Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / Cardinal Mooney welcomes $1.2 million addition
Cardinal Mooney welcomes $1.2 million addition
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published November 20, 2009
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Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
Juniors Rachel Stocki and Kayla Hohlbein, and freshman Josh Hohlbein, talk outside the new addition to Cardinal Mooney Catholic High School in Marine City. |
Marine City - The new $1.2 million addition to Cardinal Mooney Catholic High School is an example of "our growth and our belief in Catholic schools," says Fr. James Lopez, the school's chaplain.
Junior Kayla Hohlbein says the new addition "shows how the community came together to meet a goal."
The 6,000-square-foot addition provides three new classrooms, including a new computer lab, plus new offices, a conference room, additional restroom facilities and a new entrance area for the school.
Cardinal Mooney is situated just a stone's throw from the St. Clair River in Marine City.
At a time when few building projects have been going forward, Cardinal Mooney was able to secure the funding for the project. Construction began last December, and the addition was ready by the time the new school year began Sept. 8.
Junior Rachel Stocki, a member of St. Mary Parish in St. Clair, says she likes the new addition because it makes the school seem bigger and newer, while still preserving "the community feeling, the family feeling you get from a small school."
Freshman Josh Hohlbein, Kayla's brother, says being a small Catholic high school really makes a difference. "There's more like a family atmosphere; you don't have kids being bullied like you would in a public, and it's nice to learn more about your faith."
Kayla, who like her brother is a member of Holy Family Parish in Memphis, says another advantage of being a small school "is that teachers have time for you."
Rachel sees the faith-based aspect of the school as liberating: "With people being able to talk about their faith and share it, they're more open to talk about other things as well."
Fr. Lopez, who is also pastor of Our Lady on the River Parish, celebrates Mass for Cardinal Mooney students every Wednesday morning at Holy Cross Church, just up the street from the school. The parish was formed in 2007 from the merger of Holy Cross Parish with St. Catherine Parish, Algonac and St. Mark Parish, Harsen's Island.
Maintaining the tradition of a weekly school Mass is a "reminder that we must instill the values of Jesus Christ in our children," Fr. Lopez says.
Sr. Karen Lietz, OP, Cardinal Mooney's principal, says, "We're one of the few high schools that do that anymore, but we do it because of our faith."
And she says one of the fruits of that practice is that the small high school - with an enrollment just less than 200 - has two of its alumni in seminaries studying for the priesthood, one for the Archdiocese of Detroit and one for the Dominican friars.
Sr. Lietz forthrightly declares that the school's primary purpose is formation in the faith, but the school also boasts of the results of its academic standards. Fully 100 percent of graduates go on to college, and they go with the advantage of having taken a number of advanced placement (college-level) courses that can count for college credit.
"Our typical graduating class is 50 students, and they have been averaging $2.5 million in scholarship money - some get a full ride," Sr. Lietz adds.
As the only coed high school in the Northeast Region of the archdiocese, Cardinal Mooney draws its students from 30 different zip codes, and runs school busses as far south as Metropolitan Parkway and Crocker in Clinton Township, and as far north as Lakeport.
For more information about Cardinal Mooney Catholic High School, 600 S. Water St., Marine City 48039, call (810) 765-8825.
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