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Aug. 17, 2010
Father Joseph Beattie dies at 72; remembered for coaching legacy at Salesianum
By Mike Lang
The Dialog
Father Joseph A. Beattie, who established Salesianum School as Delaware's premier high school cross-country power from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, died Sunday in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., where he had been stationed since 1984. He would have turned 73 on Sept. 20.
According to news reports from Florida, Father Beattie was found dead in a swimming pool at a home owned by the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, his religious order. The Oblates said he suffered a heart attack while swimming Sunday afternoon.
A Wilmington native, Father Beattie taught history and religion at Salesianum from 1966 to 1984. He was also the cross-country and track coach, winning 13 cross-country state titles in 18 seasons and coaching four track teams to state titles. He was inducted into the first class of the Delaware Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1994. The New Castle County boys cross country championship trophy is named after him.
 Father Beattie left a lasting impact on his students and athletes.
"He always reminded me of [famed UCLA basketball coach] John Wooden, the kind of guy who embodied all that was good in sports," remembers Jim McNichol, who ran on Father Beattie's teams in the late 1970s. "Obviously winning was a part of what he was about, but he left us a blueprint for life."
Father Beattie's "essence," McNichol said, was to live in the present moment, one of the pillars of Salesian spirituality. "He lived that mantra."
Known among his Salesianum runners for his exacting preparation, demanding workouts, and humble but disciplined ways, Father Beattie's motivational approach included distributing packets of mimeographed handwritten sheets peppered with his favorite themes of unity, sacrifice, dedication, pride, and concentration. As a young priest he committed himself to learning everything he could about coaching high-school runners. "Everything he brought -- the homework, the preparation, the importance of fitness and diet -- at the end of the day we took all that with us," McNichol said. Every runner on the priest's teams, from the fourth-teamer to the varsity No. 1, merited a place in his plan, McNichol said. "Every guy had a goal, a target, something to aspire to."
Father Beattie left Wilmington in 1984 to teach and coach at Bishop Verot High School in Fort Myers, along with his brother, fellow Oblate Father John A. Beattie. Both priests taught and coached there until retiring in 2007, although Father Joseph Beattie continued as coach of the boys' cross country and track teams. He was preparing to coach again this fall.
Father John Beattie died Aug. 8, 2008. Both priests are members of the Bishop Verot Athletic Hall of Fame. The Oblates officially left Bishop Verot at the end of the 2009-10 school year, but, according to the Fort Myers News-Press, Father Beattie had agreed to celebrate Mass at the school once a week. He also ministered at Our Lady of Light Church in Estero.
He made a great impact at the high school, according to Father James J. Greenfield, provincial of the Oblates. "Without question, he was a pillar of the Verot community. It is clear to so many at the high school that his influence will remain in their hearts for years to come."
Father Beattie grew up in St. Joseph on the Brandywine Parish in Greenville and attended the parish school. He graduated from Salesianum in 1955, entered the Oblates, and was ordained Oct. 30, 1965. The circumstances surrounding his ordination are unique, the Oblates said, as it almost did not occur. As the date approached, nearly all of the world’s bishops were participating in the Second Vatican Council. A search by church leaders located a retired and exiled Chinese bishop living in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He ordained Father Beattie and the other ordinands at the Cathedral of Ss. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.
In addition to Salesianum and Bishop Verot, he taught at Father Judge High School in Philadelphia. He was a local coordinator for Oxfam International from 1982-84 and was active in Pax Christi and other peace-and-justice organizations.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Thursday at St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Fort Myers. A memorial Mass will be celebrated at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Wilmington on Saturday at 10:30 a.m., preceded by a viewing at 9. Burial will follow at the Oblate cemetery in Childs, Md.
Survivors include his sisters, Anne Beattie Mundy of Wilmington and Sister Mary Alfred, OSC, of Langhorne, Pa., brother-in-law Ed Mazurkiewicz of Wilmington and several nieces and nephews. In addition to his brother, Father Beattie was predeceased by his parents, Alfred and Mary Katherine (Flynn) Beattie; and his sister, Cecilia Mazurkiewicz.
