Posted December 31, 2008

* A new daily Mass chapel was blessed at St. Martin of Tours Church, Philadelphia, in January.

* The Archdiocese announced that it intends to build two new high schools. Pope John Paul II High School in Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County, which is projected to be completed by 2010, and the new Lansdale Regional Catholic High School to be completed in Hilltown, Bucks County, by 2012.

* St. Mary Magdalen Church in Media completed its new $9.1 million complex. The church features beautiful altars and stained glass windows from closed archdiocesan parishes. Cardinal Rigali blessed the complex in April.

* In May, St. Philip Neri, Lafayette Hill, opened a $5 million parish center that includes a new gymnasium.

* In June, a new playground for St. Luke the Evangelist, Glenside, opened.

* The tabernacle at Sacred Heart Church, Royersford, was relocated to the center of the sanctuary in August.

* At St. Helena School, Blue Bell, the Cardinal blessed a $1.5 million addition in September.

* Also in 2008: a $13 million education center at Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Parish in Limerick; a multi-purpose center featuring a gymnasium at St. Ephrem Parish, Bensalem; a chapel and parish center at St. John Fisher Parish, Boothwyn; and a parish center at Mother of spanine Providence, King of Prussia. Drexel Neumann Academy in Chester built a new playground and renovations were completed at St. Catherine of Siena Church, Horsham, including a new vestibule and marble altar consecrated by Cardinal Rigali.