20 years later: October 5, 1999: The new Cardinal Brennan gym dedicated

20 years ago today (as this is written on October 5, 2019), the Cardinal Brennan Jr/Sr High School gymnasium was dedicated by the Bishop of Allentown..

 There was much fanfare of the Middle States audit taking place that school year.. Principal Fr. Frans Berkhout ensured that students were prepped and ready for spot checks .. for the stresses that come with a grand review of an entire campus.. Along with it was a capital campaign aimed at raising money to build a new field house since the existing one had seen its day..

 New computer labs were built in 99, new math classrooms, and the crowning jewel: The new gym.. The stage was set.. the Bishop was in town.. Edward Cullen offered his blessings on the new gym during a school mass on October 5, 1999.. People were "grateful and relieved," the Pottsville REPUBLICAN HERALD reported...

 

 But the rest would soon become history.. Berkhout was out after the capital campaign.. By August 2000 the football season itself was canceled due to lack of players--a first in Brennan history.. Writing began to form on walls...

 While the Lady Chargers won their first basketball District 11 championship in history in March of 2003 and 2004, the number of students in the school begins to diminish.. In 2006, the entire football program is suspended...

February 2007: Letters were sent to parents inviting them to talk about enrollment i the school..

March 2007: The Diocese did not send the bishop as they did in October 99, but instead a representative to talk to more than 400 people at a meeting about the future of Cardinal Brennan.

No congratulatory applause about $600,000 capital campaigns.. just a quiet and slow death. On

March 25, 2007, the final March in March occurred.. as students cried in hallways, the announcement was made that Cardinal Brennan would close its doors. (https://coalspeaker.com/2007/03/25/the-final-march-of-cardinal-brennan-high/ ) .

 All of this melancholy and infinite sadness was captured in stark difference from the hope, hype, and spectacle of the October 1999 moment.. Back during the previous century, as the gym was being constructed, I was attending Cardinal Brennan and concluding my teenage years in the amazing school...

 When I graduated in 1999, prior to the finality of the new gym, the valedictorian of the school had a profound message that could be reconsidered given the circumstances of years that occurred after its delivery,

"Each of us are a single thread to complete the larger tapestry, each one of having different strength, texture, and color. Each one by itself does nothing and exist only as a single strand. Yet when we are all woven together, it will have one strength throughout, one uniform texture, and the colors will blend. Only after each thread is in its proper place will we see the whole picture through different eyes. Let us not stray from the course the weaver wants us to follow."

The valedictorian went on with pros... stating,

"Dried petals lay beneath the sand. Flowers in sand preserve, let our memories be those flowers, and the rest of our lives from this moment forward be the sand, but let us never once forget."

The words mean as much now (or more) as they meant then. The gym is now property of North Schuylkill... All of those tears, hugs.. and long embraces between friends in front of that gymnasium in the summer of 99 are just history... memories are the flowers... forward in the sands of time..

ABUSIVE PRIESTS AND THE BISHOPS WHO LOVED THEM!

ACROSS PA.. A WIND IS IN THE AIR.

THE DEATH OF THE CHURCH COMES WITH IT.

NOW REVEALED IN BLACK AND WHITE: THE GRAND JURY REPORT ON PRIESTS FROM ACROSS THE KEYSTONE STATE AND BISHOPS WHO ACTIVELY WORKED TO CONCEAL THEIR ABUSE.. THE REPORT WILL SPEAK FOR ITSELF..

AND YOU CAN READ IT ALL HERE IN ITS 1000+ PAGE EPIC STYLE

The Baltimore files

One of the most important documentaries that has ever existed can now be found on Netflix. It is called THE KEEPERS, and travels down a murky path starting with a nun's murder in the 1960s all the way through abuse allegations made against priests in the 1990s and beyond.

Sister Catherine Cesnik was found dead decades ago. But her murder still haunts those alive and those who knew her or were taught by her.. She was a cutting edge nun of the time, she wanted to work in public schools and also had thoughts about leaving her vows to marry a priest who was equally thinking about leaving the priesthood.

During her tensure at an all-girls school Archbishop Keough High School, there were allegations that Father Joseph Maskell and another priest may have been molesting girls. And even more than molesting, but also raping..bringing in outsiders to do that deed as well, including potentially police officers with the Baltimore police department, and subsequently attempting to cover up records by burying them in a cemetery.. Along with those explosive allegations: The theme of THE KEEPERS is that Sister Catherine was aware and was about to do something... and was murdered brutally with her body left to be maggot infested and rotting in a wooded area.

