Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary to Host Inaugural John Cardinal Foley Symposium
Longtime CBS3 News Anchor, Pat Ciarrocchi, to Receive the Cardinal Foley Award for Excellence in Communications
In celebration of the 50th World Communications Day, Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary will host the inaugural John Cardinal Foley Symposium. This professional forum, “Communication and Mercy: A Fruitful Encounter,” will discuss the message of Pope Francis in the context of the media. The lecture is open to the public with free admission.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
10:00 a.m.
Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary
College Seminary Auditorium
100 East Wynnewood Road
Wynnewood, PA 19096 (Montgomery County)
A ticketed luncheon will follow, at which the inaugural Cardinal Foley Award for Excellence in Communications will be presented to Pat Ciarrocchi, former longtime news anchor at CBS3 in Philadelphia. This event begins at 12:00 p.m. in the Eakins Room on the Seminary’s campus. Ticket information is available at www.scs.edu. Seating is limited. For more information about the symposium or to reserve tickets to the luncheon, please contact Cathy Peacock at 610-785-6530 or by email ([email protected]).
Biographical Information on Cardinal John Patrick Foley
John Patrick Foley was born to John and Regina Foley on November 11, 1935 at Fitzgerald-Mercy Hospital in Darby, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Holy Spirit Parish in Sharon Hill (Delaware County).
He attended Saint Joseph’s Preparatory School from 1949 to 1953 and obtained a Bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Saint Joseph’s College in 1957. He entered Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary that year and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on May 19, 1962.
He was assigned to further studies earning a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Columbia University. He also received a Licentiate degree in Philosophy from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas and earned his Doctorate in Philosophy from the same institution after completing the required coursework in only one year. During his time in Rome, he also served as Assistant Editor and Vatican correspondent for the archdiocesan newspaper, The Catholic Standard and Times.
Upon his return to the Archdiocese in 1966, then-Father Foley was appointed Assistant Pastor of Saint John the Evangelist Parish in Philadelphia, while serving on the faculty of Cardinal Dougherty High School. From 1967 to 1984, he also served on the faculty of Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary teaching philosophy and acting as a spiritual director for men aspiring to the Priesthood.
From 1966 until 1974, he was also co-producer and co-host of the Philadelphia Catholic Hour on local radio station WFIL and served as Editor-in-Chief of The Catholic Standard & Times from 1970 to 1984.
In 1976, He was named an honorary Prelate of His Holiness by Pope Paul VI, receiving the title of Monsignor. From 1979 to 1984, he served as Vice Chairman of the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission.
In 1984, he was named an Archbishop by the late Pope John Paul II and appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and named an Archbishop. He faithfully fulfilled this role for 23 years and spearheaded numerous evangelization efforts through the worldwide media. His consecration as an Archbishop took place at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul on May 8, 1984. Cardinal John Krol served as the principal consecrator with Bishops Martin Lohmuller and Thomas Welsh serving as co-consecrators.
For 25 years, beginning in 1984, then-Archbishop Foley provided commentary for American television viewers of the Christmas Midnight Mass from Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. His last appearance on NBC-TV’s national broadcast of this Mass was in December 2009.
On June 17, 2007 Pope Benedict XVI named him Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, which lends spiritual and financial support to the Catholic Church in the Holy Land and helps maintain Christian shrines in that region.
Pope Benedict XVI elevated then-Archbishop John P. Foley to the Cardinalate at a Consistory in Saint Peter’s Basilica on November 24, 2007 and named him Cardinal-Deacon of the Church of San Sebastiano al Palatino in Rome. He was the seventh priest ordained for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to be elevated to the College of Cardinals. Cardinal Foley died on December 11, 2011, and is buried in the crypt of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.
Biographical Information on Pat Ciarrocchi
Pat Ciarrocchi is a Hall of Famer who made her broadcast home at CBS 3 in Philadelphia for more than 33 years. She’s anchored the early morning, noon and 5:00 p.m. newscasts, hosted Evening Magazine and Talk Philly, the station’s popular lifestyle programs, and served as the station’s medical reporter for five years.
Ciarrocchi joined Channel 3 in 1982. In her early years at the station, she set the pace for morning news in Philadelphia as the station’s early morning news anchor, growing that program from a half-hour newscast to a two-hour staple in the market. Before returning home to Philadelphia, Ciarrocchi was anchor/reporter/producer for WHAG-TV in Hagerstown, Maryland for three years. She began her career in broadcasting in 1974 at WAMS Radio in Wilmington, but became captivated by reporting the news while on staff at WDEL Radio, Delaware’s top-rated radio station.
Some of her most memorable work involved six overseas assignments at the Vatican. Ciarrocchi reported live at the canonization of St. Katherine Drexel in 2000, at the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005, at the historic resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013, and on the Philadelphia delegation 2014 visit to Rome to invite Pope Francis to the World Meeting of Families. Ciarrocchi capped off her career coverage of the Catholic Church with more than 16 hours of live coverage during Pope Francis’ historic visit to Philadelphia in September 2015.
Along the way, Ciarrocchi has earned virtually every major honor in broadcasting including being the first woman inducted into the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2000, she was inducted into the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame. In 2015 she received the Silver Circle Award, recognizing individuals who have outstanding service in broadcasting for a minimum of 25 years, from the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She’s also been honored with the nationally prestigious Gabriel Award from Catholic Academy of Communications Arts, a CEBA Award recognizing communications excellence to Black audiences and a Sarah Award from Women in Communications locally. Her work has also earned her ten Philadelphia Emmy Awards.
In recognition of her work in the Italian-American community, Ciarrocchi was awarded the Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic – the Cavaliere Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.
Ciarrocchi has used the celebrity of her broadcasting career to better the lives of others, committing her personal time to community activism and fundraising on issues affecting women and children.
Starting in 1991, she reported live on the Susan G. Komen Philadelphia Race for the Cure, telling the stories of women and their families coping with breast cancer.
Her work with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, writing and anchoring the award winning documentary, “A Stand for Hope” – about the late Alex Scott’s effort to find a cure for childhood cancers – has contributed to the Foundation raising millions in its fight.
Ciarrocchi has served for more than a decade on the boards of the Easter Seal Society of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Susan G. Komen. She has also personally raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities through The Pat Ciarrocchi Golf Classic and Pat’s Passion for Fashion Show and Auction, two local events she founded.
Ciarrocchi has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees for her professional and community accomplishments from La Salle University in Philadelphia, Neumann University in Aston, Cabrini College in Radnor and her alma mater, Rosemont College. Ciarrocchi earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies from Rosemont in 1974. In 2006, she was presented with the college’s highest honor, the Cresset Award.
In April, 2016, Pat received the Movers and Shakers Pinnacle Award, from the Philly Ad Club, recognizing “outstanding achievement in the Greater Philadelphia Communications Industry, through leadership that has had a significant, positive, memorable and profound impact on the professional community.”
A native of Chester County, Pat, grew up in the Mushroom Capital of the World, Kennett Square – where her father co-founded Modern Mushroom Farms, a growing operation that her brothers continue to lead. Her parents were dedicated members of Saint Patrick and Saint Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother Parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Pat currently resides in Merion, Pennsylvania with her husband, David Fineman. She has two grown stepsons. She is a lector in her home parish of Saint Matthias in Merion. In her free time, she and her husband enjoy travel, especially to Italy, as well as opera and golf.
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