By CHRISTIE L. CHICOINE
CS&T Staff Writer
The Christmas show that the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary community puts on for the elderly and convalescent sisters at Camilla Hall every year is so lively the sisters prepare for it the week beforehand — by going to bed early three nights in a row.
So joked Camilla Hall’s administrator, Sister, Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Margaret Gradl, to John Donia, a 25-year-old seminarian in third theology, who is a coordinator — and singer — in the show.
The Seminary’s Christmas Nursing Home Tour, which runs just over an hour, consists of Christmas skits, and religious and secular Christmas carols. Many seminarians are dressed in costume — Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman are represented, as are reindeer and toy soldiers. (The toy soldier costumes are marching band uniforms that Cardinal Dougherty High School students wore in the 1950s.)
It is a lively show, and much anticipated at the nursing homes they visit.
For his part, Donia, who is from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in South Philadelphia, said he thinks the show is the least he and his fellow seminarians can do to show their thanks to the residents, who pray for them so faithfully all year long.
“They really have faith in their future priests,” he said.
At press time, the 35th annual St. Charles Borromeo Seminary Christmas Nursing Home Tour was scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 21.
The seminarians are joined by resident priests, faculty and administrators in spreading Christmas cheer to lay and religious residents at three Catholic nursing homes — Camilla Hall in Immaculata, a home for aged, infirm and convalescent sisters in Immaculata, which is staffed by the I.H.M. Sisters, and, in Philadelphia, St. Ignatius Nursing Home, which is staffed by the Felician Sisters, and Holy Family Home for the Aged, staffed by the Little Sisters of the Poor.
And as they make their nursing home rounds, the singers and performers are extending the history of a generous tradition begun by two men in St. Charles Borromeo’s Class of 1976.
The Christmas tour’s cofounders, Msgr. John C. Marine, now pastor of St. Bede the Venerable Parish in Holland, and Msgr. Alexander J. Palmieri, the Archdiocese’s chancellor and vicar for religious, both members of that class, recalled the tour’s early years.
The first tour, conducted by members of the Class of ’76, was held for the Sisters of Mercy in Merion. The class eventually opened up the tour to the entire Seminary and expanded its venues. “As the years progressed, it became a larger and larger production,” said Msgr. Marine, who served as the director. The production later included skits, 15 musicians from the Seminary band, and singers.
Before they knew it, it had become a Seminary tradition. “It became the last thing we did before we all went home for Christmas,” Msgr. Marine said. “It was a wonderful way for us to put our faith in action, and to put all that we were learning about being men of service, into action at an early age in our Seminary life. We had a lot of fun with it.”
But the entertainment they provided paled in comparison to what they received in return — in particular, the residents’ gratitude and the joy on their faces, Msgr. Marine said.
“Many of them would say to us, ‘This is our Christmas. This is the greatest Christmas present we could receive. We look forward to it every year.’
“The nice thing about it is, they have been able to look forward to it, because ... St. Charles Seminary continues fulfilling the commitment we made.”
Today’s seminarians take their exams before Christmas; back then, the seminarians took them after Christmas. Msgr. Palmieri recalled how the administrators of the homes assured them the residents were praying for them as they prepared for their comprehensive exams.
“It was a lot of fun,” Msgr. Palmieri said. Not only did the tour build camaraderie among the seminarians, it also helped them forge friendships with the administrators, nurses and residents.
The final act on the annual tour was another tradition Msgr. Marine said he and his fellow seminarians savored: “The day would never be complete unless we ended it at Camilla Hall, where, every year, we were served hoagies and eclairs.”
Their parting line to the residents, Msgr. Marine said, was always, “‘God willing, we’ll be back next year.’”
The nursing home tour is just one of several charitable gifts the Seminary community is giving that is certain to keep on giving well into the new year.
Of course, the nursing home tour is not all the seminarians do for charity.
An early “Christmas present” of $5,000 went to Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29.
The Seminary’s annual Concert Before Christmas, held Dec. 3 on campus at the Chapel of St. Martin of Tours, raised more than $2,500 for Cardinal Justin Rigali’s Christmas Party for Children, which he hosted Dec. 15.
Msgr. Joseph G. Prior, the Seminary’s rector, commended the charitable activities of the community as a whole and, in a special way, acknowledged the charitable works of the seminarians themselves.
“It’s a wonderful sign of the work they’re preparing for in pastoral service as Christ’s priests — young and old alike, and everybody in between, that’s who they’re here for,” Msgr. Prior said.
Just as St. Charles Seminary, currently in the midst of its annual appeal, appreciates the generosity of others, “this was an opportunity for us to offer that kind of charity to somebody else,” he added.
This time of year in particular, the rector wants the seminarians to be mindful that all they do at the Seminary and all they do in their mission in their lives — first and foremost by the way they live their lives — is witnessing to Christ.
“As we get to the Christmas season, we celebrate that joy of Christ’s continual presence in our lives that fills our hearts.... In the life of a priest, that is so important and so readily available,” Msgr. Prior said.
Keith Chylinski, 34, a seminarian in third theology whose home parish is Corpus Christi in Lansdale, said the Concert Before Christmas, performed before seminarian families, benefactors and invited guests, as well as Seminary faculty and staff, “was a lot of fun” and “a good group effort.”
Chylinski helped organize the concert and performed in it.
The concert, which had the theme, “O Come Let Us Adore Him,” was a way for the seminarians to bring the gift of Christ to all who attended the concert, and to the young recipients of the donations taken up during the performance, he said.
To those who may not be feeling so merry this Christmas, Chylinski offered this gentle reminder: “Jesus is our hope.
“No matter what circumstances we face, He understands what we’re going through. We need to look to Him, especially when times seem troubled, to be the source of the hope that we all need.”
For more information about St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, call the Office for Institutional Advancement at (610) 785-6231 or check out the Web site www.scs.edu.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.