The documentary stokes ill-will in some. The 1990s and 2000s were a period of dramatic revelations for anyone who was a member of the Catholic Church in the United States. Not only were churches and schools consolidated and closed because of dioceses being forced to pay out high numbers of dollars in abuse settlements, but also a general malaise of church officials and mistrust of the heirarchy of the Roman Catholic institution developed. People stopped fearing and respecting the priestly authority.. instead, perhaps sadly for moral men who pick this as their life profession, a white collar has become a punchline.

The Church inflicted wounds on themselves. Their denials in the face of facts--including in this newly released documentary THE KEEPERS--is what brings a pox on their houses.. It is what creates the 'laugh line'.. and it is what fuels constant conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories, by the way, that has proven to be accurate and unsettling.

And .....for those who reside in Eastern Pennsylvania or surrounding areas in Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, you may be scratching your head like I did after viewing THE KEEPERS. I recall, quite a few times, where my own Catholic school priests seemingly had a strange connection to Baltimore.. where parties and weekend getaways happened with certain chosen boys from schools around me called retreats...
Baltimore..
Baltimore.
What the KEEPERS. And begin asking questions in your own mind and out loud. The answers may be startling.

The end of an era: An icon of Cardinal Brennan passes away

To my friends who graduated or attended Cardinal Brennan high school, the end of an era has occurred.. The famed custodian Nate has met his demise.

Godspeed Nate. You are in every students fond memories of Cardinal Brennan and made each day better, brighter, and more interesting ...

Including my memories and days.
Rest In Peace.

The former CB building

At this time, there has been no affirmative decision as to what the North Schuylkill School District will do with the former Cardinal Brennan high school. Earlier in 2016, NS purchased and auctioned off contents of the CB grounds. There were rumors churning that the school would have to be demolished due to years of neglect.. at this time the building, though in constant worsening condition, still stands tall through the late summer trees...

The bell tower revisited

It has been some time since I typed out a post on here.. I check my stats now and then and realized that hundreds of people per month are still searching for and finding this blog.. The Bell Tower Blog..

Cardinal Brennan has been closed now for years.. Changes. Lots of graduating classes would have come and gone. And gone.. and gone. The beat went on.
The area has too..

The Bell Tower Blog captured a moment in time, when a school was shuddered and lives were forever changed. And scarred. But the area has received its share of devilish grins, too..

Heroin blankets most streets across the coal region now. And so does depression, joblessness, sadness and grief. The mall, the Schuylkill Mall, appears to be entering its final days. With more stores closing by the moment, the seconds are ticking and time is winding down.

There seems to be an overall feeling of malaise that has swept the land. It seems down lately.. It seemed changed.

Perhaps one can soon look back at recent and soon to be distant history and pinpoint a certain time when the area died away and withered? Maybe it has to do a bit with the loss of church life--priest lawsuits and cases of pedophilia have hurt deep and caused everlasting wounds. Schools closing did not help. They took a sense of security from some. Parents who attended Catholic schools now have a tough choice: Risk spending most of what little extra cash they have on school.. or pick the other school.

Times have changed. The bell has tolled over and over again. And with each new phase of life, the standard and quality of life has been compromised.

Thanks for reading.
I am honored many of you still seem to be checking back...

-Bryan

ONE FINAL ALMA MATER

The school's last belongings have been auctioned off...
The piano gone too.
Before it did, the Alma Mater's sound reverberated through hallways for one last time.. vacant, sad, lonely hallways..




We sing our praise to alma mater the school we all love.
We raise heart and voice in joyous acclaim.
We cherish you and all you teach us.
Blue and gold your colors our fame.
We will be true to the ideals that are strong heritage.
From on high you reign our true beacon light;
Now let’s sing out in happy chorus.
Praise to our dear school,
Cardinal Brennan High!

The Bell Tower's final ring: Cardinal Brennan was no more. But now even in name, it's gone. The fat ghost nun on the third floor has sung..

The Pagan conquest
NORTH SCHUYLKILL HAS PURCHASED CARDINAL BRENNAN FOR UNDER $1 MILLION DOLLARS.
THERE IS NO FURTHER NEED FOR THE BELL TOWER BLOG TO BE UPDATED AND ALIVE.
BUT IT WILL REMAIN AS A REMINDER OF WHAT WAS, AND HOW IT HAPPENED..


