Holy Child

IN  12-STEP meetings, there's a "no cross-talk" policy. After a member says his peace, the group responds, "Thanks for sharing. " No one comments any further. After listening to families at St. Bridget's School describe their meeting with the Philadelphia Archdiocese to ask that their school remain open, I'm wondering if they stumbled into a 12-Step gathering instead of an appeals hearing. Because the response they've gotten to their respectfully expressed concerns is, basically, "Thanks for sharing.

Actress Marcella E. "Meg" Gallagher, 50, a native of Bryn Mawr, died of chronic liver disease May 27 in Santa Monica, Calif. Ms. Gallagher was best-known for her work on the after-dark soap opera Dallas. From 1979 to 1981, she played the role of Louella, J.R. Ewing's secretary and one of the suspects in the infamous "Who Shot J.R.?" cliffhanger. One of 14 children, Ms. Gallagher graduated from Rosemont School of the Holy Child, where she competed in swimming and horseback riding, and attended Pine Manor College in Massachusetts.

Erica McLaughlin of Lansdowne, a seventh grader at the School of the Holy Child in Drexel Hill, works on her entry in a contest to build the tallest possible tower during Engineering Career Day. Engineers from Drexel University visited yesterday to help the students.

Overcoming both cultural and linguistic barriers, Bee and Ka Zoua Xiong and Xing Yang have gone from war-torn Southeast Asia to a new life in the United States. These three children attend the Rosemont School of the Holy Child, where on June 1 Bee Xiong and Xing Yang graduated from the eighth grade. Sister Mary Broderick, Head of School at the Rosemont School of the Holy Child, said that the remarkable experiences of these children have meant "they have contributed as much to our students" as the other students have to them.

For the last 10 years, Kathy Kerrigan has been fascinated by a centuries- old question: Why did the Maya civilization abandon its cities? Kerrigan, a teacher at the School of the Holy Child, has spent her summers digging in Maya ruins, working at the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, and traveling to archaeological conferences. She has shared her knowledge with her elementary students, and this week, she opened her classroom to the world through a multimedia project called MayaQuest.

Until this school year began, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia had never had a black nun serving as principal of an elementary school. Now it has three. St. Elizabeth's parish in North Philadelphia will note the milestone by honoring the nuns during a parish reunion this weekend. One of the nuns, Sister Mary Norbert, is the principal of St. Elizabeth's. The others are Sister Marilyn Hopewell, principal of Holy Child, in the Logan section, and Sister Barbara Boynton, principal of St. Ignatius of Loyola in West Philadelphia.

Sister Aquilla Peterson, 61, of Rosemont, a social worker, died of lung cancer Tuesday, Dec. 21, at Bryn Mawr Hospital. Sister Aquilla grew up in North Philadelphia and graduated from Germantown High School. She earned a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1972 and later earned a master's degree in social work from Bryn Mawr College. Sister Aquilla was a case worker at the North Central Community Health Center and at the West Philadelphia Mental Health Consortium.

Lynda Arnold never expected to be an author. Her dream was to be a nurse. But fate had other plans. In May 1992, Arnold was a recent nursing graduate of York College and was enjoying her work as an intensive-care nurse at the Community Hospital of Lancaster. Five months later, while inserting an IV line into a patient, Arnold was accidentally pricked with a needle through her gloved hand and infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. "He [the patient] moved his right hand and the needle made a J-shaped tear into my left palm.

One afternoon a couple of months ago, a new priest at St. Hugh's parish in Kensington walked into one of the school's classrooms to observe the teacher and her fourth-grade pupils. The kids were dressed in uniforms and the teacher was following a standard lesson plan. "He watched for at least a half-hour, and later commented on what a nice class it was. Finally, the teacher told him he wasn't in a Catholic school - this was a public school," said Gaeton Zorzi, principal of the Cramp School at Howard and Ontario streets.

It's been 37 years since 4-year-old Meg Walters toddled into the Rosemont School of the Holy Child, all ready for kindergarten. "I was kind of young, but the school was just starting, and it was desperate to get kids," said Walters. "Mother had 10 children - five boys and five girls - so I guess she didn't mind sparing me. " Walters, 41, now is an English teacher and assistant head of the school, which goes from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. "I do the traditional," said Walters.

