New Middletown priest in hospital after crash

Staff report

new middletown

Members of St. Paul the Apostle Church in New Middletown are united in prayer for their pastor, who is in surgical intensive care at St. Elizabeth Health Center, Youngstown, after a car accident Wednesday.

The Rev. Stephen Popovich, 58, is in stable condition and is coherent, the Rev. John Jerek of the Diocese of Youngstown said Thursday.

“When things happen we rise to the occasion,” said Carol Craven, director of religious education at St. Paul. “The most important thing is that we carry on.”

Father Popovich was on his way to the Ohio State Penitentiary to minister to inmates when his vehicle slid on a patch of ice on Struthers Road, and a pick-up truck hit his vehicle and was then pushed into a tree.

Poland Township police responded and called Mahoning County to put down salt on the road. There were also multiple accidents on Western Reserve Road believed to be caused by the icy conditions.

Father Popovich has been the priest at St. Paul for the past three years. He was previously the priest at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Austintown and St. Lucy Parish in Salem. He was also a part of the faculty at Cardinal Mooney High School.

Craven said the church will continue services with the Rev. Nick Shori presiding as priest. Father Shori is the former St. Paul pastor.

There will be a prayer service for Father Popovich at St. Paul at 7 p.m. on Nov. 24, which is his birthday.

“In his behalf, he is definitely a man of the Lord,” Craven said. “He is compassionate, kind and totally a role model for us.”

Craven said children in the church, which has 80 families and about 2,000 people, made cards for Father Popovich.

“There is not a generation he does not appeal to,” Craven said.