Years in the making.. the death of a school led to the death of Catholic education in the Coal Region of PA, once famed and fortuned and now filled with grief and despair..

More information about something locally making big news.. The former Cardinal Brennan high school is going to be NORTH SCHUYLKILL MIDDLE SCHOOL very soon..

The former Catholic home to education was closed in 2007.. shuddered and tucked away in the annals of memory in the coal region..

Since the announcement was made that NS was going to take over CB, mixed emotions have developed..

• There is one common thread, though. Most people seem to be quite fine that it will be used as a home to edumucation.. but there’s some other things which are getting some heated reactions among CB alumni, including the following:
• All religious relics will be subtracted from the property.. obviously crosses and Jesus can’t exist on a publicly funded taxpayer location. Including the giant cross on the mess of the new field house that was built in the late 1990s..
• All memories of CB will be eliminated..
• The çharger horse that exists throughout various places on the campus will be painted over with NS emblems..
• The blue and gold, once the color of CB pride, will be replaced with red and blue where ever it existed..
• The places of memories and reflections of past students and classes will be trampled on by people who have no clue what happened in certain rooms or buildings. That one is upsetting to me..
• There is a good chance the bell tower, once known for the signatures of past people, may be painted over. As though none of the sneak-signings ever even happened..
• Nate, the janitor, will not be there. And for that, it’s a great misfortune on future students..

I am not in the camp blaming NS for anything.
But instead I blame the Catholic Church. I blame them for having priests who molested children for 50 years, leading to a collapse in faith and lack of church attendance ,and lack of money, and death of Catholic education. If anyone is looking for a villain, they are your best option.

Meanwhile.. This is how CB once looked way in the past, and more recently in the past..







It’s over folks
The blue and gold blood has long dried up..

Good day.

Goodbye IHES

After 100+ years, IHES to vanish

Immaculate Heart Elementary School closed its doors for good in 2006. And now years later, as the building sits dilapidated and decaying, it will soon vanish from the heart of Girardville, PA.. And gone with it the memories of countless children who called it their home for the most formative years of their lives...
Sr Monica where are you now!?
Thais! Save us!
Mrs. O'Connor.... please no!

John Usalis from the POTTSVILLE REPUBLICAN wrote in a page 1 lead today that the building will be razed 'quickly' by Northeast Industrial Corp from Shamokin, PA.. It is going to cost $53,500 to do it..

According to Matt Kerr, our friendly voice from the Allentown Diocese (Cardinal Brennan Chargers should know his name well), the building is in disrepair.. a roof is leaking.. the sidewalk is crumbling.. and if you look close as you zoom by the building, the area where the wall seems to be caving is was Mr. Schappel's former 7th grade classroom.. may God rest his soul.

And may God rest the soul of the former IHES...

It was perhaps the happiest school I ever attended. I switched from Holy Spirit in Mt Carmel during the 6th grade, and arrived in Girardville to meet friends who lasted so far for a lifetime.. (Funny enough, Holy Spirit, IHES, and CB are all closed.. am I the curse??) 

And what does the friendly Father Connelly want to do? He wants a parish hall. But he is realistic, I suppose, telling Usalis that 'more realistically, it will be a parking lot' ...

Great. Another parking lot.. another area of nothing. Another school gone, and the death of Catholic education in the coal region only amplifies by the crumbling infrastructure of a once beautiful school...

Let us never forget what happened in 2007

Memories fade .. events become fuzzy. Cardinal Brennan's past is now long gone. From nuns who'd walk the dark halls at night long ago to the students who'd fight to stay away until Friday, it's all history now.

No matter how much time rolls on, we need to keep a memory alive. A spirit of Cardinal Brennan was always palpable. To a degree it still is.

And six years ago, someone tried to blow that flame out. Did it work? Only you know that.

Here's what many of us were talking and thinking about in April, 2007: Families scrambling to find new schools.

Most of those folks who had to start in new places are graduated and gone from the schools they picked. They're becoming doctors and nurses, truck drivers and bartenders, and Marines and Navy Seals.

Did you keep the memory alive?

A flashback: Cardinal Brennan closes

It was March of 2007 when this site first  broke news that Cardinal Brennan had closed it's doors. Here is how we reported it then..

