Bishop Ronald Gainer of Harrisburg to be awarded 2020 Chaplain of the Year at 2021 Summit East

Bishop Ronald Gainer has been chaplain of Legatus’ Harrisburg Chapter since it chartered in 2016.

“I never miss a meeting,” said Bishop Gainer, who helped spearhead the chartering of Legatus’ chapters in Harrisburg, PA and Lexington, KY – where he was bishop for 11 years before being named bishop of Harrisburg in 2014.

Bishop Gainer will be honored as 2020 Legatus National Chaplain of the Year at Legatus’ 2021 Legatus Summit East. He recently spoke with Legatus magazine.

How did you first become acquainted with Legatus?

I was leading a diocesan pilgrimage for Lexington. We were in Rome in September 2005. We were in a hotel, getting ready to go to the papal audience on a Wednesday. There was another group assembling in the hotel lobby. I was dressed in my bishop’s cassock. A man whose face was familiar came over and asked my name. I introduced myself as Bishop Gainer. He put his hand out and said, “Tom Monaghan.”

He was there with Legates to present an offering to the Holy Father. I asked him how we could get Legatus in Lexington. Shortly thereafter, later, John Hunt contacted me and asked if I was still interested. We met and began to form the Chapter. It took five years to charter. I was the chaplain there the whole time.

What value does Legatus offer the Church?

It takes our Catholic professionals and business people and enriches their faith, their marriages, their family lives through the fraternity, the gathering, the praying together, the Mass, the opportunity for Confessions and hearing quality presentations on the Catholic faith, and the integration of that faith into people’s professional lives. To be with the group each month is very uplifting. They help me be more enthusiastic about my own ministry as a bishop and my service to the Church. I’m really inspired by the faith lives of those people who are striving to even be more fervent Catholics.

When did you first feel called to the priesthood?

I went to Catholic grade school and high school. We had Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in grade school. They created a true culture for religious vocations. I can remember my third-grade sister saying to me, “Mr. Gainer, I can see you saying Mass.” That created an image in my heart and mind. So, for much of grade school, most of my classmates thought seriously at one time or another about being priests.

When I went to high school, I lost that. I enjoyed the sciences and math. My two best friends were headed to Villanova University for engineering. I was also accepted there. But my high school principal, who was a priest and the vocations director of the Allentown diocese, called me into the office in January and asked me if I was thinking about the seminary. I had not been. He told me that I would never be happy in life unless I looked into it. It was about a three-minute meeting, but it changed things. That September, I was at the seminary instead of Villanova.

What difficult challenges do you face as a bishop?

To be that representative of Christ the Great High Priest, to draw the diversity into a harmony, to keep the sometimes contentious factions still respecting one another and unified in serving the mission of Christ and His Church — I think that’s the greatest challenge as more of our local churches mirror a very uncivil society. I find my greatest challenge is to help people respect the differences among the faithful and still to be a united family of faith.