the Office for Faith Formation with Youth and Young Adults, to the thousands of young adults and others he directly has worked with in his position.
Andrea Hall will be taking over the role that Father Tarnacki has served the past three years, the latest of his first 10 years of priesthood in the Pauline Fathers’ order.
Father Tarnacki came from Poland to live in Connecticut when he was 12. He and his family brought with them a love of the Virgin Mary through Our Lady of Czestochowa who plays a deeply important role in the history of his homeland.
“As I was growing up in the United States, coming from Poland and learning life in the United States and adjusting to the culture, learning the language, and just finding my place here, there was always this strong Polish identity in me,” he said.
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It made the choice of the Pauline Fathers, the Poland-based Order of St. Paul the First Hermit, an easier one as he discerned the priesthood by living and serving through the shrine in Doylestown before returning to Poland for seminary formation.
“Definitely there was a connection in finding this religious community and the Shrine, knowing that parts of formation can be done in Poland,” he said. “That was something that the Lord used to draw me in closer to him.”
He eventually came back to the Philadelphia area for his diaconate year before his ordination in 2016, settling in Philly for his first assignment through the Shrine.
“Many times priests will say that your first assignment is like your first love,” he said.
That first love involved many varied roles, from vocation director of the Pauline Fathers’ American Province to coordinating media for the shrine, teaching and serving homeschooled children, and launching Czestochowa Young Adults.
It has been hard to miss Father Tarnacki’s presence in young adult formation throughout the Philadelphia region whether it’s helping to lead the Sonrise Festival during Lent at the shrine in Doylestown or on a basketball court, taking and missing jump shots through Czestochowa Young Adults.
He said he never expected young adult ministry as a calling during his seminary formation, but God led him to help build relationships that continue to bear fruit.
“That has been finding a special charism and the gift in all of that. That really built up my priesthood and my ministry, building all of those relationships with young adults,” he said.
“I think there’s seven or eight married couples already from that young adult group [and] five seminarians who have entered different seminaries or communities from our young adult group. Now, those are just visible fruits. There’s so many more that are invisible.”
Father Tarnacki had the chance in July to witness another couple taking a significant step towards marriage when he traveled with them and dozens of other young adults to his native Poland during the recent OMYA pilgrimage there. A couple who came as pilgrims left engaged, and they plan to have Father Tarnacki concelebrate their wedding.
His new ministry comes at St. Mark the Evangelist Church in Summerfield, Florida, a Pauline parish an hour away from Orlando. He will get to meet his new parishioners over Labor Day weekend. His new role was announced in late April.
“It’s a relatively new parish built very close to The Villages, which is one of the largest retirement communities in the United States,” he said. “The parish is becoming very big [and] more intergenerational, where a number of years ago, there wasn’t any need for youth faith formation.”
He soon departs for Florida, carrying Philadelphia and the Lord’s work within and through him here to serve as the foundation for a new chapter of ministry.
“As a place of ministry and as a place of my priesthood, seeing the church through the lens of Philadelphia and ministry,” he said, “Philadelphia has a special place in my heart.”
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