By Peter G. Sánchez
In this year of our Lord 2020, there are many ways individuals are dealing with the shutdown and stay-at-home orders during COVID-19. Cooking. Learning a new language. Netflix.
For Sister Marianne McCann, Filippini Sister and principal of Paul VI High School, it has been the written word: novels by such authors as Flannery O’Connor and Elizabeth Bishop, the Book of Psalms and poetry.
“Reading brings you out of yourself and transports you someplace” away from the “fear, dread, worry” that can permeate our minds, especially right now, she said.
Small wonder, then, that up to two years ago the long-time school administrator and educator had been teaching the wonders of literature to students at the Haddonfield school since 1974.
The act of opening a book can “make you look at something a different way, with new eyes,” she continued.
In this pandemic reality, at least for the time being, society is refreshing its own rules in how to keep citizens safe and healthy, including how responsibly to bring back in-class instruction after months of remote learning.
For the past five months, “our Catholic faith has united (the school community),” Sister Marianne said.
It was this binding force, and education, which she came to appreciate growing up in Brooklyn, New York, the oldest child to Bill, a city fireman, and Judy, a homemaker.
“We were a Catholic family in a Catholic neighborhood, with Mass every Sunday at Saint Bernadette Church,” she mentioned.
At her parish elementary school, even at a young age, she was attracted to the faith and work of the Religious Teachers Filippini who staffed Saint Bernadette’s, and she desired a life “in imitation” of them. “This is how I wanted to do it,” she said.
At the age of 14, she entered the Filippini order at Villa Walsh Academy in Morristown, N.J. She became a novice three years later, and she professed first vows at 20.
Her teaching career began in North Jersey’s Catholic schools, before arriving at Paul VI in 1974 as an English teacher. Four years after her arrival, she was named vice principal, a position she held until 2001, when she was named principal.
Sister Marianne first became aware of COVID-19 near the beginning of the year, and she watched the virus’ outbreak closely.
When it became clear that the school had to shut down, Sister Marianne’s staff was prepared. On the last day of classes on March 13, over the school’s loudspeaker, Sister Marianne told students to take home from school everything they required for remote learning.
“The teachers performed beautifully” during the teaching at home, she said, noting the video-conferenced instruction. Father Dexter Nebrida, the school’s Director of Catholic Identity, celebrated weekly virtual Masses for students.
Sister Marianne called the school community, and her religious community, “a strength in (these) difficult times. They have nourished me.”
At her order’s convent, next to the Saint Aloysius Church in Oaklyn, she and her two other sisters in residence are keeping shelter. She is grateful that, now, there is more time for conversation and fellowship among them, amidst the prayers and meals they share as a community.
She is thankful, too, for the frequent calls from her Paul VI community, asking if she and her sisters need groceries.
The school is gearing up for Sept. 8, when incoming Eagle freshmen begin their virtual or in-class instruction. Cameras in each classroom will bring lessons to homes, and plexiglass will be installed in science labs and on teacher’s podiums, while students must remain masked. Lunch hours will be spaced out to accommodate distancing restrictions in the cafeteria. Currently, fall sports are restricted to six-feet-apart practices outdoors, with no admittance inside the school or to locker rooms.
Sister Marianne is optimistic in the success of the school’s re-opening, as its summer school and enrichment programs held in the past few months “ran successfully.”
Still, she knows the Paul VI staff, students and parents need to be “very malleable in this time — we need to pivot” if circumstances require it.
She has challenged her staff to devise creative school events in keeping with restrictions. “Let’s rethink them and bring them to life in a new way, just as meaningful,” she said.
Sister Marianne remains “hopeful and positive” for a healthy year ahead.
“My biggest hope for the year is that we take all the (health) recommendations seriously, remain well, and that we all have a new appreciation for, and awareness of each other.”