By Jennifer Mauro, Managing Editor,
and Peter G. Sánchez, Staff Writer
Ray and Alisa Morales spent the afternoon of Jan. 30 with their two grandchildren at Saint Mary School in Vineland.
As the school gym filled with the sounds of prayer, games and laughter, the couple praised what a Catholic education has meant to their family. “We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful school in our community that values all aspects of education. Along with a very strong academic program, our children grow spiritually, socially and physically with a strong conviction for service to others.”
That sentiment was not only expressed across the Diocese of Camden from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3 – it was lived out as Catholic school students, their families and clergy and religious men and women celebrated Catholic Schools Week.
Eugenio Ventura, a senior at Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill, said he was thrilled to be joined Jan. 29 by Bishop Dennis Sullivan in making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Camden’s Cathedral Kitchen. The Bishop and diocesan staff lent a hand to the school’s Monday Sandwich Ministry.
“Having the Bishop in attendance created an entirely different atmosphere,” he said. “Nobody was distracted by their cell phones. Everybody was living in the moment.”
Feeding the local community hits close to home for Ventura, who lives in Camden. “I see the need first-hand as well as the impact we make on the community. Helping is such a beautiful thing to do, and I wouldn’t mind doing it for the rest of my life.”
In addition to Camden Catholic, Bishop Sullivan led prayers and pitched in for Bingo with students’ grandparents in Vineland, and was on hand as Holy Angels Catholic School, Woodbury, honored first-responders with refreshments and care packages.
In Merchantville, families joined the Saint Peter School community for breakfast Jan. 28 in the parish’s Pastors Hall. The meal was hosted, cooked and served by the Knights of Columbus Council #6735.
“We’re serving scrambled eggs, home fries, bacon, pork roll, orange juice, coffee and tea,” Grand Knight Tom Fisher said before feeding 125 individuals, which included the parish pastor, families, school administration and faculty.
Fisher has experienced the value of a Catholic education, as a product of Catholic schools himself in Philadelphia, and having two sons, Thomas and Daniel, attend and graduate from Saint Peter School.
“All of my sons have received good Catholic values here, and grown in their faith and manners,” he explained.
Another happy family served by Fisher and the Knights of Columbus were the Deiwerts – mother Tina and her daughters Bianca (Saint Peter seventh-grader), and graduates Briana and Brynn.
“It’s been a joy and a pleasure to send my children to Catholic school,” Tina Deiwert said. “I attribute at least half of the successes that they’ve achieved to Catholic education and what it has fostered in my daughters. I adore this place.”
With her two oldest now at Camden Catholic, “I wanted to continue their [Catholic] schooling because I saw the investment and the return they were getting. They’re all going to go on to become successful adults.”
Nick Bozza has seen that investment, too. Thirty-five years ago, he began a career in education as a third-grade teacher at Saint Rose of Lima School in Haddon Heights. Seven years later, in 1996, he moved to Washington Township public schools, where he taught elementary students until his retirement last June. This school year, he returned to Catholic schools as a guidance counselor in Vineland.
“[It] feels like a breath of fresh air,” he said of being at Saint Mary School and returning to a Catholic atmosphere, where he witnesses the wonderful work ethic of the students.
At the school, “I can be more of myself,” he said. “I can integrate my faith into lessons, such as sharing the stories of saints like Teresa of Calcutta and Katharine Drexel.”
Michael Bress, communications and marketing manager for the Diocese of Camden’s Office of Catholic Education, contributed to this report.
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