Donations in his memory may be sent to the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, P.O. Box 87, Childs, Md. 21916-0087, or to the Monastery of St. Clare, 1271 Langhorne-Newtown Road, Langhorne, Pa. 19047.
Dialog editor Jim Grant contributed to this story.
July 29, 2010
Three to take step on road to priesthood
Bishop Malooly will ordain three men as transitional deacons Aug. 28 at St. Margaret of Scotland Church, Glasgow. Anthony Cardone, Joe McQuaide IV and John Solomon are serving at parishes in the diocese this summer before beginning their final year of seminary studies to become diocesan priests; Bishop Malooly is scheduled to ordain them to the priesthood next June.
The deacon ordination later this month will begin at 11 a.m. at St. Margaret, Frazer Road and U.S. 40.
Cardone, a student at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary for older vocations in Weston, Mass., is serving this summer at Holy Child in north Wilmington. He grew up in New York City, where he earned a bachelor's degree from St. John's University and a master's from Long Island University, both in criminal justice. He has worked as a New York City police officer, for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and in the Diplomatic Security Service of the U.S. State Department.
McQuaide, 24, and Solomon, 25, graduated from St. Andrew's College Seminary at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., in 2007. They are students at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and live at Pontifical North American College there. They are the first seminarians from the diocese to study in Rome since 1989.
McQuaide, 24, is serving at St. Elizabeth in Wilmington this summer. He grew up in Elkton, where he was a member of Immaculate Conception and attended the parish school. He graduated from Salesianum School in 2003.
Solomon, 25, is serving this summer at St. Benedict in Ridgely, Md. He attended St. Matthew's School in Wilmington and Aquinas Academy in Bear. He graduated from high school through the Seton Home Study School of Front Royal, Va. He is a member of St. John the Beloved Parish in Wilmington.
July 2, 2010
Diocese to appeal bankruptcy ruling
on investment account
By Joseph Ryan
Assistant editor
The Diocese of Wilmington will appeal the June 28 decision of a U.S. bankruptcy court judge who ruled that about $75 million belonging to some parishes, schools and other Catholic agencies that was deposited into a diocesan investment account is part of the diocesan estate and is subject to claims by victims of sexual abuse and other creditors.
“The diocese disagrees with this ruling and intends to appeal,” the diocese said in a statement June 29.
Judge Christopher J. Sontchi’s ruling and the diocese’s decision to appeal come as the diocese is engaged in mediation following its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last October. The appeal process is likely to take months.
Sontchi said that although the diocese’s pooled investment account (PIA) includes money held in trust for other Catholic agencies and parishes, because those funds were “commingled” in the diocesan operating account, that money cannot be identified and traced to the PIA to constitute a trust under federal law. Thus, the entire PIA account is part of the diocesan estate, he ruled.
The PIA is worth about $120 million, including $45 million held by the diocese itself and the $75 million held for “non-debtors” such as parishes, Catholic organizations like diocesan schools and Catholic Cemeteries, and the Catholic Diocese Foundation, which invested $45 million in the PIA.
The diocese said the PIA lets it, its affiliated corporations, and participating parishes lower costs and realize better returns by pooling their investment funds. The funds that agencies and parishes deposited in the pooled investment account “remain the funds of those agencies and parishes, and the diocese simply serves as the custodian of the account,” the diocese said. “The Court’s ruling recognizes this, and holds that the pooled investment account is a trust, and that the funds of the agencies and parishes in the account are trust funds.”
The judge’s ruling is surprising, the diocese said, particularly in light of the testimony of the expert for the Creditors Committee [the plaintiffs in the case, including the victims of sexual abuse], who described diocesan accounting records for parish and Catholic affiliate PIA investors as “meticulous.”
Msgr. J. Thomas Cini, vicar general, said in a June 30 statement that a request for Sontchi to reconsider his ruling had been filed by attorneys for participants in the PIA. One reason the diocese seeks reconsideration stems from the judge’s decision to exempt St. Ann Parish’s PIA funds from the creditors’ claim because the Wilmington parish deposited its money in the PIA directly to the bank that manages the investments. Msgr. Cini, who is also St. Ann’s pastor, said St. Ann’s isn’t the only PIA participant that deposited funds directly.
