Ten Commandments monument dedicated at new home in New Kensington
A Ten Commandments monument stood outside New Kensington’s Valley High School when Adele Jablonski was a student there decades ago.
On Thursday, Jablonski, 64, joined students from Mary Queen of Apostles School, including her 9-year-old granddaughter, Liliana Hadley, at a ceremony dedicating and blessing the monument in front of its new location in front of the school along Freeport Road in New Kensington.
Jablonski, of New Kensington, said she’s happy the monument is at the Catholic school.
“We have this in plain sight for everybody to see,” she said.
The monument, donated to the New Kensington-Arnold School District by the New Kensington Eagles in 1957, was removed in March 2017 after the district settled a 2012 federal lawsuit challenging the religious icon’s presence on public school property.
It was unveiled in front of Mary Queen of Apostles’ Greenwald site, incorporated into the school’s new sign, in December 2017.
A patio for the sign and monument was completed in August.
More than 100 students in fourth through eighth grades attend classes at the Greenwald site. They came out for the dedication Thursday morning, led by Monsignor Michael Begolly of Mount Saint Peter Parish and chairman of the board of pastors of Mary Queen of Apostles School.
“Since we are teaching our children the values contained in this moral code of law given to us by God, we are grateful to all who have helped to support this project, to all who donated and to the children of our school who are seeking to live its message,” Begolly said.
“It’s my hope and prayer that all who see this monument as they pass by on Freeport Road will learn the commandments and then seek to be doers of the word, not hearers only, putting into practice the command to love God above all else and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves,” he said.
Brian C. Rittmeyer, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Penn State University's Schreyer Honors College, has been with the Trib since December 2000. He can be reached at brittmeyer@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.