Parish Youth spruce up St. Virgilss
YOUTH SPRUCE UP PARISH:The St. Virgil´s youth group recently refinished the screen house behind the rectory and painted the Tracy Center. Click on the photo for for more pictures.

Knights award students, educators, families, charities


Outgoing Grand Knight Vince Marchese looks on as John Fitzgerald hands a contribution made by the Bishop McLaughlin Chapter of the Knights of Columbus to the peer leaders of this year´s Appalachian Mission. The Appalachia group is just one of many supported by out local Knight´s council. Click on the picture for more on the Knight´s annual awards.

Parish Celebrates Fr. Francis´ 40th
CONGRATULATIONS FR. FRANCIS! The St. Virgil´s community joined with hundreds of old friends in celebrating Fr. Fancis´ 40th anniversary as a priest. Click on the photo for a souvenir page of the celelbration.

Take a walk through the St. Virgil´s Carnival!

Click on the picture to take a walk through the 2010 St. Virgil´s Carnival.

SVS Students win essay contest
Two St. Virgil School fourth graders won the Morris Plains Rotary Club Essay contest. The winning esays, by Lily Adami and Nicholas Berberi focused on citizenship:"What Makes a Good Citizen" or "What Freedom Means to Me". The winners were honored at a luncheon on June 4.

Parish Picnic 2009
PARISH PICNIC: Just one of the many happy faces at our annual Parish Picnic. Click on the picture for a full slide show of pictures by Judith Yap.

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Kicks off School Centennial

St. Virgil School kicked off its year-long celebration of its centennial with a formal Ribbon Cutting cermony featuring a Papal Blessing and awards from Morris Township and Morris Plains. Click on the picture for a commemorative page of pictures which can be dowloaded, printed and framed as a keepsake of this special occassion. In this photo, Paul Bangiola, class of 1936, helps to cut the ribbon with current students and Monsignor Duffy. Click on the picture for more!

Teachers Honored

Fr. Rick stands with St. Virgil School Teachers, who were honored along with all teachers at the special Catechetical Sunday Mass honoring educators on Sunday, September 13.

KofC Celebrates Service!
Click on the picture to see more on how the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus celebrated service in their annual awards ceremony.

Congratulations Fr. Tom!
Click HERE for pictures of Fr. Tom´a anniversary celebration.

Parish St. Patty´s Party
PARISH ST. PATTY´S PARTY:One of the Irish Step dancers who highlighted our parish St. Patty´s celebration. Click the picture to see more of the happy faces.

Gift Auction Rousing Success!

This year´s Gift Auction Coordinators were Sheila Schimanski and Louella Braun, pictured holding the evenings program.

Click here for pictures of the Auction
On Friday March 13, 2009, St. Virgil School held their annual Gift Auction at the Birchwood Manor. This year’s event was fantastic with an elegant dinner, a Gift Basket Raffle with over 100 baskets valued at over $50,000. As well as the extensive basket auction, each St. Virgil class created a piece of art work that was auctioned off in a Silent Auction. Guests were each given a large
·goody bagö with items from many of the SVS sponsors. Door prizes and a grand raffle were also part of the fun evening

With a sold out crowd of more than 500 attendees, this year’s auction made more than $70,000 to benefit the children of St. Virgil School. Plans are already underway for next year’s Gift Auction will be the 100th anniversary of St. Virgil School.

SVS Girls Basketball Champs!

The St. Virgil School varsity girls team, shown at the top, won the county championships on Saturday, March 14, while the Grade4-5 girls team came in second in their championship.

The St. Virgil girl’s varsity basketball team won the Morris County Catholic Basketball league championship on Saturday, March 14 and the 4th-5th Grade team took second place in their championship.

The varsity edged out long-time rival St. Patrick’s of Chatham 44-43 in the championship. The varsity team is coached by Harry Anderson, Kim Appleby and Christine Johnson. The players are eighth graders Kaitlin Anderson, Ashley Appleby, Jordan Betlow, Fiona Fox, Niki Giacchi, Katelyn Johnson, Nicole Tagliente, Victoria Wayne, and Kirsten Wojacek.

Under the leadership of Head Coaches Becky and John McNamara, the 4th and 5th Grade Girls JV team edged out St. Pius of Montville and St. Vincent Martyr of Madison to achieve a second place standing in the Morris County Catholic Basketball League. The girls earned an impressive 12 - 2 record even before going into the playoffs. Players include Elizabeth Rado, , Anna Gelpke, Erin Fischer, Sarah Zebick and Melissa Galvez. Second row - Lauren Nicholson, Maeve McNamara, Elizabeth Mitsch, Riley Praino, Victoria Sullivan, Isabelle Catabran, Kelsey Ryan, and Victoria Russo.

Haiti Mission Says Thank You
Click HERE for pictures of our food and supplies arriving in Haiti. See your donations as they arrive!

Lenten Faith Sharing Features Popular New Progam
For the on-line Faith Sharing Group, click HERE.

This year, our regular Lenten Faith Sharing Program will use the
WHY CATHOLIC? program. This is a highly-successful nationwide program which is being adopted by more than 20 parishes in our diocese.

WHY CATHOLIC? is a unique faith formation program that is solidly based on Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It offers a concrete approach to help us deepen our faith and connect its teachings to our everyday lives. WHY CATHOLIC? encourages learning in a prayerful small-community setting.

Are you searching for meaning and purpose?
Do you have questions about your faith?
Would you like to connect more with God

Then this program is designed specifically for your needs.

Deepen Your Catholic Faith and Connect its Teachings to Everyday Life
Experience the Best of
Faith Learning
Faith Sharing
Faith Living

This Lent, St. Virgil’s Lenten Faith Sharing program is using the first book in the Why Catholic? series: The Profession of Faith: What We Believe. This program has been highly successful throughout the country and is starting this Lent in the Paterson Diocese.
Come and join us!
Try it out!

