Mater Dei Mass of Remembrance
The Reverend Stanley Lukaszewski more affectionately known as Father Stas, will be principal celebrant of the Mater Dei Mass of Remembrance to be celebrated at Saint Mary’s Church, New Monmouth, Saturday, Sept. 30 at noon.
All are invited to attend the mass and reception that follows, honoring deceased teachers, priests, nuns, employees and graduates of Mater Dei High School since its first graduating class of 1965.
Tradition and remembrance die hard among Seraphs, and this Mass is no different.
Think Thomas C. Murray.
For those who went to Mater Dei High School in the mid 1970s and onward in the 20th century, there was always Thomas C. Murray, the award winning history teacher whom students loved and regarded as an outstanding educator, friend and leader.
Mr. Murray did more than teach history in a classroom. He taught each of the students to become good decent adults, to commit themselves to helping others, to always do the right thing.
He kept up with his former students as well. He had taught at Essex Catholic High School in Newark before coming to Mater Dei during his four decades as an educator. A graduate of Fordham University and Iona College, he devoted his last years to writing and had authored several books, including one on poetry and another, “Just a Kid from Hell’s Kitchen,” a biography. He was an actor and a playwright, and a member of the ACLU.
In June of 2007, TC, as he was affectionately known, reached back to his Mater Dei family with the idea of an annual Mass of Remembrance, to ensure that graduates of the high school who died would continue to be remembered by their alma mater.
He put together the first Mass of Remembrance, in 2007, with former classmates of deceased members among those reading the Necrology so that teachers, employees, priests and nuns as well as students, would be remembered.
When it was over, TC reached out to one of the alumni, Mari Campanella Kovach, whom he had asked to help with the first Remembrance Mass and asked her to be sure the annual Mass would continue. Mari willingly agreed and assured her former teacher she would.
TC died in Jun the following year.
Mari and a dedicated team have continued the annual mass every year.
Fr. Stash, who had been at St. Mary’s, later was pastor of St. Barnabas parish in Bayville and is now retired and living in Trenton, in offering this year’s mass is following Monsignor Michael Walsh, the former pastor who celebrated last year’s mass and continuing the tradition of former priests from the parish school offering the Remembrance Mass. Both graduates and parents of deceased graduates will participate in the mass, and everyone is invited to attend. Refreshments will also be served after mass to enable those coming from a distance to reunite and spend time with former classmates and friends.
Members of the Mass of Remembrance Committee include those who have made the commitment to TC besides Kovach Class of ’78, including Cathy Daniels, class of ’79, and Tom Dooley, Class of ’65.
After the final blessing of the mass, the names of those in the school’s Memorial Necrology, along with their graduation years, will be ready by former classmates, friends and family members of those being honored. Also being remembered are the school administrators who have died, dating back to founding Principal Mother Bede Loog, OSH, and former principals through the years.
Four hundred sixty-three alumni and staff will be remembered in the mass next Sagturday, marking all those who have died since the school’s first class of 1965 on the school’s Necrology List.
Kovach also extended an invitation to all who wish to provide updated information to the Mater Dei Prep Memorial Necrology to e-mail her at deckhill@comcast.net.
