Cardinal Rigali names
Joseph Sweeney to head
Catholic Human Services
Joseph J. Sweeney Jr. (Sarah Webb)
By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
Cardinal Justin Rigali has appointed Joseph J. Sweeney Jr. archdiocesan Secretary for Catholic Human Services. Sweeney, who was previously chief executive officer of Catholic Health Care Services, succeeds Msgr. Joseph A. Tracy, who has been appointed pastor of St. Stanislaus Parish, Lansdale.
“I’m humbled and honored by the appointment,” said Sweeney, the first lay person to head the secretariat. His new position gives him oversight of Catholic Social Services and Catholic Health Care Services, with more than 4,000 employees between them, as well as Nutritional Development Services and the Office for Community Development.
A Philadelphian by birth, he is a graduate of St. Helena School; Cardinal Dougherty High School, class of ’64, and La Salle College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He also holds a master’s of business administration degree from Duquesne University.
In his early career, beginning in 1981, he was employed by the Gulf Oil Corp. in Philadelphia, New York and Pittsburgh, first in marketing as a financial analyst and ultimately as a regional accounting manager for the marine division.
He also served as comptroller for the Henry Steward Company before coming into the archdiocesan system in 1985, when he was a director of finance for St. Francis Country House and later an assistant administrator.
“One of the attractions of the non-profit sector was, frankly, the mission,” said Sweeney.
He still proudly wears the fleur-de-lis lapel pin of the Sisters of Bon Secour who were in charge of St. Francis. His talent at that time, he explained, was in finance, and he felt he could assist non-profit agencies in that way.
The nursing homes, although under the umbrella of the Archdiocese, were somewhat autonomous when he started at St. Francis. Gradually they became more centralized with the creation of Catholic Health Care Services.
In 1992 he was named the first chief financial officer for CHCS and in 2004 was appointed to his last position, chief executive officer.
He and his wife, Agnes, whom he married in 1969, have been members of St. Andrew Parish in Newtown since 1980.
He was the first president of the parish CYO and collected door-to-door for the Catholic Charities Appeal.
The Sweeneys’ five children — Joseph III, Jennifer, Matthew Sean, Megan and Cara — all attended the parish school. Cara now teaches at St. Andrew School.
During his years with CHCS, Sweeney saw the system grow from a handful of nursing homes to a broad range of health care options that includes assisted living facilities, independent living facilities, a residence for women, the Parish Nursing Program and no-fee CCOPE (Catholic Care Options Program for the Elderly), which supplies support services for elderly poor who are not in CHCS’ residential facilities.
The much wider scope of his new position is really part of a continuum of care.
“It includes children in need, delinquent youth, families in crisis, all the way up to care for the elderly,” Sweeney said. “It is a unique opportunity to offer a spectrum of care no one but the Archdiocese offers.”
As a personal goal, “I want to maximize the effectiveness of Catholic Human Services,” Sweeney said. “I also want to expand and enrich the programs and seek out every funding opportunity to help reach that goal, because you can’t do it without funds.”
But in the final analysis, the work of Catholic Human Services on every level is really a vocation, not just a job.
“If you are not committed to the poor, to the young, to the elderly, to the disadvantaged or to those at risk, you are not going to stay,” Sweeney said.
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.
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