Father Cherubini retires from Holy Spirit

It’s safe to say that few in the Diocese of Camden have been acquainted with Father Perry Cherubini longer than Claire Collins.

“I’ve known him since his earliest days as a priest.  When he was parochial vicar at Blessed Sacrament, Margate, I was the music director. Then, a year after I became the chair of the Holy Spirit High School music department in 1997, he joined the faculty.”

At Holy Spirit, she saw every day his “deep concern for and dedication to Catholic education and students. He’s always had a supportive way about him, and the students always know he’s behind them 100%.”

After learning that Father Cherubini was stepping down from his duties as president of the Absecon school effective July 1, Collins said she’ll miss the “gracious manner and spiritual way” of her longtime friend. “It’ll be a little bit lonelier without him walking the halls.”

Father Cherubini agreed. “I’m going to miss everything that’s inside the building … students, staff and faculty.”

Father Cherubini has been Holy Spirit’s president since 2008, but his relationship with the school and its surrounding Catholic community can be traced further back.

Before his time in the seminary – and eventual 1985 ordination as a priest of the Diocese – he had his eye on the classroom, majoring in elementary education at LaSalle University and spending a year teaching fifth grade at Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Roxborough, Pa.

In fall 1998, he entered the halls of Holy Spirit as a faculty member in the Religion Department. For six classes a day, he taught morality and social justice, helping students “learn, understand and respect Church teaching.”

Father Cherubini, during this time, resided at Margate’s Blessed Sacrament Parish, whose pastor, Father Lewis Battisti, had spent 30 years at Holy Spirit High School, including times as its principal.

“He was a great man; I learned a lot from him,” Father Cherubini recalled.

Another face he became familiar with was Amy Evans, who also began her teaching career in 1998. “We became great friends through the commonality of our first-year struggles,” Evans remembered.

She continued, “He taught me how to develop a relationship with students, how to get them to trust you and relate to you, and be someone they could talk to.”

She said she will miss Father Cherubini, his lessons and his cooking. Every year, the school community looked forward to his famous meatballs, she says, which he would make during events like the school play.

“I wish him all the best. He’ll always be a part of the Holy Spirit community,” said Evans, now chair of the school’s English Department.

In 2001, Father Cherubini was named vice principal of Gloucester Catholic High School, Gloucester City. For the next five years, while teaching religion, he became a student to John Colman, who was then head of school. “I learned a lot from him about school administration, which helped me later,” Father Cherubini said.

In 2006, he left Catholic education to become pastor of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Absecon, but two years later, returned to Holy Spirit as its president.

“This became a special time,” he recalled, “having the opportunity to work with the teachers and students that I already knew from Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.”

As well, he came to know and love “the dedicated teachers, students, staff and alumni of Holy Spirit who bleed blue and gold.”

Looking back on his proudest moments during his time as president, he mentions the school’s 2013 capital campaign, where the community shared its “time, talent, and treasure” in raising money and facilitating improvements to classrooms, labs and locker rooms, and providing families with tuition assistance.

He is thankful for the school’s Parker Family Foundation, for their generous financial assistance to students, and helping the school build a state-of-the-art training facility; Tom Reynolds, whose financial aid enabled the school to boost its electrical capacity, and for the “tremendous work” of the school’s mother’s and father’s clubs over the years.

“Some of the parents haven’t had students in the school [for some time],” he said, calling their continued investment in the school “a gift; they’re so important.”

This past year, as the school celebrated its 100th year, Father Cherubini saw a community that “really, truly loves” Holy Spirit gather in Hall of Fame ceremonies, school plays, service days and beach bashes.

He acknowledged that his role as president meant he couldn’t spend time in the classrooms as much, but his focus remained on the students.

His frequent meetings with potential school benefactors “was for each and every student in the building,” Father Cherubini said. “Holy Spirit’s students kept me going every day.”

He knows that building relationships, and engaging in conversations with possible donors was vital to reach the goal of “providing everyone an opportunity for a Catholic school education.”

The two-pronged battle of finding families who want the gift of Catholic education, and financially helping those who do, “is not easy, but is worth every minute of the fight,” he explained.

At his last high school graduation as president two weeks ago, Father Cherubini stood in Saint Joseph Church with Dr. Tom Farren, school principal, to acknowledge the hard work of the Spartan seniors and wish them well in their future endeavors.

The school community also acknowledged the priest pillar, presenting him with its “Caritas Omnia Vincit” (Love Conquers All) award.

“Father Cherubini is all about the people he works with; he finds joy in each of them and wants them to succeed,” Dr. Farren said of the man he has worked with since becoming principal in 2019.

“He’s been that foundation of Catholic schools for so many,” he continued. “With his sense of optimism, he could always find God’s plan in everything. I’m going to miss our conversations. He’s a great mentor.”

As he steps into a new chapter, Father Cherubini is grateful for the students and families he’s encountered “in the classroom, on the fields, on the rivers, on the courts and on the stage,” he said.

Maybe the greatest gift from this experience, he said, are the generations of Absecon faithful he’s come to know.

“Some of the students from my first years teaching, I married them and baptized their children, who are now in Holy Spirit as well,” Father Cherubini said. To be a part of, and be witness to, that legacy of Catholic education, and that desire for the faith, “is the deepest, greatest reward.”