Our Lady of Lourdes Regional School in Coal Township volunteered to assist with the cleaning of the B’Nai Israel Cemetery on September 23. Mother Cabrini Church, Shamokin, purchased the land from the B’Nai Israel congregation in August.
Friar Nicholas Spano, OFM Conv., pastor of Mother Cabrini Parish, said, “The Jewish congregation was looking to sell the land so that somebody would take care of the cemetery in perpetuity. The church agreed that we would take over care of the cemetery because we already own land on both sides.”
Juniors and seniors from Our Lady of Lourdes Regional School helped by picking up sticks and weeds while others cut down tree limbs.
Students said the day was not just great for themselves but for the Lourdes student body.
“It’s great to see everybody up here…together as a family,” said Nathan Yablonski, a Lourdes Regional senior. Yablonski also noted that he spent a lot of his childhood up near the cemetery and still runs near the grounds. Yablonski lives a few blocks away from B’Nai Israel Cemetery.
Braydon Madden, a senior at Our Lady of Lourdes, put it simply: “Community service is a big thing. It’s important to lead and serve your community because you’ve got to be able to give back to people that gave to you at some point, and this is a great way.”
This project is one of several that Lourdes has planned for its students. For more information, contact Brian M. Christiana at BrianMChristiana@lourdesregional.org.
(The Catholic Witness gave student Leo Losiewicz the opportunity to interview and produce an article while working with staff writer Laura Loose. Leo was under the supervision of his teacher, Brian Christiana.)
By Leo Losiewicz and Brian M. Christiana, Special to The Witness
Helping the Local Parish Serve the Community
“When she delves into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the Jewish People, ‘the first to hear the Word of God.’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 839)
Friar Nicholas Spano, OFM Conv., has linked the Coal Township Catholic and Jewish communities irrevocably. The Jewish community once cared for its own dead, but as the coal and textile industries declined, Jewish families left Shamokin and the surrounding area and the synagogue closed. When the congregation could no longer care for the cemetery, it turned to the neighboring Catholic parish.
Helping Friar Nick ensure the final resting place of the once-vibrant Jewish community remains beautiful and tidy were members of the junior and senior classes of Our Lady of Lourdes Regional School.
Friar Nick could not have planned a more beautiful day, but almost every other detail of the day was carefully planned, beginning in the classroom. Before the students ever arrived at the cemetery, their teachers prepared them with history and theology lessons so they could live out their faith in service to their community and their Jewish brothers and sisters.
Friar Nick stated, “…as we do the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, taking care of the cemetery is as much taking care of the dead as [attending] funerals and burials.” He believes bringing the Jewish cemetery under the care of Mother Cabrini Parish was the right thing to do.
In history class, students studied Judaism and the story of the Jewish community in their own town; in theology class, they learned about Jewish belief. The planning was deliberate. Catholic education at Lourdes Regional School aims to form the whole person, and “service is an integral part of their education,” said Friar Nick.
Those buried in B’Nai Israel Cemetery will not be forgotten. Mother Cabrini Parish has committed to caring for the cemetery forever so that the Jewish families can be at peace. The parish and school will work together to ensure our link is respectfully strengthened from one generation to the next.
(Photos by Laura Loose, The Catholic Witness.)
By Laura Loose, The Catholic Witness
