By Don Jungels –
I read with interest in the May 10 issue of The Voice that Our Lady of Good Counsel, St. Therese, St. Joseph, and St. Peter were consolidating to become one school in the next school year. How sad! The new name for all four will be Pope St. John Paul II Catholic Academy.
I think far more of the story from the St. Peter view point needs to be told. St. Peter has quite a storied existence. From my understanding the parish was formed from Holy Angels Parish by the Bishop of Rockford at the time to compete with some other religious groups infiltrating the Italian neighborhood on the southwest side of Aurora. A Father Rocheman was placed as the pastor. Father was a great sportsman. He formed baseball and basketball teams to keep everyone busy. I understood he had even persuaded Doug Mills, future University of Illinois athletic director, to pitch for the St. Peter baseball team.
Father Rocheman was replaced by Father Joseph Rzeszotko. Father Joe, as he was affectionately known, even though he became a monsignor, eventually installed a tuition-free school for parishioners. His feelings were that the school was a parish activity supported by the whole parish. He had two compartments in the Sunday envelope. One was for church the other was the school. He felt that while your children were growing up you might not have much to give to the school, so you could continue after their school days at St. Peter’s. There were many families whose children passed their grade school days still donating on the school side of the envelope.
Father Joe always preached that if you took care of the missions, you would be taken care of by the Lord. He would send some parishioners house to house for the missions. Normally, St. Peter would donate more to the missions than most bigger parishes. Traditionally under Father Joe’s direction St. Peter clothing drives were the largest in Aurora. After he built the new school he opened the old school building to the use of the St. Vincent DePaul Societies.
The school was fortunate to have the Springfield Dominicans as the teachers in the school. Some of the past students might remember Sister Mary Ventura, deceased, Sister Martina, Sister Victorine, deceased; Sister Noreen, deceased; and Sister Frances Rose, deceased; and two lay teachers, Mrs. Mary White, deceased; and Mrs. Mary Ann Bennett. Mrs. White was a saint disguised as a teacher.
Father Joe was an intern pastor at St. Michael’s Church of the East Right as they awaited Monsignor Markus as their new permanent pastor. After just one week he learned enough Romanian to be able to give a sermon. He was thrilled when Pope John Paul II was elected Pope. He was born not far from where the Pope was born in Italy.
He learned Spanish so he could marry a young couple. Back in those days there were no priests who knew Spanish, unlike today.
At 88 years old, Father Joe was finally replaced. I always said that there was some things that Father Joe might not have known or been comfortable doing, but there were some things he was so far ahead of everyone else they would never catch up.
Father Joe must be doing flips in his coffin with his precious school closing.
