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Northeast Catholic alumni Jim Kelly, \u201970, and Steve Cardullo, \u201972, members of the school\u2019s 100th Anniversary Committee, display their school ties during a Nov. 1 celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the school\u2019s founding. (Photo by Jay Sorgi)<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a special place for me,\u201d Ferris said, proudly displaying the bright red of \u2018North Catholic\u2019 on his own tie. \u201cEvery time I\u2019m here I get a little emotional. I graduated here. My son graduated here before they closed (in 2010). He was in the Class of 2007.\u201d<\/p>\n
Siblings, neighborhood kids-turned-adults and families took up much of the auditorium of the school which is now Mariana Bracetti Academy Charter School.<\/p>\n
Father Jack Kolodziej, a priest of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales which served the school and himself a 1987 graduate, celebrated Mass with close to a dozen concelebrants including several alumni of the school that served nearby Frankford and much of the \u201cGreat Northeast.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWelcome back to (the) place where for over 80 years, we\u2019ve gathered for prayer, for Mass, for study hall, and for JUG (Judgment Under Guidance),\u201d he said to a cacophony of laughter as he opened the Mass. \u201cWe gather here today to celebrate, to remember, and to enjoy the company of one another and all the saints who watch over us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Father Kolodziej saw this day as an ultimate homecoming, standing in a theater inside a school that occasionally had two flights of students taking classes each day due to the demand for Catholic education at the time.<\/p>\n
In that same auditorium, the school community had \u201cMasses like we\u2019re doing today, prayer services, lectures, study hall,\u201d he said after walking under the stone carving on Torresdale Avenue etched with the school\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an opportunity when I walked in to say, wow, so many memories and so many great, great lives that passed through here and again continue to be remembered and celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those lives included the Oblates, which he joined soon after his college graduation. The alumni celebrated the priests and many of the classmates and teachers whose influence still resonates today.<\/p>\n
\u201c(They) told us we could do whatever we wanted to do, (but) to be better, to be our best self,\u201d said Father Kolodziej. \u201cSt. Francis (de Sales) says, \u2018Be who you are, and be that well.\u2019 That was really implanted with me here in this building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oblate Father William Gore \u201859 preached the homily to alumni whose Northeast Catholic experience literally went beyond the walls of the concrete building.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came here, there wasn\u2019t enough room for our freshman class to come here. There were over 4,000 (students). There wasn\u2019t room for us,\u201d Father Gore said, explaining that freshmen often had to take classes at satellite locations within Northeast Philadelphia schools and parish buildings.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps the greatest tribute of this building for all of us is that long after the last class left here, this building still brings us all together because of what happened here. Today, we aren\u2019t just remembering the school. We\u2019re remembering the piece of our lives, the people who were here when we walked through those doors.\u201d<\/p>\n
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