From a Chance Meeting in Rome…: Jewish Doctor Moves Rigali to Visit Hospital
By David O’Reilly, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Mar. 1–Daniel Schidlow is Jewish, but he thinks of himself as “an honorary Catholic.”
For 30 years this renowned lung doctor has been picking up rosaries and medals and prayer cards on his world travels, and presenting them to his many Catholic patients at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.
Yesterday, Schidlow presented everyone there with his grandest Catholic icon yet.
“I would like to express my deep joy at being here,” Cardinal Justin Rigali, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia, told a crowd of 200 gathered for Mass yesterday morning in the hospital auditorium.
It was the first time anyone on staff could remember that a Catholic archbishop had visited this 132-year-old hospital, which, despite its name, is a secular institution.
Tradition says the hospital took its name from a prayer found scrawled on a door long ago, when it was a one-room infirmary for the working class children of Kensington.
“St. Christopher,” the message pleaded, “protect our children.”
It relocated 19 years ago to Front and Erie Streets, at the border of Kensington and North Philadelphia.
Yesterday, the cardinal praised the work of the 161-bed facility — which still serves many poor families — as a “beautiful, beautiful expression of the Lenten spirit.”
Afterward, he greeted well-wishers in the lobby, met with administrators and toured the wards, blessing young patients and their families.
“I think this is really a spiritual moment in the history of our institution, something that goes beyond Catholic,” Schidlow said after the Mass. “I think I’m the most thrilled person here.”
His “honorary Catholic” status began when he was a bookish boy growing up in Chile. “I would grill my Catholic friends on their Catechisms,” he recalled with a laugh.
Rigali’s visit to St. Christopher’s began by chance in Rome last September, Schidlow explained, when he and his wife spied a priest deep in prayer at St. Peter’s Basilica.
When the “priest” emerged from prayer, the Schidlows recognized him as Philadelphia’s cardinal-archbishop, and introduced themselves.
“What parish are you from?” Rigali asked.
Schidlow “didn’t know what to say” but — after explaining he was Jewish — told the cardinal that one of his patients was Tommy Geromichalos, the sixth-grader whose struggle with cystic fibrosis had helped rescue his parochial school from closing earlier that year.
During his Rome visit, Schidlow had already bought Tommy a book on the popes. On returning to Philadelphia, he sent it first to Rigali, asking him if he would dedicate it to the boy.
At the close of his note he asked the archbishop if he “might consider visiting St. Christopher’s.”
Rigali wrote back saying he would welcome the opportunity.
“Historic. Memorable,” is how hospital CEO Bernadette Mangan described the visit, after presenting Rigali at the close of Mass with a crystal apple as a “symbol of health.”
Moments later Tommy, 13, and his sister, Samantha, 16, presented Rigali with a bouquet of flowers. Samantha also has cystic fibrosis.
“I’m grateful to you and all the children they represent,” Rigali said as he took the flowers.
Looking on were their parents, Connie and Dan Geromichalos of Media.
Last spring, after the archdiocese announced it was closing St. Cyril of Alexandria elementary school in East Lansdowne because of low enrollment, Tommy wrote to the Make-A-Wish foundation asking if it could help the school stay open long enough for him to graduate from eighth grade.
The foundation said it could not afford so costly a wish, but the boy’s request gained national attention — and sent the fund drive over the moon.
“We’ve raised $350,000 so far,” said Connie Geramichalos, who grew up in St. Cyril’s and drives her son to its school every day.
She and her husband “hope for a miracle” that might cure their children’s serious lung disease, but “the miracle we’ve already seen is the community spirit” that saved St. Cyril’s.
They put their faith in doctors like Schidlow, the parents agreed.
“He’s awesome,” said Dan Geramichalos. “He’s the kind of person who gives you faith.”
Contact David O’Reilly at 215-854-5723 or doreilly@phillynews.com.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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