Bishops rededicates Venerini chapel

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press
WORCESTER – Venerini Academy means a lot to alumni who came to the rededication of its chapel Jan. 17.
One joined the convent, taught there, and now calls herself “the mascot.”
Another was married there and is still in touch with classmates.     
A third credited the school with forming her into the person she is today.
They were among alumni sharing memories and history with The Catholic Free Press after Bishop McManus rededicated the Fusaro Memorial Chapel in front of 200 students and about 100 alumni, family, friends and staff. The rededication marked the chapel’s 60th anniversary. The school marks its 75th this year.
The chapel, the auditorium below it and the gym attached to it were built together, said Venerini Sister Carol Skehan. She said the Fusaro family donated $550,000 for the chapel.     
“Mrs. Fusaro belonged to the Venerini Guild which raised funds for the school,” she recalled. “I was a boarder (at the school) and we used to prepare the silver … the china. We had to be so careful,” preparing for the Guild’s meetings.
“I came in the eighth grade as an aspirant,” seeking to join the Venerini Sisters, Sister Carol said. “First I lived in the convent. Then they ran out of space so we lived in the boarding school,” where some students also lived. It is now part of the school.
“The sisters lived in ‘the castle,’” she said. “That’s gone.” In 1963 a convent was built onto the school, and that space too is now part of the school, she said. Today Sisters live in Worcester and Rutland.
Sister Carol said she was in the class of 1959 – the first class which had its graduation in the school’s chapel. They had their senior prom in the gym, but she didn’t go. (The school then went through grade 12.)
Maria Murgo Muñoz said her parents – Tony and Flo Murgo – chaperoned that prom. She said she graduated in 1972, and her daughter Brianna Muñoz graduated in 2004 with the Rosa Venerini Award.
“I came as a teacher in 1973 and I’m still here,” Sister Carol said. “I taught first grade (for) two years and Montessori kindergarten (for) 35 years and now … I feel like the mascot. I help with admissions.”
“Sister Carol was my first teacher; she hasn’t changed,” said Juanita Pignataro, who graduated from in 1987.
She shared a memory of the chapel: The sisters had the whole school pray for a sick woman who wasn’t present.
“We actually had to hold up our hands and pray for her,” she said. “I believe that prayer helped her survive.”
Juanita Pignataro’s sister Margarita Pignataro, class of 1981, recalled having designated times – especially on Rosa Venerini Day – to pray in the chapel.
The sisters established Venerini Academy for immigrant girls in 1945, according to information from the school. A new building was constructed in 1954 at the present site on Edward Street. In the late-1960s, Venerini became co-educational, offering pre-kindergarten though eighth-grade.
The 472-seat chapel was given to the academy by members of the Fusaro family in memory of their parents, Carmine and Maria Grazia Fusaro, says the Dec. 11, 1959 edition of The Catholic Free Press.
“In a talk during the Pontifical Mass following the blessing of the chapel, Bishop Flanagan praised Venerini as a school, typical of thousands of others … which are monuments ‘to the loyalty and devotion of our people who have made possible … a system of education in which God is given his rightful place and which gives young people the opportunity to integrate the knowledge of religion into their lives,’” says a cutline accompanying a photo of Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan with members of the Fusaro family.
 Last Friday Bishop McManus said that the chapel was being rededicated to God’s honor and glory and he thanked the Venerini Sisters.
He asked the students about what he had done when he approached the altar and explained that he kissed it because it is a symbol of Christ, who “in the course of the Mass comes upon that altar.”
Chapel windows depict St. Rosa Venerini, the sisters’ foundress, who started Catholic schools for girls in Italy when females didn’t have a chance for an education, Bishop McManus said. He noted that a chapel mural shows Pope Clement XI visiting one of St. Rosa’s schools in Rome and said the pope realized that this was an important moment in the life of the Church.
Bishop McManus repeated St. Rosa Venerini’s motto: “To educate is to liberate.” He said that, on the cross, Jesus liberated us, and if we live in faith, hope and charity, we can spend eternity with him.
People can be successful and still not be free, he said. “What gives us freedom” is knowing that we came from and are going to God and get there by keeping our eyes on Christ, the way, truth and life.
In the chapel, “God has chosen to dwell among us,” Bishop McManus said, and spoke of Jesus’ presence in the tabernacle.
He blessed the chapel, and prayed for vocations from Venerini after seventh-graders, who were serving at the Mass, read the Prayers of the Faithful.
Seventh-grader Nicholas Christie read an introduction before Mass, saying the chapel was built through the generosity of the Fusaro family and other benefactors who donated items. He spoke of the pipe organ, stained glass windows, and paintings by William Stone, father of Jared Stone, class of 2002.
The chapel has been an integral part of the sisters’ lives and hosted baptisms, ecumenical services and Christmas pageants – once with a live donkey, he said.
In a humorous retelling of that pageant, he said, “After climbing all the stairs to the chapel, the donkey, and the sisters, realized that this was probably not something that should be done again.”
“I’m the person I am today because of the school,” said Lori Hurley, class of 1980. “The support we got, the small classes – it felt like a family here.”
“My years here were probably some of the best years of my life,” said Karen Fournier Ricardi, class of 1974, who had her wedding there in 1982.
She said she still gets together with classmates; she attended the rededication with one of them and the mother of another.
“And my mother (Anita Fournier, now deceased) actually worked here,” as a teacher’s aide, Mrs. Ricardi said.
“We spent more time in that chapel,” she recalled. “You had to be quiet.”    
“Mother Superior walked in and all you could see was her face,” added Mary Ricciardi Silvo, class of 1975.
She praised the sisters’ farsightedness in having a chapel, auditorium and gym built, and added, “A lot of grammar schools don’t have a gym.”
Now she’s athletic director and gym teacher there, and sees that the gym floor is kept nice.
“It’s good to be home,” she said. “This school took care of us when we were younger. Now it’s up to us to take care of the school.”

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