‘A greater faith commitment’
Corpus Christi breaks ground on $4.9 million addition
By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
As third-grader Connor Sinn watched the groundbreaking of a $4.9 million addition to the school building and parish office complex at Corpus Christi in Lansdale, one feeling stood out: “It made me feel really proud.”
On Jan. 5, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph P. McFadden broke ground at the site of the 29,300 square-foot addition.
Connor, who is enrolled in Corpus Christi School, said he and his friends can’t wait for “all the workers to come and start working” on the addition. “There’s going to be a lot of machinery.”
The two-story addition will feature seven classrooms and a faculty lounge on the second floor and, on the first floor, a new parish office center complete with four meeting rooms.
The slated completion date is April 2007, and the scheduled opening date is September 2007.
The addition will open space in the existing school building. Plans for that space include a pre-school program and and a CARES (Children Are Receiving Extended Services) after-school program, as well as separate rooms for the school’s art and music programs. Presently, art and music instructors utilize carts to transport their programs to classrooms throughout the school building.
Youngsters enrolled in Corpus Christi’s REC (Religious Education for Children) program will also benefit from the addition, as will parishioners who may utilize the meeting rooms in conjunction with the multitude of parish ministries.
There are presently 501 students enrolled in the parish elementary school and 800 pupils enrolled in the REC program.
The addition will also provide access to the school gymnasium and the parish social hall.
The parish buildings, which presently make a u-shape, will become a rectangle once the new building is complete and connected to the other structures.
A modular unit, which is currently used as a classroom, will be moved to another site on the parish grounds and renovated into a library for parishioners.
Through the various renovation projects, Corpus Christi Parish is addressing the needs of parishioners of all ages, said the pastor, Msgr. Thomas P. Flanigan.
“We’re trying to emphasize the fact that we cannot stop learning about our faith,” Msgr. Flanigan said. Prayer and knowledge of the faith, he said, “brings us to a greater celebration of sacrament ... with a greater faith commitment.”
The addition, which is the fourth in a four-phase development program, is a credit to the parishioners of Corpus Christi, Msgr. Flanigan said.
Corpus Christi has approximately 4,000 registered families.
Their support for the project “shows the dedication and the concern the people have for Catholic education, as well as for the proper functioning of our parish.”
Wanda Costello, principal of Corpus Christi School, agreed. She called the addition a “wonderful growth opportunity for the entire parish” and said she is “astonished” at the devotion parents have to the school and parish.
“I am particularly impressed by their willingness to support the growth and development needed in the school for their children,” she said.
Students of middle-school age — sixth through eighth grades — will attend classes in the new addition. Having a wing all their own will be beneficial to their growth and development, the principal said.
Sixth-grader Jane Bedrossian will be one of the students who will attend classes in the new section. Bedrossian said the groundbreaking “was really cool. Now ... we’re going to see that [addition] be developed. It’s going to be really neat to see.”
School spirit is high. The only “complaint” the principal has heard about the addition to the school building has come from the seventh and eighth graders, who “wish it would have been built in time for them,” Costello said.
Corpus Christi School’s student council president, eighth-grader Christopher Lezynski, agreed that the students are rallying behind the cause. “Every- one’s happy and grateful that we’re getting a new addition on our school.”
Although Christopher will have graduated by the time the addition is completed, he said he, too, is proud of his school’s growth.
To contribute to Corpus Christi’s capital campaign, contact the parish at (215) 855-1311, or send correspondence to the attention of Msgr. Thomas P. Flanigan, Pastor, Corpus Christi Parish, 900 Sumneytown Pike, Lansdale, Pa. 19446.
For more information, check out the Web site www.corpuschristilansdale.org.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.