News
Students, leaders reflect on school changes
Compromise, teamwork and respect. That’s what it took for four struggling parish schools to come together and successfully form a thriving regional school. “We opened one year ago September,” said John Mundy, principal of Levittown’s Holy Family Regional School formed though the consolidation of Queen of the Universe, Immaculate Conception, St. Frances Cabrini and St. […]
Mission schools: Two success stories
Most of the attention from the Blue Ribbon Commission Report to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has been focused on the recommendations for consolidation; achieving cost savings through the creation of new schools through combining two or more existing schools. Less attention has been given to the recommendation that “mission schools” be established in neighborhoods where […]
School offers lessons students can bank on
A class of wiggling, chattering kindergarteners were silenced in curiosity as they watched their teacher talk to a bank teller about opening up an account to save for a new bicycle. Patty Price, a teacher at St. Andrew School in Newtown, animatedly explained to the little learners what she was doing at this student-operated branch […]
New director ready to lead growth
One of Damon Owens’ greatest satisfactions as he takes the helm as the Theology of the Body Institute’s first executive director is that he’s overseeing an organization that’s already a success. His role is to lead the seven-year-old Exton-based group through a time of growth. “I’ve been in awe of what’s been accomplished so far, […]
St. Leo Parish holds first Spanish Mass
Face it. Sermons at times can be more tedious than uplifting, and if you don’t speak the language they can be murder. At least that’s how the families of the mostly Irish industrial workers of Tacony felt in the early 1880s when the only Catholic chapel in the area was at St. Vincent German Orphanage. […]
Deacon William Shire Jr. dies at 70
Deacon William F. Shire Jr. was a permanent deacon at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Levittown since he was ordained May 31, 2008 at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul. “Bill Shire is someone everybody referred to as just a good man,” said Father Michael C. DiIorio, pastor of St. Michael the […]
Closures to impact Catholic League
The year is 1982. In the Catholic League Northern Division football quarterfinals, a Bishop McDevitt team that had squeezed into the playoffs with a 3-3-2 record blindsides Father Judge, 10-0, and leaves legendary Judge coach Whitey Sullivan staring in utter disbelief as the seconds drip away and melt what seemed like a sure Catholic League […]
Father Jerome Pohl, active in ministry to Polish community, dies at 79
St. Joseph Church in Oborniki, Poland, was standing room only for the Jan. 13 funeral of Father Jerome Pohl, who died Jan. 9 in Philadelphia. School students, young adults and numerous orders of nuns and priests filled the pews and aisles in tribute to a priest whose whole life was devoted to God and to […]
Father Santo R. Garzarelli dies
Father Santo R. Garzarelli, a retired priest and resident of St. Francis Country House in Darby, died on Thursday, Jan. 19. Father Garzarelli was ordained for the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in 1961, and was incardinated into the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 1975. He served in Hong Kong, India, and New Guinea, and […]
Principal garners top honors
Last October, when the annual Catholic school administrators’ conference was held in Avalon, N.J., Immaculate Heart Sister Virginia Paschall was startled when she received a Distinguished Principal Award. Her school, Blessed Virgin Mary in Darby, certainly isn’t large. It has at this point 214 students K-8, and it’s a struggle; Darby is by no means […]