King’s College Marks 80th Anniversary with Commemorative Mass

King’s College commemorated the 80th anniversary of its founding with a special Mass on Sept. 8, 2026, in the Chapel of Christ the King.  

The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, D.D., J.C.L., Bishop of Scranton, presided as the College community gathered to honor its history, give thanks for the generations who shaped King’s, and look toward the future of its Catholic and Holy Cross mission. 

The celebration took place exactly 80 years after the College’s first Convocation Mass, which was celebrated on Sept. 8, 1946. The first convocation was held at St. Mary’s Church, just a few blocks from the King’s campus. The Most Rev. William J. Hafey, then Bishop of Scranton, celebrated that first Mass and played an instrumental role in the founding of King’s College. 

Bishop Hafey invited the Congregation of Holy Cross to establish a Catholic college in Wilkes-Barre that would provide educational opportunities for the sons of the region’s coal miners. He also provided critical financial support during the College’s earliest years, helping King’s begin a mission that has since reached generations of students and more than 24,000 graduates. 

During the anniversary Mass, alumni representing different class decades were recognized, along with the faculty, staff, administrators, families, and friends whose service and support have sustained the College.  

“Over 22,000 alumni have gone forth from King’s, making great impacts in the fields of education, medicine, engineering, healthcare, business, and accounting, and raising families and love, giving back to their communities and caring for the poor and the marginalized, said Rev. Thomas P. Looney, C.S.C., Ph.D., president of King’s College. “Students continue to entrust their education to us because they want a life of meaning and of purpose. We are small, but we are mighty, and we are great. We do amazing, transformative work.” 

During the Mass, the community of Holy Cross priests and brothers at King’s presented Bishop Bambera with a first-class relic of St. Pius X as a symbol of the enduring connection among the Congregation of Holy Cross, the Diocese of Scranton, Catholic education, and King’s College. The Congregation has held the relic since 1950, when it brought it from Rome and placed it in the chapel of St. Pius X Seminary on the Stonehill College campus in Massachusetts. Rev. Thomas Campbell, C.S.C., who served on the seminary staff and later taught at King’s, brought the relic with him to the College. 

 The presentation to Bishop Bambera coincides with the re-establishment of St. Pius X Seminary in the Scranton Diocese.  Its presentation during the anniversary Mass recognizes the close and mutual relationship between the Diocese of Scranton and the Congregation of Holy Cross that has existed for the entirety of King’s College’s history.  

The anniversary celebration offered a moment to remember the College’s beginnings and renew its commitment to transforming students’ minds not only on how to make a living, but also on how to live.