2/2/24 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

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Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,

In the late summer of 1994, when I became principal of Bishop Hartley High School, the convent was connected to the school. The doors to the chapel were at the end of the main hallway and led to the pews, which sat directly in front of the altar. There was also a side section of pews for the sisters with a side door that led directly to the convent area.

The chapel was still in use by the school when I got there, but the convent was occupied, not by sisters, but by low-income senior citizens who lived there through an agreement between the city and the Diocese. In a practice that would be unthinkable in today’s climate, the residents of the convent had full access to the school building. We did not have any issues during the school day, but at night I would find some of them walking through our halls, sometimes just for exercise and at other times because they were confused as to where they were. A few would walk through the school to get to the twice-a-week Bingo game.

By the end of the first year, with major repairs needed for the convent if it were to continue as a residence of any kind, the Diocese ended the agreement, and the occupants found another home. The convent sat empty for over a year. One day,

Tim Grannan, who at the time was the Religion Department Chairperson, and I were taking a walk through the school building. Tim and I had both been in high school at St. Charles together. He was one year my senior there. We were talking about the use of the space throughout the building, including the deserted convent. As we got to the chapel, we remarked that its place all the way at the end of the building seemed far away from the main center of activity at Bishop Hartley. It was the most important room in the school and yet it felt as if it were in isolation.

As we pondered this, we walked back up the hall to the main lobby. There, right in the center of the school, sat a plain-looking meeting room that, at the time, was called The Hawk Room. Its main function at the time was as the non-smoking area for Bingo. Originally, it had been a very little theater, with a small, sloped floor that was later leveled to make way for a flat-surfaced area. It was paneled like a basement rec room from the Sixties. The electronic Bingo board was the most prominent permanent fixture there. The idea was born that day of moving the chapel to this space, where it belonged, at the very center of our school.

Our only issue back then was money. We didn’t have any. In fact, we were just coming out of debt. And so we utilized the services of Ralph Perkins, a long-time art teacher at the school, to make the plans needed to transition the space from a drab meeting space into a place of worship. I secured the services of my brother-in-law, Randy Ritter, to do the construction. Both did a magnificent job and Bishop Griffin himself dedicated our new chapel.

Years later, under the leadership of principal Mike Winters, the chapel was enlarged both outwardly toward the courtyard and up toward the heavens. If you visit Bishop Hartley today, make sure and make a visit and say a prayer. It is a beautiful sacred space.

As we finish Catholic Schools Week, it is important to note that Jesus Christ and His Church are at the center of everything we do, and everything we strive to be. Catholic schools can tout great academics, high test scores, safety, and good discipline, as well as excellent extra curriculars and athletics. But if Christ is not at the core of Our Lady of Peace and, indeed, all our Catholic schools, we may be a school of excellence in the secular sense, but we cannot be a place of worship, praise, and the building of His Kingdom. We must never forget the freedom, privilege and opportunity to start each morning as an entire school in prayer, to pray before each class, to attend Mass weekly, and to prepare for and receive the Sacraments. Indeed, it is only in Catholic schools that our students can witness the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of our Lord.



I honestly don’t remember whether it was Tim, or I who had the idea to move the chapel. I do know, like many times in my life, that it was the Holy Spirit who touched our hearts and souls that day to make that decision. I am just happy to have been a part of placing the Real Presence of our Lord in its rightful place at Bishop Hartley High School.

Jim Silcott