About 20 years ago, when I was beginning my second stint at writing this column in a long and lackluster career, I decided to interview John Mooney who at the time was holding down six or seven positions at the then very much alive St. James High School.
I, a product of 12 years plus one summer of public school education, never could understand why anyone would want to go there. Think about it. Classes in Latin and religion, a requirement that you wear a collared shirt and necktie to class, priests who would whack you upside the head for the slightest infraction of the rules and worse yet, no girls!
The editor put a headline on the article, "The Mystique of St. James." Today, I understand that mystique a lot better than I did then.
It came even closer to home when the Philadelphia Archdiocese decided to merge a couple of parochial schools, St Madeline-St. Rose in Ridley Park and St. Gabriel in Norwood, into St. James Regional Catholic School. A lot of Catholics don't think the archdiocese has been making many popular decisions lately.
The Blue Ribbon Commission in charge of such matters apparently got it right this time, thanks in no small part to the two principals at the merged schools, the Rev. Samuel Verruni and the Rev. Louis Bellopede, and the never-say-die St. James High Alumni.
To the hundreds of still active and energetic St. James alumni, this was great news. The old school at 21st and Potter streets in Chester may be gone, but that grand name will carry on. I doubt if many of the old Bulldogs were happier than Jamie Baroni, who would have been in the Class of 1994 were it not for the school's closing.
Baroni had attended St. Gabriel's, along with his five younger siblings -- Kevin, Lauren, Jeff, Jillian and John. Larry and Rosemarie raised the family in Folcroft, making sure their kids not only went to parochial school, but Catholic high schools -- St. James, Bonner and Prendergast -- as well.
Larry Baroni was a truck driver and part-time construction worker. You have to wonder about the sacrifices he and his wife had to make to keep their children in parochial schools.
Jamie had completed his junior year when St. James closed. "I was crushed," he said. "All the time you're at St. James you look forward to being a senior, and then it was taken away." He spent his senior year at Bonner where, thanks to faculty and fellow students, the experience wasn't all that bad.
"Bonner did a great job of making us feel welcome," Baroni said. "My diploma has both St. James and Bonner names on it, and the St. James guys were permitted to walk down the aisle at graduation wearing blue gowns. We were the last to do that."
After graduation, Baroni continued his association at St. Gabriel's. He coached track and field at the school for 11 years, passing on the techniques he learned as a member of the track team at St. James. "My wife, who was Carolyn Beluca when we married, also went to St. Gabe's," Baroni said, "and our kids, Mia, in third grade, and Vincenzo, in first, are carrying on the family tradition."
They all can be thankful to a small but dedicated group of alumni who refused to sit back when the archdiocese decided to close St. James. Bob McLauglin was president of the alumni when they heard the news. He wasted no time in organizing a counterattack.
"Within in two weeks, we had phone banks installed in the school, and with the help of alumni, friends and students we began soliciting funds to keep the school open," McLaughlin said. "This was before email and the Internet, but within two weeks we had raised almost $500,000 in pledges.
"We approached the archdiocese about selling us the building for $100,000. Failing that, we suggested that we sign a 10-year lease for $1 a year which would relieve the archdiocese from the financial burden of maintenance and insurance and other costs." The archdiocese wasn't buying.
But from that initial defeat, something rather wonderful occurred. That initial band of 20 or 30 alumni has mushroomed into a probably the largest and most active alumni in the entire Delaware Valley with 1,550 dues-paying members who have provided more than $600,000 in tuition assistance to young men and women. A half-dozen charitable organizations also have benefitted from the alumni's generosity.
"That St. James spirit and membership continues to grow where it is today through the efforts of good men and women who cherish the values of St. James and Catholic education," McLaughlin said. But he warns the battle is far from over.
"High school Catholic education will be resurgent only if grade school education is successful," he warned. "The STJ Alumni and St. James Catholic Regional School can offer such a model by establishing a 'Big Brother' sponsorship for boys and girls from K-8. We can be a model for stemming the loss of Catholic schools and signal a strategy to other regions to make similar lasting partnerships for future growth."
That mystique I wrote about more than 20 years ago is becoming clearer all the time.
Ed Gebhart is a retired public relations executive. His column appears Sunday.
