Meet Monsignor LoPinto, pastor of St. Helen Church

If you have been to Mass at St. Helen R.C. Church over the past month, you might have noticed a new face - that of Monsignor Alfred LoPinto.
The 63-year-old clergyman, first ordained in 1970, was appointed pastor of St. Helen in September, and officially began serving the approximately 2,000 parishioners on October 1.
“[Howard Beach] is one of the great Catholic communities in the Diocese of Brooklyn,” he said. “[The people] are very, very warm, welcoming, gracious. After all my travels and different experiences, it is very nice to be back with people whose roots are similar to my own.”
A kind man, LoPinto, born in East New York, Brooklyn, told The Courier that his inspiration to become a man of the cloth was a priest in his own parish growing up.
“He was a very community-minded individual that lived for the people,” said LoPinto of his mentor.
LoPinto, after serving in his parish as a youth minister and later being ordained, was first assigned to Our Lady of Fatima in Jackson Heights for a year, then St. Gregory the Great in Bellerose, where he worked at length with the youth.
It was at that time that LoPinto, a student at the Columbia University School of Social Work, was assigned to Catholic Charities.
He graduated in 1983 with a master’s degree in social work, having concentrated on social services with an emphasis on organization.
“We’re permanent students, especially of humanity and trying to understand the struggles in people’s lives.”
From 1985 to 1990, LoPinto was appointed Executive Director for the Campaign for Human Development, the Bishop’s crusade against poverty.
In this capacity, LoPinto traveled to Washington - and throughout the country - as part of the program to help the poor.
In 1990, he was “put on loan” to the Diocese of San Bernardino in California to help with charity work and as the liaison of public social policy for the bishops of California. He also served as the Director of Catholic Charities in San Bernardino.
LoPinto explained that each diocese sponsors a Catholic Charities program that reaches out to people in need without discrimination - they are provided with food, housing, disabled services, social and mental health services, foster care, adoption, etc.
“These are tailor-made to each diocese,” he explained.
His service in California lasted seven years, at which time LoPinto was asked to become pastor of St. Gherese of Lisieux in Brooklyn, and then to St. Camillus in Rockaway for 18 months.
Eager to continue his service to people, in 2005, LoPinto was appointed by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio as the Vicar of Human Services throughout Brooklyn and Queens.
In this role, his primary responsibility was “overseeing Catholic Charities, housing and as a liaison with our children’s services and child care agencies,” he said.
After three years, LoPinto was named pastor of St. Helen, while still continuing his duties as Vicar.
Each of his many roles has proven both a challenge and a reward, he noted.
“To reach out and help people find joy in their lives and a relationship with God is more challenging than in the past, but we recognize that people want that more and more,” LoPinto said. “[We] help people recognize the beauty of the church and that it exists for them - help people discover the fullness of humanity and the joy of living. The greatest joy of a priest is serving people.”
He summed up his many years of service - and the many more to come - with a quote from St. Ignatius: “The joy of God and glory of God is the human person fully alive.”
St. Helen R.C. Church is located on 157th Avenue. For more information and a schedule of masses, visit www.sthelen.org.
For those wishing to help the less fortunate during the holiday season, St. Helen will be holding a food drive through Sunday, November 23. Non-perishable food items will be accepted.
Mass will be celebrated on Thanksgiving Day at 9 a.m.