“Of the approximately $45 million in Catholic Diocese Foundation funds in the pooled investment account, only about $5 million were deposited first in the operating account of the diocese,” his statement said. Also, he said, at least two other parishes wired their money directly to the PIA account. Under the ruling’s exception for St. Ann’s, other parishes’ funds and $40 million of the foundation’s money should remain the property of the investors, not the diocese, he said.
Under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, “accounting entries have economic and legal reality and may be deemed transfers, a point the Court did not address in its ruling,” Msgr. Cini said. Also, a different bankruptcy judge in a prior case in the District of Delaware has supported a similar argument the diocese made in regard to its thorough tracking of investors’ money.
Sontchi’s ruling followed an early June trial in bankruptcy court initiated by a Creditors Committee lawsuit last December.
Although all the contents of the PIA are property of the diocese, according to Sontchi, the non-debtor defendants have a claim against the diocese for their lost investment. “That claim, however, will share pro rata with the other claims against the Debtor’s estate,” he wrote.
“Almost certainly, the claims in this case will not be paid in full,” Sontchi wrote. “This may seem a harsh result for the non-debtor defendants. But, to ignore precedent by ruling in their favor would have a negative impact on the other creditors — the vast bulk of which are involuntary creditors that have asserted tort claims against the Debtor relating to sexual abuse.”
The decision was announced in the midst of two weekend mediation sessions — June 25-27 and July 2-4 — in which a Delaware bankruptcy judge and retired Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge worked with representatives of the Creditors Committee and the diocese to settle the claims of all creditors, including the victims of childhood sexual abuse and diocesan pensioners and those vested in the pension. As The Dialog went to press Tuesday evening, no settlement had been reached and no further mediation talks had been scheduled.
July 2, 2010
Del. budget keeps status quo
on funds for Catholic schools
Money for driver's education
remains elusive
By Gary Morton
Staff reporter
A child with a tummy ache, or who has an asthma or allergy attack, or who needs to take a prescription medication will continue to have a state-supported nurse to turn to at Delaware’s Catholic schools in September.
The child’s parents may receive a school transportation rebate from the state.
But if a Catholic high school student wants to learn how to drive, the student must pay for driver’s education classes.
That’s the outcome for Catholic schools after the Delaware General Assembly, in the final hours of its legislative session that ended June 30, approved the state budget that took effect July 1.
The budget continues basically the same funding as schools received this past school year, when the state paid $446,400 for private school nurses and provided parents an average transportation reimbursement of about $140. Delaware will continue to pay nothing toward a private school student’s driver’s education classes, which are provided free of charge for public school students.
Maintaining the status quo on funding can be considered a success, Catholic Schools Superintendent Cathy Weaver said, even though efforts failed to restore funding for driver’s ed and the state continues to provide only about half of the actual cost for nurses for private schools. “Given the realities of the state budget and the funding available, I believe Catholic schools did very well,” she said.
Jeff Mey, a member of the Delaware Alliance of Catholic School Parents (DACSP), is pleased that the state maintained the level of funding for school nurses but said he has grown weary of “fighting the same fights.”
“Every time the budget comes out it seems that is one of the things they are trying to cut,” Mey said of the money for school nurses. “It should have always been in there.”
He is disappointed by the legislature’s failure to restore $500,000 for driver’s education for private school students, which was first cut from the budget in 2008. The Meys had to pay $362 when daughter Cathryn, a rising junior at St. Mark’s High School, took driver’s ed this spring and they face the prospect of paying again in a few years for Paul, 13, a seventh-grader at Christ the Teacher School. (Out-of-state students paid $463.)
“It affects us right now, but in a couple of years, if it comes up again, a whole new set of parents will have to fight,” Mey said. It’s hard to convince people who don’t have children affected by the driver’s ed fee to fight for state funding, he said.
