The 60th anniversary edition of The Dialog published Sept. 19, 2025, included a review of Catholic news from 1965-2025. This is the third of 10 parts.
1977
St. John the Beloved held a blessing and dedication for its new church building.
The diocese establishes an Office for Senior Affairs.
Changes in the sacrament of reconciliation include the option for penitents to confess before a priest in a small chapel or reconciliation room, although confessional boxes were still an option. Our Lady of Fatima Parish in New Castle was one of the first in the diocese to create a reconciliation room.
The diocese announced plans to initiate a permanent-diaconate program beginning in January.
1978
Holy Rosary began a “Kiddie Liturgy” for students in the parish CCD program. Mass was held in the school hall and included skits illustrating the day’s readings.
Father John A. Kowalewski is ordained a priest for the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. The Wilmington native joins his brother, fellow Oblate Father Vincent Kowalewski, and two sisters, Visitation Sister Mary Jozefa and Oblate Sister Mary Vincent, with a vocation as a religious.
A group of pilgrims from the Diocese of Wilmington attended the canonization of St. John Neumann in Vatican City. He had been the archbishop of Philadelphia when Delaware was part of that archdiocese.
The Catholic Ministry for the Elderly announced plans to build a senior housing complex on land next to the Jeanne Jugan Residence in Newark, which was nearing completion. The complex would become known as Marydale.
In Wilmington, St. Anthony of Padua Parish announced plans to build a nine-story senior housing complex on the site of an armory at 10th and Dupont streets.
Father John Hynes, an associate pastor at St. Mary Magdalen Parish, qualified for the 1978 Boston Marathon.
Receiving Communion in the hand became an option in the Diocese of Wilmington on Nov. 20.
Our Lady of Fatima Parish in New Castle enters into a covenant relationship with a Methodist church, becoming the first Catholic church in the United States to do so.
Twenty-two men began studies at Our Lady of Angels College (now Neumann University) for the permanent diaconate for the Diocese of Wilmington.
Bishop Mardaga dedicates Holy Family Church in Ogletown, built to accommodate the exploding population in the Newark area. It was a satellite church of St. John’s-Holy Angels Parish.
President Jimmy Carter visited Padua Academy. He was in Wilmington to support the reelection bid of Sen. Joseph Biden at two events, one of which was held at the school.
The Jeanne Jugan Home for the Aged opens in Newark. The home, operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor, is the first in the United States named for the order’s foundress.
School and parish personnel discussed how to handle the expected order to desegregate schools in Delaware. Bishop Mardaga, in a letter published in The Dialog, encourages “an atmosphere of calm, reason and mutual understanding.”
Construction begins on St. Luke Church on 100th Street in Ocean City. It would be a satellite church of St. Mary Star of the Sea.
Bishop James Burke, a Dominican missionary priest and a former bishop in Peru, arrives in Wilmington as vicar for urban affairs.
Bishop Mardaga led services in Wilmington following the death of Pope Paul VI. The bishop praised the election of Pope John Paul, but the new pontiff died after just 33 days in office.
The Iron Hill Deanery was established, consisting of parishes in the Newark area into the upper Eastern Shore in Maryland and southern New Castle County.
The election of Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II elicited great joy at Wilmington’s two Polish parishes, St. Stanislaus and St. Hedwig.
1979
A group of parents from Saint Mark’s High School filed a lawsuit against the Blue Hen Conference, seeking to force the conference to accept the Spartans’ sports teams as members. Efforts by Saint Mark’s and Salesianum to join the Blue Hen were unsuccessful.
The schools often had trouble finding athletic opponents.
Two Delaware legislators proposed a resolution that would rescind the state’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Delaware was the second state to ratify the amendment.
The closing of St. Peter Cathedral School is announced in April, but parents asked for time to address the economic problems. The decision was eventually reversed.
Father John Hynes completed the Boston Marathon in two hours, 48 minutes. A few hours before the start, he concelebrated Mass with another priest who was running.
