Title
Honoring and Congratulating Saint Monica School On Its Centenary Year -- 1908 - 2008.
Body
The Council of the City of Philadelphia is pleased and proud to join with His Eminence Justin Cardinal Rigali, distinguished clergy, parishioners of Saint Monica Parish, and proud past and present staff and students of Saint Monica School in celebrating this great school's One Hundredth Anniversary.
WHEREAS, In 1895, Archbishop Patrick J. Ryan established a new parish named Saint Monica to serve the spiritual needs of the growing population in the area of Passyunk in South Philadelphia. The Reverend Owen P. McManus was appointed pastor and directed "to undertake the work of organizing the new parish and building a church and a school on Ritner Street." Groundbreaking took place for a permanent church in 1901 and it was dedicated on April 30, 1903. In 1906, the parish broke ground for Saint Monica School and it was dedicated on November 2, 1908; and
WHEREAS, The Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who had been teaching Sunday School since the founding of the parish in 1895, agreed to staff the new school, with six hundred children rapidly filling its enrollment. The Sisters, together with a supportive clergy, committed lay faculty and dedicated parishioners, set the high standard that remains to this day -- educating the children of the community spiritually, academically, and morally. Thousands of students have been educated there and have gone on to distinguish themselves in many fields of endeavor, using wisely the sound moral basis they received at St. Monica School to contribute in numerous ways to building a better world; and
WHEREAS, Today, Saint Monica School continues to serve the South Philadelphia community and prepare its students to successfully meet the challenges of the future through literature, mathematics, technology, the arts, and especially, through moral values. The school takes great pride ...
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