Gov. Jack Markell’s proposed budget, released earlier this year amid bleak economic forecasts, axed all state funding for nurses in Catholic and other private schools and for transportation reimbursement for getting students to those schools. An improved fiscal outlook allowed wiggle room for the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee (JFC), which wrote the budget bill.
“Revenue expectations improved over the course of the year,” Weaver told The Dialog. “I believe that helped us. But what also helped us was the advocacy of our parents and their willingness to step up and talk to the legislators.”
DACSP members lobbied the Joint Finance Committee members and their own senators and representatives throughout the session, Weaver said, building an appreciation within the General Assembly for the important role Catholic schools play. As the state’s financial outlook brightens, she hopes that groundwork will help persuade legislators to restore funding for driver’s ed, raise the allocation for school nurses, and provide funding in other areas such as teacher development.
Weaver had hoped the JFC might restore driver’s ed money this year, but the latest Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council estimate projected flat revenue growth for June, she wrote June 22 in an update to the parents’ group. “We will be working diligently in the coming year for the restoration of this funding and the elimination of the fee structure,” the amount Catholic school students must pay for driver’s education.
June 29, 2010
The Diocese of Wilmington issued the following statement June 29 on the ruling
of the United States Bankruptcy Court regarding the Pooled Investment Program:
The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington is
disappointed with the ruling issued by the United States Bankruptcy
Court regarding the Pooled Investment Account. The Court ruled that,
although the Pooled Investment Account is a trust, the funds within the
Account belonging to other Catholic agencies and parishes could not
sufficiently be traced, and so all of these funds must be considered
property of the bankruptcy estate of the Diocese. This Diocese
disagrees with this ruling, and intends to appeal.
The Pooled
Investment Account enables the Diocese, its affiliated agencies such as
Catholic Charities, and the participating parishes, to lower costs, and
realize better returns, by pooling of their investment funds. The funds
of the agencies and parishes which were deposited in the Pooled
Investment Account remain the funds of those agencies and parishes, and
the Diocese simply serves as the custodian of the Account. The Court’s
ruling recognizes this, and holds that the Pooled Investment Account is
a trust, and that the funds of the agencies and parishes in the Account
are trust funds.
While the Diocese is gratified that the Court
agrees that the Pooled Investment Account is a trust, unfortunately,
the Court also ruled that the pooled investment accounting records are
insufficient to enable the trust funds of the pooled investors to be
traced into and within the Pooled Investment Account. This ruling is
surprising, particularly in light of the testimony of the expert for
the Creditors Committee, who described these accounting records as
“meticulous.”
The Court also ruled that the affiliated Catholic
agencies and parishes will have a claim in the bankruptcy proceeding to
recover their funds in the Pooled Investment Account, although they
will have to share pro rata with the other claims against the
bankruptcy estate of the Diocese. The agencies and the parishes
participating in the Pooled Investment Account will pursue these
claims, and in the meantime they will seek court approval to access
their funds to enable them to continue to fund their ministries.
June 15, 2010
Ireland-born Msgr. Patrick Brady dies at 89
By Joseph Ryan
Assistant editor
Msgr. Patrick A. Brady, a native of Ireland who was pastor at three parishes in the Diocese of Wilmington during his 49 years as a priest, died June 13 at the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales retirement facility in Childs, Md., where he had been living. He was 89.
Msgr. Brady was born in Balbriggan, County Dublin, Ireland, on Feb. 12, 1921, and spent his childhood there and in England before moving to Philadelphia, where he attended Lincoln Prep School.
During World War II he served with the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force for five years and then worked in England before returning to the United States.
 He studied for the priesthood at St. John's Seminary in Little Rock, Ark., and St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore and was ordained May 27, 1961, at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Wilmington by Oblate Bishop Edward Schlotterback.
He served as associate pastor at St. John's-Holy Angels in Newark (1961-64), Our Lady of Fatima in New Castle (1964-68) and Sacred Heart in Chestertown, Md. (1968-69).
During the next 22 years Msgr. Brady served as pastor at three parishes: Sacred Heart, Chestertown (1969-79); St. Joseph's, Middletown (1979-85); and St. Ann's, Wilmington (1985-91). He also served briefly as administrator at St. Dennis in Galena, Md., and St. Mary Magdalen in Wilmington. He retired in 1991, but his ministry continued.
