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| Best Wishes Faithful Servant The end of the school year is always about goodbyes, but this year brings an especially big one: Pat Tierney, superintendent of Catholic schools, is retiring after 29 years.
Pat has seen a lot of changes since she assumed the post in 1980. • The faculty is almost exclusively laypeople. “We never got on the bandwagon that was the learning of the day. We stuck with the basics,” Pat said. But many things have stayed the same. The schools continue to teach an academically strong, faith-based curriculum in a safe, respectful environment. “I feel like I’ve accomplished a sense of community in the schools. Principal’s work well together and they depend on each other. That was one of the things I thought was really important,” she said. That sense of community is evident in such projects as the annual play at San José Catholic School that raises money for the Guardian Catholic Schools program at St. Pius V and Holy Rosary schools and the Catholic Charities annual food drive, she said. Pat said she’s also proud of the partnership the diocese has with Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) at the University of Notre Dame. The diocese was one of the first to hire the teachers-in-training 15 years ago and has employed 55 teachers since. “I’ve really enjoyed being part of that,” Pat shared. Pat attributes the growth of the school system to the stability provided by the 22 years that Bishop John J. Snyder headed the diocese. “That really contributed to our growth,” she said. “His leadership was priceless.” What makes Catholic schools relevant today more than ever, Pat emphasized, is our ability to educate the total child. “We feel if we can get children from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade then they are prepared to go to college and into society,” she said. “We don’t look at it as preparing them for just college, we prepare them for life. We give them the tools to make decisions when they go out into the world.” “Pat, as we bid you farewell, realize how much you will be missed. Thank you for what you have done for the diocese in helping our principals and teachers in forming the minds and hearts of our students,” said Bishop Victor Galeone. Pat said she hasn’t decided how she’s going to spend her retirement, but that it will involve some sort of volunteer work. “I’m going to let the Spirit lead me, but I’m not going to do nothing,” she said. “That’s not in my nature.” In June, Patricia Bronsard will assume the role of superintendent of Catholic Schools. She has served as associate superintendent in the diocese since July 1, 2005. – Lilla Ross
The opening talk on Tuesday, May 26 is entitled, “Theology as Biography” by Marist Father Johann Roten, president of the Mariological Society. The talk will begin at 7:30 p.m. Other talks include: “Storytelling about the Biblical Mary” by Marist Father Bert Buby, “The Virgin’s Hidden Past” by Stephen Shoemaker, Ph.D., “Biographies of Mary in Byzantine Literature” by Marist Father Luigi Gambero and “The Life of Mary in Film” by Catherine O’Brien and Michael Duricy. The final talk will be given on Friday, May 29 at 9 a.m. by Marist Father Francois Rossier, on “The Life of Mary as told by Contemporary Novelists.” For more details, call Marywood at (904) 287-2525 or visit: www.marywoodcenter.org.
On May 29, students of St. Michael Academy in Fernandina Beach, will say goodbye to the Dominican Sisters who have fostered a love for learning in their school. Sisters Barbara Becker, Gloria Glynn and Martha Rohde will not be returning to St. Michael’s next school year. They have been called by their order to accept new responsibilities. “To come to St. Michael Parish, to a school that had been closed for 30 years and to build an educational as well as a spiritual community in the school with deep bonds of affection in the parish was, I feel, one of our biggest accomplishments,” said Sister Martha, principal. In 1999, the sisters were invited to reopen a century-old academy. Sister Elizabeth Dunn was the founding principal serving the parish school for five years before she was elected provincial for the Southern Province of the Sinsinawa Dominicans.
More than 176 medals were awarded to boy and girl scouts of the diocese in a special ceremony with Bishop Victor Galeone at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine on Sunday, March 15. Bishop Galeone blessed the medals, which are a symbol of religious devotion, before calling the scouts forward to receive their award. “The symbols of religious devotion that you have brought to be blessed express your faith in various ways: they serve to bring to mind our Lord’s great love for us and to increase our confidence in the power of Mary and the saints to help us with our prayers. When we call down God’s blessing on these religious awards, our foremost concern must be that our Christian lives bear out the kind of witness we give by wearing them,” said Bishop Galeone during the ceremony.
The St. Augustine Regional Office of Catholic Charities honored four individuals that exemplify the spirit of the biblical Good Samaritan through their humanitarian service to others. The honorees were recognized at a dinner as part of the 15th annual Good Samaritan Awards at the Renaissance Resort at the World Golf Village. Recipients of the 2009 Good Samaritan Award are: Joan Clements of the Women’s Refuge of St. Johns County; Irene Greer of the Council on Aging; Kevin Partel, chairperson of the Cathedral Parish Festival and Ellen Walden of St. Johns County Social Services Hastings Clinic. This year’s event generated nearly $20,000 that will go towards Catholic Charities’ Homeless Prevention Program.
This spring, Prosperity Bank launched “Operation Restock” with the goal of collecting 1,000 non-perishable food items for local not-for-profit food banks, including Catholic Charities. “Over the past six months, 48 percent of the families that we have provided assistance to are requesting help for the first time. People who have lost their job, have had their work hours cut or experienced a medical crisis – causing them to have to make decisions around buying food for their families or paying the electric bill,” said Jennifer Garizio, associate director of Catholic Charities. “With the downturn in the economy, many food banks are in desperate need of replenishment to their pantries,” said Eddie Creamer, CEO and president of Prosperity Bank. “Our employees and customers were eager to lend support.”
Bishop Victor Galeone celebrated a Mass in honor of five sisters and one priest celebrating 275 years of service to the people of God. The jubilee ceremony was held Saturday, March 21 at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine, which was sponsored by the Diocesan Commission for Religious. Joining Bishop Galeone in celebrating their Silver and Golden Jubilees are from left: Sister of St. Joseph Christine Zimorski (50 years), Sister of St. Joseph Catherine Bitzer (50 years), Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Nancy Elder (50 years), Sister of St. Francis Xavier Eusebi Nant (25 years), Dominican Sister Anne Halpin (50 years) and Holy Ghost Father Patrick Carroll (50 years). Please keep all of our religious in your prayers and give thanks for their dedicated service.
St. Francis Catholic High School students took to heart Pope Benedict XVI’s Lenten exhortation to “freely embrace self-denial for the sake of our brothers and sisters.” Each Friday during Lent, the students were given an opportunity to fast on a simple lunch of rice. The participating students donated the money they would normally have spent on lunch to the Gainesville Regional Office of Catholic Charities. “What a wonderful opportunity for two groups to work together to live our mission in Christ,” said Marty Slevin, the school’s chef. “These acts of love and kindness will radiate in our community to touch the lives of so many people who hunger, not only for food and water, but to know our Lord,” he added. In the words of our Holy Father, “Through fasting and prayer we allow [Christ] to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.”
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How many times and in how many different ways through the ages has the story of Mary been told? The Mariological Society of America is hosting a national meeting at Marywood Retreat Center in St. Johns, May 26-29. The theme of the meeting is Telling Mary’s Story: The Life of Mary through the Ages. Several talks on Mary will be given by notable scholars and the public is invited to attend.
