June 3, 2022

Pope Francis Preparatory School holds commencement exercises June 2

REGIONAL
Story and photos by Sharon Roulier

 

SPRINGFIELD – While celebrating the knowledge they acquired, the 2022 graduating class of Pope Francis Preparatory School prepared to take their first step into the future during commencement exercises on the campus June 2.

Springfield Bishop William D. Byrne conferred 73 diplomas to the first graduating class to attend Pope Francis Prep for all four years in the Wendover Road location that opened in 2018.

Family, friends, faculty, and staff surrounded the graduates seated on the football field during the 4 p.m. ceremony, concluding six years of Pope Francis Prep and nearly 140 years of secondary Catholic education in the Diocese of Springfield.

Head of School Paul Harrington commended the Class of 2022 “for their positive spirit and for the way they’ve embraced adversity over these four years of high school.”

“When you leave here and head off to explore the world, remember the time you spent here,” Harrington said, addressing the graduates. “As you continue to learn and continue to change, it’s okay to reflect on those times when you stumbled. Recall how your caring mentors, your teachers here at Pope pushed you in the right direction and stretched your imagination and helped to deepen your faith.”

In her speech to fellow classmates, class valedictorian Theresa Marie Canty recalled how as freshmen the class started school four years ago with a “clean slate.” They proceeded to make friends and memories in and outside of the classroom.

“Remember this as you enter your new ‘clean slate’ with the confidence to move forward because of what you’ve done here,” she said.

Canty will attend Northeastern University in the fall, majoring in biology with plans on attending medical school in the future.

Salutatorian Malcolm Edward Mahoney also addressed the graduates, saying that they were “unequivocally and undoubtedly blessed to be able to attend Pope.”

Mahoney, who will attend Dartmouth College in the fall, urged his fellow classmates to “follow God’s light” as they go off into the future, ending with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just the first step.”

Bishop Byrne encouraged the graduates to enter this next phase of their lives with the intent of making their world bigger, not smaller.

“Become an ‘I’ before you become a ‘we,’” said the bishop. “Travel. Beg, borrow, and steal to see the world. The more you see it, the more you realize you’re not the center of it.”

Of the 73 members of the Class of 2022, 50 graduated with honors, 49 were members of the National Honor Society, 12 were members of the National Latin Honor Society, 10 were members of the Pathways Program, and 30 attended Catholic schools from kindergarten through 12^th grade.

A video version of this story will be featured on an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel,” which airs Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. on WWLP-22NEWS.