After stepping down at St. Ann's, Msgr. Brady moved to Sussex County, where he helped at St. Edmond's Parish in Rehoboth Beach for seven years. He continued to celebrate Mass at parishes in the Wilmington area after moving to Vianney House in Wilmington, the diocesan home for retired priests, in 1998.
"Wherever they need me, all they have to do is call me and I'll be delighted to come," he told The Dialog in 1998. "I'm very happy doing my priestly work, the sacraments, Masses, ministry to the sick. That's what I was ordained for."
He was named a prelate of honor to the pope, with the title of monsignor, in July 2000.
Msgr. Brady was an anomaly when he was ordained in 1961; he was 40 years old at a time when most men were in their mid-20s at ordination. After his military service he worked in a laboratory in England and returned to the United States in 1949. He worked another five years before entering the seminary. Circumstances delayed his vocation, he said, but it was always in his thoughts.
"There was always this desire. I can recall telling my teacher when I was a young kid in grade school in Ireland, when asked, 'What would you like to be, Pat?' I'd say, 'I'd like to be a priest.' It was always in my head somewhere."
Bishop Malooly will celebrate a Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m. on June 17 at St. John the Beloved Church, Wilmington. Interment will be in All Saints Cemetery.
Msgr. Brady is survived by two brothers and two sisters in England and a sister in Australia.
June 2, 2010
Memorial Day Mass also pays tribute to Bishop Saltarelli
By Gary Morton
Staff reporter
WILMINGTON – On a day devoted to remembering those who died in military service, the Diocese of Wilmington also remembered the service one of its bishops gave to the church.
Moments after veterans from VFW Post 475 fired a 21-gun salute and a bugler played “Taps” Monday in memory of fallen soldiers, sailors and airmen, Bishop Malooly and about a dozen priests who concelebrated the annual Memorial Day Field Mass at All Saints Cemetery processed to the grave of Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli, eighth bishop of Wilmington.
 There, three of the late bishop’s nieces — Bernice DeSanto-Gizzi, Pat Rainer and Diane Moriarity — and his longtime secretary Pat Bossi removed a cloth covering the granite memorial that marked Bishop Saltarelli’s tomb.
As he blessed the memorial, Bishop Malooly asked the crowd of about 600 – including about 10 members of Bishop Saltarelli’s family from New Jersey – to “remember and live out the life of Bishop Saltarelli’s vocation as a bishop: ‘I am here, Lord, I come to do your will.’” Those words are etched into the perimeter of the 8-by-3-foot marker. Bishop Saltarelli was bishop of Wilmington from 1996 to 2008. He died Oct. 8, 2009, at age 77.
After the blessing, Bishop Malooly presided at the Field Mass underneath a large tent. Among those in attendance were Maj. Gen. Francis D. Vavala, adjutant general of the Delaware National Guard, and U.S. Public Health Service Lt. Commander Irwin Fish. Bishop Malooly singled out two of the concelebrating priests, Fathers Daniel Gerres and John Mink, for their ties to the military; Father Gerres is a retired National Guard chaplain and Father Mink is an Air National Guard chaplain.
 “We remember in prayer those who are special to us,” Bishop Malooly said, as well as “those who have no one to remember them.”
Bernice Crimaldi, another of Bishop Saltarelli’s nieces, and Michael Milano, a nephew, carried the offertory gifts to the altar.
DeSanto-Gizzi said the Mass reinforced what she felt after her uncle’s funeral. Quoting from a thank-you note she wrote to Bishop Malooly last year, she said: “I understand why Uncle Mickey loved the Diocese of Wilmington so much — because the people loved him so much.”
Also at the Mass was Lucille Duszak of St. Hedwig Parish in Wilmington. The dedication of Bishop Saltarelli’s memorial was a bonus to this year’s Mass for Duszak, who said she and her husband, Gene, attended together for “20 years or more – even before they had the tents.” This year she came with her son Tom of Harrisburg, Pa. Her husband, a veteran, lives in a nursing home and could not attend, but Lucille decided to continue their tradition. “It’s really important to us,” she said.
