Jan 23, 2026

Greetings,

Happy Catholic Schools Week! As we hail our parish school as part of the National Catholic Schools Week celebration, we call to mind Pope St. John Paul II’s statement, “Catholic Education aims not only to communicate facts, but also to transmit a coherent comprehensive vision of life.” Our school provides a strong academic foundation for our students while also preparing them to live out our mission to form the whole person in Christ. Our parish school offers the opportunity to become Christian ladies and gentlemen who will help to inspire our nation and culture as they journey through this life and to become saints in the life to come. Please join me in praying for our parish school and its mission as a ministry of our parish.

Also offer a prayer for our sister school, St. Julie Billiart, who is on a mission to provide quality Catholic education to a broader range of students. We have seen this school grow from a handful of students to the great school that it is today.

And there is a new Catholic school in the area. Just recognized this year as an official Catholic school and part of the Diocese of Cleveland, The Chesterton Academy, named after G. K. Chesterton, teaches students with a classical curriculum from junior high school through twelfth grade. Founded by parishioner, Rocco Galizio, this school on the grounds of St. Paul Parish on Brown Street is enjoying slow but steady growth as it takes its place among the many fine educational institutions of Akron.

If you have not already participated in the Angel Scholarship Program from which all three of these schools benefit, please consider doing so. It directs the Ohio tax dollars for which you are already responsible and directs them to support students at our Catholic schools. If you would like more information on this opportunity, search for “Angel Scholarship” on the Catholic Community Foundation’s web page, or call our business manager Milissa Smith at the parish 330-836-2233. CLICK HERE FOR DONATION LINK

IN OTHER NEWS:
 
THANK YOU: My deepest gratitude goes out to everybody who assisted with all of our Feast Day celebrations and to all of you who participated in any way, including our seminarians and our festival committees. It was the best yet!
 

Also, thank you to our servers who braved the cold, cold weather and school closings to be loyal to the Mass schedule! You are awesome!
 
CHECK YOUR FORGOTTEN CABINETS: The reason I am writing this story to you will be apparent at the end. I have always been a little disappointed that we do not have a pictorial history of the building of our church. We have precious few of any of the other buildings. This past week the Sheeks gave me a crown of thorns plant. “The parent plant came from Italy by Angelo Arconti. Arconti construction helped in building the current church! Angelo’s son, Thomas, now deceased, said that there is a film of the building process. He said the church had possession of it.”

As those of you who read the Angelus Letters know, I am scouring our old files and nooks and crannies in order to recover and assemble our history. If you have a lead on the existence of this film, it would be greatly appreciated.
 
God bless,
 
Fr. Valencheck