Holy Cross Parish in Dover dedicated its religious education center and new athletic fields, while in Ridgely, Md., the Benedictine School for Exceptional Children did the same for its gymnasium-auditorium and classroom complex.
Holy Family Church in Ogletown becomes its own parish after being a mission of St. John’s-Holy Angels. Father Clement Lemon was the first pastor.
The case of the “Gentleman Bandit” took a turn when a Pennsylvania man, Ronald Clouser, confessed to all six robberies that had been attributed to diocesan priest Father Bernard Pagano. Clouser stepped forward after the state had wrapped up its case against Father Pagano. The case drew national headlines.
Bishop Mardaga and others reacted to seeing Pope John Paul II during his visit to the United States. The bishop concelebrated Mass with the pontiff in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Resurrection Parish served as the first church to host classes for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in the diocese.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish is established in Bear for the rapidly growing population in that part of New Castle County. Father William Gardiner was the first pastor.
1980
Ursuline Academy debuted its new addition, which includes the current gymnasium.
The diocese updated its marriage-preparation guidelines and made them uniform across the diocese.
Seton Villa, a diocesan home for teenage girls, marked 150 years in Bellefonte.
The first class of 20 permanent deacons was ordained for the Diocese of Wilmington. All were ordained at St. Peter Cathedral in three separate ceremonies.
Our Lady of the Angels College in Aston, Pa., announced that it would change its name to Neumann University beginning in July 1981.
Wilmington police honored two St. Elizabeth Elementary School students for helping officers locate two suspects wanted for crimes against women.
The first residences at Marydale Retirement Village open. Forty-eight of the 108 units were ready for move-in.
Bishop James Burke blessed The Antonian, the new senior-citizen high rise that had been an armory. The project was spearheaded by St. Anthony of Padua pastor Father Roberto Balducelli.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Bear blessed its new parish hall. That allowed the parish to move Mass out of a nearby elementary school.
The Daughters of Charity marked 150 years of service in the Diocese of Wilmington.
1981
Plans were made for St. Peter Cathedral to undergo $500,000 in major restorations. Work had already begun to redesign the sanctuary and pews to meet Vatican II directives.
The Ministry of Caring purchased a closed firehouse at Second and Jackson streets in Wilmington, which became the second Emmanuel Dining Room.
St. Agnes Church in Rising Sun, Md., a mission of Good Shepherd in Perryville, was gutted by a fire, necessitating the razing of the building.
Bishop Mardaga holds a press conference to denounce “The Gentleman Bandit,” a made-for-TV movie telling the story of diocesan priest Father Bernard Pagano, who had been accused of several burglaries in the Wilmington area in the late 1970s. The bishop was particularly upset about the portrayal of the diocese’s support for the priest.
Father Eugene Clarahan, pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Dover, recounted his experience of being in St. Peter’s Square when Pope John Paul II was shot.
The Chapel of the Risen Christ opens at All Saints Cemetery, giving families an option to hold final rites and services there instead of at the gravesite.
1982
Twenty-eight of 30 diocesan elementary schools joined a boycott of Campbell Soup Co. products in support of striking migrant farm workers in Ohio.
The St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Council of the Delaware Knights of Columbus is the first in the country named after the new saint.
“Our Lady of Peace,” a sculpture of the Blessed Virgin made by Wilmington’s Charles Parks, made its debut in Wilmington. The 30-foot statue, commissioned by a parish in California, was the inspiration for Wilmington’s Our Lady Queen of Peace Shrine in New Castle.
A new bell tower was set in place at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church in Wilmington, 16 years after a fire damaged the original.
Father Thomas Peterman’s biography of the first bishop of Wilmington, Bishop Thomas Andrew Becker, is published. Father Peterman spent 20 years working on the volume.
The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia moved their novitiate to the convent at St. Catherine of Siena Parish.
St. Matthew School became the first diocesan elementary school to add preschool for 4- and 5-year-olds. Ursuline Academy had a preschool program dating back to the 1960s.
