Remarks by Charles V. McPhillips, Chairman, James-Barry Robinson Trust

Bishop DiLorenzo, Mayor Fraim and all our honored guests. On behalf of my fellow Trustees—Ed Power, Art Prince, Don Price and Bill Hagan—please allow me to welcome you to this celebration.

A decent respect for the opinion of our friends and neighbors impels me to explain why we have embarked on this project. What makes us think this Catholic school is needed? Why do we think that building this school is so important that we have invited all of you—many of you Catholic and many of you non-Catholic—here today? And, for that matter, why do we propose to name this school, Saint Patrick’s?

To answer these questions, let me first take you back in time 148 years ago when, in the early morning hours of December 8, 1856, the first Catholic church erected in Norfolk, Saint Patrick Catholic Church, was burnt to the ground, the grim deed of arsonists reportedly associated with Know-Nothings, a mid-19th Century political society (we'd call it a “hate group” today) that opposed the waves of immigrants then washing onto our American shores, especially the wretched refugees from famine-stricken Ireland. The pastor of Saint Patrick's, Father Matthew O'Keefe, truly stoked the rage of the Know-Nothings when he welcomed free blacks and slaves to worship alongside the mostly Irish parishioners at Saint Patrick's. Their hatred inflamed, the Know-Nothings put Saint Patrick’s Church to the torch.

The Catholic faithful of Norfolk immediately retaliated by—loving their Church even more and building the magnificent Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, located next to the ruins of old Saint Patrick’s. St. Mary’s rose then, and stands today, as an inspiring monument to the resilience and faithfulness of the Catholic Church's adherents in Norfolk. Their sublime defiance gave evidence of their commitment to their Church and their commitment to the City of Norfolk.

Today's Catholic community does not confront any such hostility or labor under the weight of the poverty or bigotry that burdened our forebears. Catholics now work, live and worship where they choose, join the clubs of their liking, and send their children to the public schools and to the best private schools they can afford. We have been mainstreamed.

Yet, somehow, we still feel an emotional tug, a mystic chord that binds us to those forebears who gave so much to build the Catholic institutions we cherish today—from our individual parishes to our charities such as St. Mary’s Infant Home, Catholic Charities of Hampton Roads and the like. Despite the crises in the Church that have been much reported, Catholics in Norfolk still love their Church and still want to contribute, in the name of our faith, to this City. Perhaps nothing better exemplifies this fidelity to our best traditions than the sacrifices made by so many Catholic families to sustain the parochial schools in Norfolk. The parochial schools have been instrumental in anchoring the Catholic faithful to our parishes, while also beckoning Catholics and non-Catholics alike who yearn for a faith-filled school community.

However, Catholics, like others, have migrated over the years to the suburbs, ever since the automobile and interstate, cheap farm land, suburban school districts and lower taxes enticed them to flee the sometimes stressful realities of life in the core city. The City of Norfolk has lost twenty percent (20%) of its population during my lifetime, a fair share of them Catholics. Our six parishes have held together remarkably, thanks to the fierce loyalty of their parishioners, who (albeit fewer in number) have never been more generous and dedicated. Sadly, though, we have lost three of our six parochial schools. First, Sacred Heart, then Blessed Sacrament, and, most recently, St. Mary’s Academy. The three surviving schools—St. Pius, Holy Trinity and Christ the King—are wonderful schools, all making great strides, and we are delighted to be their partners in expanding and renovating their school facilities, installing modern technology and offering scholarships to their parishioners, but they can be expected to absorb only so much of this generation's obligation to pass down the best of our Catholic traditions to the next generation.

Mercifully, the City of Norfolk is now recovering its prosperity and families are reexamining whether they really want to sprawl further into the suburbs or, alternatively, stay rooted in the close-knit neighborhoods and communities of this dear old city. We are breaking ground on the campus of this School to symbolize our resolve to participate in this renewal of the City we love and to reinforce the Church and faith community we cling to. It is simply providential that we have found this site, this perfect site, these 16.5 acres in a fully developed core city, upon which to build Saint Patrick's. It is, as Benjamin Franklin would put it, another of the “convincing proofs…that God governs in the affairs of men.”

And on this land, fast by the river, perhaps it is fitting that we are building not just a school, but also a bridge. A bridge across that river to Christ the King, a bridge to Holy Trinity out in Ocean View and a bridge all the way across the City to St. Pius. I pray that Saint Patrick’s will be a good partner of theirs in improving the Catholic education offered to the current and future residents of Norfolk; that we will grow together as the finest family of Catholic schools in the nation; and that together we will shine a powerful beacon—a quality Catholic education—leading families home to Norfolk.

In order to serve the practical needs, the real demands of families who live now, or who in the future might consider living in Norfolk, we are animated by the proposition that families place the education of their children at the top of their priorities; that academic excellence is essential; that families desperately want their children's school to impart the moral principles and religious values they uphold; that nothing means more to parents than the security and safety of their children; that the quality of the school's facilities, including its technology, fine arts and athletic facilities, are paramount to parents who want the best for their children; and that parents and students together yearn for a true community, where every child has a name (and is known by it), where students pray and learn their faith together so they will carry beyond this campus a Christian compass guiding them through future moral dilemmas yet unknown—whether confronted in a corporate boardroom, a court room, a scientific laboratory or a seminary.

We pray that Saint Patrick’s will fill these real needs of families, present and future, Catholic and non-Catholic, and that our graduates will grow to abide by Thomas Jefferson’s admonition:

Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give up the earth itself and all it contains, rather than do an immoral act…whenever you do a thing, though it can be known only to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.

Moreover, as citizens of this City and this country, we believe that preservation of a free, just and democratic society depends on transmitting to each generation the wisdom which serves as the foundation upon which our best conduct and traditions are built. As a City and a country, we need schools which are free to convey the religious and moral principles upon which our freedoms and our social justice are based. We believe, as Thomas Jefferson did, in the self-evident truth that “the God who gave us life gave us liberty…” and as he more famously wrote, “that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights” (emphasis supplied). We believe, as John Adams did, that our liberties are not “the grants of princes and parliaments,” but instead derived from the dignity of man's God-given nature.

The implications of these self-evident truths for education in a free society were summed up by Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the most profound of our Founding Fathers, who said:

The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without it there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.

Agreeing with Dr. Rush, our first President, George Washington, warned:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports… Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Finally, Mr. Jefferson (once again), asked poignantly:

…can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that their liberties are the gift of God?

Now, friends, I do not believe that any member of that line-up—Jefferson, Adams, Rush or Washington—was a Catholic, but we agree with each of those great Americans that preserving our personal freedoms and building a more just society require that we shape young minds and inspire young hearts, through a religious education, to act more nobly.

In the firm conviction, therefore, that the Saint Patrick Catholic School we start to build today will be true both to the best traditions of our Church and the fundamental values of our country, and true to our forebears who built Saint Patrick’s Church and St. Mary’s Basilica, we offer our humble invocation to Saint Patrick, to pray for us, to Mary, the Holy Mother of God, to pray for us; and to all of you here, to pray for us, that the Lord our God will guide us to build and operate a school that meets our highest aspirations; that Saint Patrick’s will attract middle income and working families, the rich and poor, all united in the love of their own children, to come home to Norfolk—all the while filling the pews in our Churches, renovating our older neighborhoods, and volunteering in our City’s soup kitchens or Operation Nest. If we can influence a few hundred families at a time to make this commitment to Norfolk, and if our Catholic community is reinforced in the process, then perhaps we will have been true to our forebears who fought against such greater odds than we do today to make a lasting contribution to our beloved City and to our beloved Church.

Thank you.