Fr. Paschal Scotti, O.S.B. 1961-2025

 Fr. Paschal Scotti, monk of Portsmouth Abbey, passed away on January 15, 2025, Feast of Saints Maurus and Placid, while praying the Divine Office with his community in the Church of St. Gregory the Great. 
 
Patrick Scotti was born on September 22, 1961 in Long Branch, New Jersey to Patrick and Rose (Bonanno) Scotti. Preceded in death by his parents, he is survived by his sister Angela and her husband Alfred Cheswick, Loch Arbour, N.J., and his four brothers and their wives: Robert and Wendy Scotti, Red Bank, N.J; Stephen and Joan Scotti, Yorktown, Va.; Michael and Lucy Scotti, St. Augustine, Fla.; and Thomas and Karen Scotti, Medfield, Ma., and many nieces and nephews, grand nieces and nephews. Fr. Paschal would spend two weeks each summer enjoying his family in Monmouth County, N.J., at the Jersey Shore. His mother Rose took great care of her son during his visits, a role later filled by his loving sister Angela who would host family gatherings at the beach, where Fr. Paschal would take long walks along the Asbury Park boardwalk, taking in the sun and the scents of the beach and surf. 

A voracious reader from his earliest years, he attended grade school at St. James Grammar and Red Bank Catholic High School in Red Bank, N.J. (class of 1979). While young Patrick did not play organized sports in high school given his bookish nature, he easily could have been a sprinter or long-distance runner in track and was a skilled wrestler. Fr. Paschal was a daily communicant during his high school years. He graduated from Columbia University in 1983 with a degree in history, consistently shaped by his faith and discerning early a monastic vocation. He joined the monastery the summer of his graduation and became a professed monk of Portsmouth in March of 1985. He received an M.Div. from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., and was ordained to the priesthood on May 21, 1989. He subsequently earned a degree in canon law (J.C.L.) from the Catholic University of America.

In 2006, the Catholic University of America Press published his study of the English Catholic man of letters Wilfrid Ward, entitled Out of Due Time: Wilfrid Ward and the Dublin Review. He was also published in the Catholic Historical Review, the Downside Review, the revised New Catholic Encyclopedia (and its online version), and the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought. His book about Galileo, Galileo Revisited: The Galileo Affair in Context, was published by Ignatius Press in the fall of 2017. Fr. Paschal was a dedicated and beloved teacher, serving for decades in the Departments of History, Humanities, and Christian Doctrine, where he was chairman for many years. He also served as assistant houseparent in St. Benet’s and St. Leonard’s dormitories, and continued to offer house Mass in the School dorms.
It is difficult to imagine a man more committed to his monastic discipline than Dom Paschal Scotti. His perseverance in monastic life and his adherence to the Divine Office were exemplary. It is telling that his final moments transpired in the monastic choir, just feet from the altar where he would offer daily Mass with the brethren, and in the very stall in which he offered daily prayer. He remained similarly dedicated in his personal relationships and professional obligations, fully engaged in friendship and discourse with his students, constantly committed to the “love of learning.” Many of his students remember and cherish conversations in the dining hall or along the walking paths, his pointed sense of humor, his encyclopedic knowledge.
 
His publication of articles and books on historical topics, his teaching of Christian Doctrine, Humanities and History, the ever-present book in hand, all were evidence of his relentless energy in pursuing greater knowledge. Fr. Paschal always seemed to remember Benedict’s admonition to “keep death daily before the eyes,” in his own frequent admonitions in homilies to remember that we are made for heaven, meant to be transformed by the supernatural power of God. He had little truck for a “lukewarm” faith, for spiritual indifference, for an unmoored religious life driven by the latest wind in contemporary thinking. His standards remained high, absolute, always seeking attunement to the eternal. An avowed and self-proclaimed “conservative,” he was direct and honest about his beliefs at all times, and could be counted on to tell it as he saw it. Here too, his candor and directness reflect much that we see in St. Benedict’s directives to monks. Along with his family, the communities of Portsmouth Abbey and Portsmouth Abbey School grieve the loss of this dynamic teacher and committed monk, whose tireless dedication served as a light to all.