St. Paul Consortium honors active couple, young alumni

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

LEOMINSTER – “God gets it” – He understands human experiences.
That’s the biggest lesson one former student said he learned in elementary school.
Michael J. Nicholson was speaking at the 10th annual St. Paul Catholic Schools Consortium Dinner Nov. 9 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel.
He received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award for extraordinary service to the community. A graduate of Our Lady of the Rosary Elementary School (now Holy Family Academy) in Gardner, he is a member of Annunciation Parish’s pastoral council and an aide to Gardner Mayor Mark P. Hawke.
Jeff and Karen Pelletier received the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Award for exemplary service in support of youth and Catholic education. They have been involved in many committees.
The consortium exists to help support four Catholic elementary schools: St. Leo and St. Anna in Leominster, St. Bernard in Fitchburg and Holy Family Academy in Gardner. It also helps support St. Bernard Central Catholic High School in Fitchburg.
At the dinner, which is the consortium’s fundraiser and an opportunity to honor those who serve the schools, each school received $10,000 for scholarships, said William J. Mulford, associate superintendent of Catholic schools.
Bishop McManus recognized Delma L. Josephson, former superintendent of Catholic schools.
“I truly am blessed to see so much support for our schools,” said her successor, Superintendent David Perda. He said he will be gathering data, in an effort to strengthen the system and increase enrollment. Catholic schools prepare the next generation of Catholic leaders, he said.
The dinner included a performance by the St. Paul Catholic Schools Consortium Chorus, directed by St. Leo’s principal, Nancy Pierce. Students’ pictures and notes decorated the tables.
Mr. Nicholson shared experiences that were part of his education – from an assignment to pretend you were the priest and give the class a homily to using his French at Mass in Haiti.
He said that, during the war in Nicaragua in the 1980s, his grandparents sent his mother and her sister here, where they learned English at Holy Rosary School.
 He recalled running for mayor during eighth-grade Government Week, when Mayor Hawke was in his first term. Now the mayor is his boss.
Mr. Nicholson said the biggest life lesson he learned at Holy Rosary could be summarized: “God gets it.”
 “When the 16 of us in the Class of 2009 walked out of the doors of Holy Rosary Church that June evening, we all knew that there would be many challenges ahead of us, but we had learned that as long as we remembered that ‘God gets it,’ we would be OK,” he said.
Recounting Gospel stories, he illustrated how Jesus understands, because he had experiences like people today do, from grieving to feeling thankful to being tempted. In such situations “we knew we could talk to God about it,” Mr. Nicholson said. “After all, he gets it.”
He said his Catholic education taught him how to live.
Mr. Pelletier praised his wife for her service, and religious sisters, priests and others who impacted his life at St. Joseph Elementary School in Fitchburg, now closed, and St. Bernard’s High School. Teachers have the daunting task of instilling morals and teaching fundamentals, and they have a pretty good success rate, he said.
He told alumni in the audience that when they say please or feel guilt about saying something they shouldn’t, that’s their Catholic education at work.
Mrs. Pelletier thanked family, friends and collaborators for their example and help in volunteering.
She talked about working with others to start the Bernardian Foundation in 2012 to assist St. Bernard’s High School with fund- raising.
She praised her husband for sharing his talents and finding others to do the same. It’s important to show that one doesn’t need to donate lots of money to make a difference (though that is welcome), she said. One can also have an impact in other ways.
 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (for whom the Pelletiers’ award is named) relied on faith in God to get her through difficult times, Mrs. Pelletier said. She educated others and advised parents to be careful about who their children associate with.
Mrs. Pelletier said she and her husband chose Catholic education for their children – an environment where classmates take learning seriously and respect is expected. She praised religious sisters, who were then asked to stand for recognition.
Bishop McManus said he was delighted that the sisters were commended and now lay collaborators have taken on their charism. He said he was struck by how awardees were transformed by their Catholic education.
“Catholic education is a fundamental ministry of the Church,” he said. “It belongs to all of us” and has the right “to be supported by all of us.”