Even when [Dion DiMucci] first felt the thrill of a hit record, he would still stop at the church and talk with Msgr. Joseph Pernicone, who pushed him when he was a teenager to think about the meaning of love or happiness."He once asked me, 'Dion what would make you happy?'" Dion said as he settled into a pew at the back of the church. "'Well, there’s this girl Susan I’d love to get close to. And while you’re at it, throw in a hit record and a Thunderbird.'"
"No, Dion. The virtuous man is the happy man," the monsignor replied.
"I had no idea what he meant," Dion said. "But he told me, it’s the predisposition to do the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reason."
He sat and looked around the sanctuary, which was bathed in a soft, golden light.
"I wouldn’t be sitting here right now if not for him," he said. "I got lost in my life. But I eventually came back to what he taught me."
