Matthew Gurcsik, Lucas Vinci and Kathryn DiGiacomo present Bishop Sullivan with the gifts during the Baccalaureate Mass he celebrated June 2 for Paul VI High School in Haddonfield. (Mike Walsh)
With South Jersey’s Catholic high school graduates ready to set off on new adventures, Bishop Dennis Sullivan urged all to “do so with enthusiasm. Carry God in your deepest self.”
During Baccalaureate Masses and commencement exercises June 1-5 for the five diocesan Catholic high schools – Holy Spirit, Absecon; Camden Catholic, Cherry Hill; Gloucester Catholic, Gloucester City; Paul VI, Haddonfield, and Wildwood Catholic Academy, Wildwood – Bishop Sullivan offered some parting lessons to the young women and men.
“If you have God in you and with you, even when there’s darkness that you may experience, you can see the light,” he said. “Go to the Lord with your weaknesses, failures, problems, disappointments and sins, and he will recreate you. He will make you new.”
He also thanked the graduates’ parents and guardians for choosing Catholic schools. Noting that he was “well aware of the expense,” he called it “worth the sacrifice … because your child has been given an education of the heart, formation for life. They have been introduced to moral principles, encouraged to build their futures on a spiritual foundation. They have been safely schooled in an environment where respect for others is expected. They have been guided by committed advisers, teachers, administrators who look at your child [and see] a child of God. Students have been taught the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, light and darkness.”
Across the Diocese of Camden, more than 800 students graduated from Catholic high schools: 605 from diocesan high schools and more than 200 from private institutions. Combined, more than $145,298,050 in scholarships was distributed.
Regarding diocesan Catholic high schools: 512 students are going on to a four-year college; 52 to a two-year college; 15 to a technical/trade school, and four into the U.S. military, one of whom is a Paul VI graduate accepted to the U.S. Military Academy West Point.
Congratulating these schools on such accomplishments, Bishop Sullivan urged the graduates to “always know the blessings and the love of God.”
During each school’s ceremonies, graduates, their parents and administrators shed tears of happiness, hugs of friendship and reflective thoughts on the past and future.
“We are so proud of the Class of 2022. This class had a very different high school experience,” Camden Catholic High School Principal Heather Crisci said after the June 3 graduation, referring to learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. “They treated each day with grace, resilience and ended up very successful.”
For Paul VI’s June 2 celebration, the family of Tashya Anderson wore T-shirts and held homemade fans praising their graduate.
“This journey was a beautiful thing,” said her grandmother, Tamika Allen. Proud aunt Taneis was hopeful that her niece would “continue to be courageous, respectful, grab life by the horns and stay committed to her dreams” as she prepares to attend Morgan State University, Baltimore.
An emotional Tara Lorenzetti, mother of Natalie Belmonte, said her daughter “makes me more proud every single day, always rising to challenges.” She thanked the Paul VI school community for shaping her daughter “into the beautiful woman she is.”
Belmonte will be entering Stockton University, Galloway Township, in the fall, which her mother called “just the next step for her in continuing to spread God’s grace and love.”
After collecting his diploma June 2, Domonik McDermott said what he will miss most about attending Gloucester Catholic High School are the many relationships he’s made over the years.
“My favorite thing was walking in the school every day and everyone having a big smile on their faces,” said McDermott, who plans to study machine tool technology at Williamson College of the Trades, Media, Pa. And during the difficult times: “Even if we were going through the death of a teacher, the death of a family friend, somebody was always there to help you, hold you back up.”
Video taken by staff photographer Dave Hernandez contributed to this report.
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