June 2, 2010
Fourteen from diocese receive papal honors
Dialog report
Bishop Malooly presided at the conferring of papal honors on seven lay people, four diocesan priests, two religious priests, and a sister during solemn vespers May 30 at St. John the Beloved Church in Wilmington.
 Four diocesan priests who in February were named “chaplains of his holiness Pope Benedict XVI” received certificates from the Vatican and donned the purple-trimmed cassock and purple sash that signify their new honorary titles of reverend monsignor: Msgr. Charles Brown III, Msgr. George Brubaker, Msgr. John Hopkins and Msgr. Daniel McGlynn.
The other 10 honorees’ awards were announced in The Dialog in March. Seven people received the Benemerenti Medal, for individuals recognized by the Holy See for their service to the church: Thomas Connelly, Carl  Danberg, Capuchin Father Ronald Giannone, Norbertine Father Joseph McLaughlin, Sister Maria Mairlot, a Carmelite of Charity Vedruna, John Raughley, and Darryl Simms, who received the medal posthumously.
Bishop Malooly presented the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross (For the Church and the Pope), the highest award the pope can confer to a layperson, to A. Dorothy Arthur, Anthony G. Flynn and Dr. Eileen Schmitt.
June 2, 2010
Dominican Sisters welcome newest member to New Castle
By Joseph Ryan
Assistant editor
Sister Amy Gracey, the newest member of the Caterina Benincasa Monastery in New Castle, is no stranger to the Dominican habit she received in late April.
 The 53-year-old sister first joined the Dominican nuns when she was 16, serving in the Monastery of St. Jude in Marbury, Ala., with two of her own sisters until 2002, when she was dispensed from her solemn vows due to health reasons.
“I tried to go on with life,” Sister Amy told The Dialog recently. Going on meant attending Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., graduating magna cum laude with a degree in English literature, finding a job with a social services agency in Springfield, Mass., and buying a house.
But she longed for more, she said. “I was always yearning for the monastic life because it meant so much to me. I felt like a fish out of water.”
When she discovered the new Dominican monastery forming in New Castle on the grounds of Holy Spirit Church, she found that particular community’s vision of monastic life “better suited to me as a person.”
A native of Mexico, N.Y., Sister Amy says the sisters at Caterina Benincasa Monastery are faithful to tradition but respectful of new needs.
“I met this group and felt I could live the monastic life again,” she said. “I had a peace and joy I really missed everywhere else.”
In April at the Dominican Monastery of Mary the Queen in Elmira, N.Y., Sister Amy received the Dominican habit again. Having already been a postulant, she will serve three years before approval for final vows, said Sister Mary Grace Thul, the vicaress at Caterina Benincasa.
Sister Mary Grace said Sister Amy showed “terrific courage” in quitting her job and selling her house to come back to the Dominicans. “She brings great talents with her. She has a lot of experience in maintenance. She’s already planted a vegetable garden. She’s good at music, singing and organ playing. She’s younger, and that has really transformed the rest of us.”
Caterina Benincasa Monas-tery opened with three Dominican sisters about two and a half years ago in the former convent at Holy Spirit Parish.
May 27, 2010
Neumann honors Vatican official with honorary degree
ASTON, Pa. — Cardinal John Foley, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, received an honorary degree at the Neumann University commencement on May 15. Rosalie M. Mirenda,  president of Neumann, and Jay Devine, chairman of the board of trustees, presented the cardinal with his degree.
Upon receiving the degree, Cardinal Foley quipped, “Receiving an honorary degree is a little like canonization without the inconvenience of dying.” He then related his admiration of St. John Neumann, relating a story of how his mother pinned a relic of the saint to his crib when he was a baby.
“I am grateful and a bit too proud to have now received a diploma that bears his name,” said Cardinal Foley, a native of Philadelphia who was ordained a priest for that archdiocese.
