Catholic Transcript Online

Auxiliary Bishop Peter A. Rosazza leads a prayer. (Photo by Jack Sheedy)

WATERBURY – “Through reading, truth becomes a guide for living,” said Auxiliary Bishop Peter A. Rosazza, as he prepared to bless Sacred Heart High School’s new addition to its library on Jan. 26.

The Rev. John P. Blanchfield Reading Room is a $250,000 loft built above Sacred Heart’s existing library and named in honor of the school’s former principal, whose $50,000 bequest helped fund the project. Father Blanchfield, who died in 2006, was principal from 1959-78.

“Father Blanchfield was a guiding force behind all that Sacred Heart High School did,” said Eileen Regan, interim president and a graduate of Sacred Heart. “We wanted to establish an area that would perpetuate the profound influence that Father Blanchfield had and continues to have on our school community,” she said.

The reading room was designed by Kuncas and Associates, a Watertown architectural firm. It was built completely within the existing structure of the school and yet nearly doubles the library’s floor space, she said. It features reference works, a globe, tables and chairs, plush carpeting, light-colored walls and plenty of light. Many of the furnishings were donated.

“We are now in the stage of acquiring laptops for students to use when they go up there. It has wireless facilities,” Mrs. Regan said.

Waterbury Mayor Michael Jarjura, a 1979 graduate, said at the dedication, “Catholic education is so very important for us to support and preserve. I’ve made it a mission of mine whenever I can to try to support Catholic education, because from the civic side it just makes good financial sense.” Catholic schools save taxpayers millions of dollars a year, he said.

Dale R. Hoyt, archdiocesan superintendent of Catholic schools, said he met Father Blanchfield several years ago at a meeting with Archbishop Henry J. Mansell at the Chancery in Hartford. Some people there were discussing whether to expand Catholic schools. Father Blanchfield argued in favor of it, which seemed to settle the matter. “Archbishop Mansell looked at him, and he said, ‘We will be doing some expansion,’” Mr. Hoyt recalled.

Michael Strumski, president of the senior class, said, “Certainly, our new library addition is a wonderful testimony to Father Blanchfield’s generosity and his continued interest in Sacred Heart and its betterment.”

Bishop Rosazza said, “God the Father spoke one Word, and that was the Son.” He added, “It is God who inspires the human spirit with the desire to record and preserve, through books and other means, the discoveries of the human mind that open the way to truth.”