> Cardinal Brennan shutting down..> A very reliable source informs the Bell Tower Blog that after all the debate, Cardinal Brennan will be no more. Teachers are reportedly crying in hallways.. children shocked at the news that everyone knew was coming. It was just a matter of time from the beginning... > > More as it develops. But now, March 23, 2007: The beginning of the end of Cardinal Brennan.> > > More coming as I learn information..

Sometimes the emotions show themselves ... as strong as they were in 2007.

(SOURCE)

McAdoo Catholic Elementary fighting to stay open

Another school is about to become the victim of a closing.. Parents and students from McAdoo Catholic Elementary School are fighting to keep doors open..
The school was founded in the 1920s, it's currently teaching about 100 students from pre-school through eighth grade.. But not, the Allentown Diocese say that they must raise $130,000 in pledges in order to bridge the gap on the school's debt. The deadline is April 30.

This is how WNEP reports it: It sounds like the school is a nice little place--quite like others that have shut down in recent years. I hope that a miracle can happen at this one can at least stick around.. But it just seems like, as others, the writing is on the wall...
Same diocese. Same story.
Same outcome.?

Immaculate Heart Elementary School in Girardville may be demolished soon

Catholic education is dying a fast death in Northern Schuylkill County-- and many other places across the United States, too..

News now circulating now that Immaculate Heart in Girardville PA will be demolished at some point in the near future..

The Allentown Diocese said it would pay 50% to trash the former Catholic elementary school if St. Joseph's Church next door came up with the rest.. But the answer was no from the pastor, which we will keep nameless....Most know who he is.

But the Diocese isn't asking anymore.. it's telling.

The St. Joseph's bulletin admits that the Diocese is issuing almost an order than the school be taken down.. According to the bulletin, it will be discussed at a Parish Finance Council later this month..

Wonder if those ghosts that reportedly inhabit the building will leave peacefully?

Anyone who has seen the building over the past several months have witnessed a dilapidated and almost dangerous  structure.. Parts of the building are falling down, holes in the wall are appearing..  It is beyond wear and tear. It's erosion in the highest degree. The structure seems to be becoming dangerous to passersby..

For now.
Until it's gone.


Paging Fr. Montgello! Maybe it's time for a good old fashioned spaghetti dinner fundraiser.. just like in the 20th century....

Six long years later (already!).. Cardinal Brennan closed... and memories fading..

I took this photo today as I drove by my long gone high school..

With another cold winter ending, the rebirth of spring beginning, Cardinal Brennan sits there vacant.. On a hill in Fountain Springs, PA..

My alma mater now has simply become a relic.. A closed down school in the distance. Memories are fading.. Lives moved on. But what secrets, I often ponder, does that cold building still hold?

Do bells still ring, and do poets still sing? Does an echo survive of time gone? And does that elevator still work? Or.. did it ever?

It’s been 6 years since Cardinal Brennan began the process of shutting down.. That’s six graduating classes that never finished there and two that never even started.. Lives have been altered. But what did we benefit? Nothing.. But all adjusted to the new reality..

Last century, when times seemed simpler and I was a high school student, I went to this building.. Now it’s empty and desolate.. It’s simply a aging piece of brick and mortar. Rumor has it that it will soon be a complex of apartments, perhaps.. a residential area.. Not a school. Something else. Something wrong...Something it was never intended on being.

As for now, there is no classroom of children... no Lisa Ling from Channel One news in the morning.. no Frau.. nuns, priests, or mass.. no field day.. no spirit day.. Nothing. But I suspect, in the stillness of the night, the building’s spirits and past somehow lives. At least I’d like to believe that..

CB alumni message boarder: open the books

More..

FORMER CARDINAL BRENNAN PRINCIPAL SUES DIOCESE OF ALLENTOWN

FORMER CB PRINCIPAL FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST DIOCESE!

Jaclyn M. Fowler alleges harassing comments from priests while in her tenure as head of the school..

AP FOWLER LAWSUIT

AP reporting: "A former Roman Catholic school principal is suing the Diocese of Allentown over alleged sexual harassment and gender discrimination" ..

MORE..

Rumor back again..

Will CB be a house for clergy accused of sexual misconduct?

The Brennan message board alive and well with the rumor..

The Bell Tower Blog made attempts in prior years to get information from the Diocese on this rumor.. no response. It appears the Brennan message board is having the same luck..

SUCCESS FOR THE BRENNAN 11

A Charger that still bleeds blue and gold in a sea of green ..