Fr. Francis says this about the program:
Along our journey of faith, we all have moments when we wished we understood our beliefs more clearly; saw better the connections between prayer and community life and its application in services.
The Why Catholic? program can be a gift for all in our parish to share the many facets of Catholic identity and to see how it nurtures all we are and all we do.
We invite you to share this program with your faith community. Growth comes through challenge and support and this Why Catholic? program provides these for our parish family’s journey in faith to the Father. -- Fr. Francis

Click HERE for the Lenten Faith Sharing sign up information.

SVS Wins Gifted and Talented Forensics Tournament

On January 8th, St. Virgil´s School participated in the Gifted and Talented Consortium Forensics Tournment held at the College of Saint Elizabeth. Nine area schools participated in the competition for 6-8 graders. The children participated in two categories: Interpretive Reading and Original Oratory. The Saint Virgil´s Team captured the 1st Place Team Trophy in both categories. In Interpretive Reading, Dominick Gargarno placed 2nd overall, and Fiona Fox placed 3rd. In Original Oratory, Emmanuel Lopez placed 2nd and Christine Butchko placed 3rd. Other team competitors included Cara Napolitano and Patrick Fischer. The consortium was coordinated by SVS Junior High English teacher Susan Lang. St. Virgil´s Forencis Team is coached by Loretta Napolitano

St. Virgil’s Celebrates Catholic Schools

Catholic Schools Week 2009 Focuses on Service
The theme for Catholic Schools Week 2009 celebrates Catholic schools and community service.
St. Virgil School joins the other Catholic Schools in the nation with a full week of activities from Saturday January 24 through Friday, January 31. Click HERE to see daily pictures of St. Virgil’s Catholic School Week celebrations.
"Civic engagement is a hallmark of Catholic education," said Karen Ristau, president of the National Catholic Educational Association. This is especially true at St. Virgil School which concentrates on a wide range of special and ongoing civic and charitable projects, stretching from the local Interfaith Food Pantry to worldwide causes.
"The majority of elementary and secondary schools participate in service projects ranging from collecting canned goods for the homeless to rebuilding schools in the hurricane-torn gulf, so it was natural that we choose service as a major theme", Ristau said.
This year´s Cahtolic Schools Week theme echoes the theme of the school´s annual gift Auction on Friday, March 13: "Many Hearts, One Fa,ily." Click HERE for information on this year´s auction.
Everyone is invited to visit St. Virgil School during Catholic Schools Week. Please click HERE for information on visitng St. Virgil School and the St. Virgil School Open House.

Youth Mass Pictures,
Click HERE for pictures of the Youth Mass on Sunday, November 30, 2008

SVS participates in Morristown Festival

St. Virgil School students represent the parish and school in the annual Fall Festival on the Green in Morristown.

Some rain and clouds did not stop St. Virgil School in Morristown from showing heir school spirit by participating in Morristown’s ·Festival on the Greenö on Sunday September 28th.

Since 1910, St. Virgil’s School has been forming and educating children in the Morris Plains/Morris Township area. With a gifted, state certified Faculty, St. Virgil’s provides elementary age children a nurturing environment to grow academically, spiritually, morally, physically, emotionally and socially. For a personal tour of the school, please call Principal Cathy Condon at (973) 539-7267.

Parish Picnic 2008
PARISH PICNIC: Face painting, clowns and smiles along with great food and friendhip marked this year´s parish picnic. Click on the photo for more pictures.

Appalachia Outreach 2008 Pictures
Click here to see the full slide show of our 2008 Appalachian Mission.

Remembering Fr. Fallon in Pictures
Click here to see five pages of pictures of Fr. Fallon, from before his appointment to St. Virgil´s, through his world travels, the Centennial celebration and his 90th birthday, to his funeral.

Thanksgiving Food Drive a Huge Success



The annual St. Virgil’s Thanksgiving Food Drive was an outstanding success again this year. The drive collected more than 200 bags of groceries, more than 100 Turkeys and nearly $2,000 in cash and food store gift cards. Donations were given to the Interfaith Food Pantry, and to St. Agnes, St. Anthony and St. Joseph Churches in Paterson. Thanks to our always-generous parishioners who have helped to provide hundreds of people to now the true meaning of Thanksgiving. Pictured are the Food Drive volunteers in the snow, and a family donating a dinner.

Project Haiti Food Drive Pictures
Click here to see pictures of our Project Haiti Food Drive.

Parish Corned Beef recipe
The Famous St. Virgil´s Corned Beef Recipe
By popular demand, the Corned Beef and Cabbage recipe used for the Parish party is reproduced below. If you use it, and like it, say a prayer to St. Patrick for all the hungry and needy in the world.

JEANNE MCKENNA’S FAMOUS CORNED BEEF RECIPE
3-4 pounds corned beef
2 onions sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 whole cloves
5 red potatoes, unpeeled, cubed
1 pound bag small carrots
1 head cabbage, cut in wedges
¼ cup brown mustard
½ cub brown sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cloves


Fill 10 quart pan with enough water to cover corned beef, add onions, garlic and cloves. Bring to boil, then simmer about 2 hours until fork tender. Remove corned beef, fat side up, to oven safe pan. Add potatoes and carrots to water and cook for 20 minutes, then add cabbage and cook for another 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While veggies are cooking, spread mustard over fat side of corned beef. Combine brown sugar and ground cloves, then spread over top of corned beef. Bake in oven for 30 minutes.

Slice corned beef and serve with veggies.

Fantastic Voyage
Click here for a Fantastic Trip.