DAILY Photo by Gary Lloyd Foley teaches students prior to a children's Mass celebrating the 50th anniversary of St. Ann School.

St. Ann doesn't let altar incident ruin anniversary
Bishop tells children it was an example of a 'sorrowful mystery'

By Bayne Hughes
DAILY Education Writer
hughes@decaturdaily.com 340-2432

St. Ann School didn't let Sunday's church attack spoil its 50th anniversary celebration, but Bishop David Foley also didn't avoid discussing the incident Friday at a children's Mass.

DAILY Photo by Gary Lloyd St. Ann third-grader Luke Denton appears eager to answer a question posed by Bishop David Foley.

Even though he was speaking to children, Foley said he needed to include in his sermon the incident in which two men and two women disrupted Sunday's 11 a.m. Mass at Annunciation of the Lord Catholic Church. A man came forward screaming after communion and turned over and broke a 100-year-old marble altar.

After men in the church subdued the four, the Decatur Police Department arrested and charged each with felony criminal mischief. A fifth woman was with the group but police did not arrest her.

Foley told the children that the incident was an example of one of the four life events that Jesus went through a "sorrowful mystery" while the anniversary is an example of a "glorious mystery."

"The knowledge and faith is what you're learning here, and it will affect the rest of this life and forward," Foley said.

He called the altar a symbol of the body of Christ. He said that people who disrupted the church and broke the altar "didn't understand what it means to us. They were misled."

Principal Janet Jensen addressed the incident briefly before the Mass with her 209 students. She said they didn't avoid the subject because the children were at Sunday's Mass.

A Decatur police officer stood near the entrance of the Spring Avenue church to provide security, while the only reminder of the incident was an area of torn carpet. Jensen said she thought the adults took the incident harder than the children.

"The kids were lucky enough to be in school right away," Jensen said. "We took them back to church Monday and said a prayer. I feel sorry for those who had to wait to go back to church."

In 1955, the Benedictine nuns of the Sacred Heart Convent in Cullman started St. Ann School in a one-story building on Johnston Street Southeast. Fifth-grade teacher Johanna Horton was in second grade when the school opened. The church and school moved to Spring Avenue Southwest in May 2003.

One of her fondest memories was Sister Juliana, a teacher who later became principal. Sister Mary Stevens was the principal at the opening of the school. Although they only ran the school in its infancy, nuns stayed involved in the school into the 1980s.

"It was a wonderful time, and she was just delightful," Horton said. "The nuns were very strict. They weren't frightening, but we knew they meant business."

Foley said St. Ann educated thousands of students, many of whom as now parents of students attending the school.

"Those who went to the school became very wonderful people," Foley said. "They have knowledge, and that knowledge gives them faith in Jesus."

The church will have a celebratory Mass today at 5 p.m., followed by a reception. Foley will be unable to attend as reported earlier in the week .

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