"DESPITE. " Of all the words in the totally depressing "important communique" from St. Blaise Regional Catholic School, that one word — "despite" — underscores why so many parents have rejected St. Blaise as the educational choice for their kids. Posted on the school's website on Friday, the letter, penned by East Falls and Manayunk parish priests, laments that just 155 students have registered for the 2012-13 academic year at St. Blaise. That's 95 fewer kids than the 250 needed to pay for teachers' salaries and programs come September.

IN  12-STEP meetings, there's a "no cross-talk" policy. After a member says his peace, the group responds, "Thanks for sharing. " No one comments any further. After listening to families at St. Bridget's School describe their meeting with the Philadelphia Archdiocese to ask that their school remain open, I'm wondering if they stumbled into a 12-Step gathering instead of an appeals hearing. Because the response they've gotten to their respectfully expressed concerns is, basically, "Thanks for sharing.

Sister Aquilla Peterson, 61, of Rosemont, a social worker, died of lung cancer Tuesday, Dec. 21, at Bryn Mawr Hospital. Sister Aquilla grew up in North Philadelphia and graduated from Germantown High School. She earned a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1972 and later earned a master's degree in social work from Bryn Mawr College. Sister Aquilla was a case worker at the North Central Community Health Center and at the West Philadelphia Mental Health Consortium.

Sarah Mozino Curtin, 64, of Rosemont, a Realtor, golfer, church volunteer, and breast-cancer survivor, died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, Sunday, March 28, at home. Mrs. Curtin grew up in Drexel Hill and Villanova and graduated from Rosemont School of the Holy Child. After earning a bachelor's degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, she sold houses for her father, Joseph S. Mozino, a well-known Delaware County builder. In 1968, she married John J. Curtin.

Barbarann Skelly Wright, 77, of Wallingford, a former teacher and Republican official in Delaware County, died of metastatic colon cancer May 6 at the Vitas Hospice of Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby. Born in New York City, Mrs. Wright earned her bachelor's degree in history from Rosemont College in 1953 and her master's degree in education from Villanova University in 1955. She taught at the School of the Holy Child in Sharon Hill from 1953 to 1955, said her husband, Roland, and at what was then Bala Cynwyd Junior High School from 1956 to 1967.

Eileen Selmi Masterson, 78, of Wayne, the one-time "Voice of Villanova" who greeted callers to the university, died of heart disease May 20 at Bryn Mawr Hospital. For almost two decades, Mrs. Masterson worked at Villanova University, most recently as an assistant manager in telecommunications until she retired in 2000. It was her distinctive voice - deep and sultry, like a "Lauren Bacall voice," said her son, Thomas A. Masterson - that was heard on the voice mail system and that was how she got the nickname.

Anna Marie Sesso, 72, of Norristown, former chairwoman of the pediatrics department of Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, died of pulmonary fibrosis Thursday at home. Dr. Sesso joined the pediatrics staff of Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby in 1971 and was appointed department chair in 1974. For almost 20 years, she also was associated with Thomas Jefferson University as a faculty member and staff pediatrician. In 1989, she joined the faculty of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in New Brunswick and was a pediatrician and administrator at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, N.J. Her students nicknamed her Mom, her brother-in-law, Dr. Peter Ganime, said.

Faced with rising costs, two more Catholic elementary schools in the city will close in June, and two parishes will merge, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced yesterday. Although St. John the Baptist School in Manayunk won a reprieve a year ago, parents learned at Mass over the weekend that their efforts were not enough to keep the school open. And so Manayunk, which had five Catholic elementary schools last year, will have only one in September - Holy Child, a regional school.

John R. McConnell, 88, a longtime Philadelphia trial lawyer and former chancellor of the city bar association, died Friday at his Gladwyne home. He had congestive heart failure. Over more than four decades in the Philadelphia courts, Mr. McConnell represented the Reading Railroad, the Philadelphia Bulletin, Philadelphia Electric Co., the city school district, and Villanova University. He also tried several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, his family said. "He was an extremely humble man, for as accomplished as he was, he would never tell you that," said his daughter Jane McConnell Greenspun.

His knives carefully arranged at his side, Steve Clarke stretched his neck, flexed his wrists and took a few deep breaths. Then he looked expectantly at Mark Glickman. Glickman checked his watch and said, "Now!" It was 10:35 on a sunny Saturday morning, and the world's fastest pumpkin-carver - as Clarke cheerfully kept reminding everyone he was - set to work. First the right eye. Then the left. His arm pumped rhythmically as he sawed through the vivid orange of the first of 100 pumpkins.