May 7, 2010
St. Thomas More Society honors Gene and Ginny Grimm
Dialog report
The St. Thomas More Society, a Catholic group of lawyers and affiliated people in the legal profession, will honor Gene and Ginny Grimm for their many years of public service during its annual dinner May 16 at the Greenville Country Club.
Thomas L. Ambro, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit will be the guest speaker at the dinner.
The Grimms will receive the Msgr. Paul J. Taggart St. Thomas More Society award at the 6 p.m. dinner.
Gene Grimm, a 1950 graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School, served in the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps during the Korean War and also as a commissioner of the U.S. Court of Military Appeals, appellate attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice and as general counsel of the administrative office of the U.S. Courts. In 1962, he became a corporate counsel for the DuPont Company in Wilmington. He also taught for 21 years as an adjunct and visiting professor at Widener School of Law in Wilmington. After his 1989 retirement from DuPont, he continued to teach at Widener Law until 2005. He has taught CCD, coached CYO basketball and served as a member of Wilmington's Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish Council. A former board member of the Catholic Press of Wilmington, Grimm is also a past chairman of the Opportunity Center, Inc., an organization that provides opportunities for physically and mentally disabled people.
Ginny Grimm organized the first social concerns committee at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, began the parish outreach committee and co-chaired with her husband the parish's expansion steering committee that helped plan and build a new church and other facilities. A longtime volunteer for the Ministry of Caring, she began a breakfast program at Emmanuel Dining Room in Wilmington. She has served as a board member for Bayard House and worked for many years with the Missionary Sisters of Charity's program to help women living with AIDS.
Judge Ambro received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1975. Prior to his confirmation to the Third Circuit bench in 2000, he served as a director at the Wilmington law firm of Richards, Layton & Finger.
There will be a cocktail hour starting at 5 p.m. before the dinner. Tickets are $95 a person, $85 for members of the St. Thomas More Society. For tickets call Christopher J. Burke at 573-6079.
May 5, 2010
Bishop appoints chancellor
Dialog report
Bishop Malooly has appointed Father Steven P. Hurley as chancellor of the Diocese of Wilmington, effective May 17.
Father Hurley, 40, is associate pastor at St. Ann Church in Wilmington, a position he will retain. The chancellor’s position, which the bishop described as part-time, has been vacant since last July when Msgr. John O. Barres, chancellor since 2000, became bishop of the Diocese of Allentown, Pa.
 “Father Hurley is a very talented, dedicated and spiritual priest,” Bishop Malooly said in a statement. “I am confident he will represent us well. I know we will work well together. I am grateful for his willingness to take on this new challenge and ministry.”
The position of chancellor, a key member of the bishop’s staff, is required by church law as secretary of the diocesan central administrative office (the curia), according to the diocese. As chief archivist, the chancellor’s primary function is to maintain and safeguard records of the diocese and of the bishop’s administration. The chancellor writes official decrees, records the bishop’s consultations with groups of priest advisers, maintains files for parishes and other institutions of the diocese, and gathers data for annual reports to the Vatican. On the bishop’s behalf, the chancellor issues dispensations, permissions and faculties to clergy, supervises the chancery staff and serves as a resource to priests and others who have church responsibilities.
Father Hurley was ordained in 2003 by Bishop Michael Saltarelli. He was born and raised in St. Mary’s County, Md., and earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Salisbury State University in 1991. He also holds an M.B.A. degree from Salisbury and this month earned a licentiate (license to teach) degree in theology this month from St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore.
During college summer vacations Father Hurley worked as a booking officer for the Ocean City, Md., Police Department and served as a police officer and detective on the force there for eight years.
As a member of St. Luke’s Parish in Ocean City he began to think about becoming a priest and entered St. Mary’s Seminary in 1998 to study for the Diocese of Wilmington.
He told The Dialog in an interview last November that his police work led to his vocation in the priesthood. “I think it was having been exposed to so many facets of life, the good and the bad, and kind of seeing death up close and personal sometimes, and seeing the effects of original sin. It just got me thinking about it.”
Before being assigned to St. Ann’s Father Hurley was associate pastor at Our Lady of Fatima in New Castle. He is a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus and a member of the diocesan vocations board.
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