Father Joseph McCaffrey

Parochial Administrator

Deacon Bill Koniers

Chairman

Deacon Bill relocated from Connecticut in June of 2021 after living 37 years in Stratford, CT. He actually “came home” to now be close to his family. He left NE Philadelphia in 1983 to continue his career at the GE Company. He is a graduate of Father Judge H.S. and Jefferson University. While in CT, he was ordained as a Permanent Deacon in the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT in 2004. He faithfully served for 18 years of his diaconate at five different parishes. He also spent 5 years serving the diocese as Director of Parish Financial Services. In addition to his 48-year career in the corporate world, he spent 7 years as a Chaplain at St Vincent’s Medical Center Hospital in Bridgeport, CT. Deacon Bill and his wife Jeanne of 48 years, are the proud parents of Jim Koniers (Red Lion, PA) and Marianne Salerno (Springfield, PA) and seven beautiful grandchildren. Deacon Bill serves on the ND School’s Board of Limited Jurisdiction & heads up the Next Generation Parish Initiative in our parish. He feels Blessed to have been assigned to OLP.

Jackie Basquill

Co-Chair

Jackie managed the Medical Emergency Operations Center for the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support of the Department of Defense for 42 years. She oversaw the distribution and managed the logistics pipeline of life-saving medical supplies to our Armed Forces around the world. She served as the Army’s medical lead agent and attended many conferences at both the US Medical Materiel Commands in Kaiserslautern, Germany and Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar. Jackie retired in 2014. Jackie attended 12 years of Catholic school at St Rose of Lima & Notre Dame Catholic High School and has lived in Ridley Township all her life. Her and her late husband, Tom, have been members of Our Lady of Peace parish for 43 years. Their 3 children attended both ND & OLP schools. Life-long proponents of catholic education, Jackie & Tom both served as CYO Vice- presidents & coaches, H&S executive staff & members, parish committee leads & members, Currently Jackie is the Production Coordinator and Producer of the parish Children’s Drama Program, as well as the co- chair of the Pastoral Council.

Father Bosco

I was ordained in August 2022 as a Catholic Religious Priest in the order of Servants of Charity (Guanellians). I was sent to work for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from India and assigned in Our Lady of Peace Church. Now, I am marching forward to complete my one year as parochial vicar in OLP. Meanwhile I will be doing my graduation studies in Pastoral Theology at Holy Apostles College, Connecticut.

Kathleen Hamm

Born and raised in Folcroft, Kathleen attended St. George grade school, Archbishop Prendergast High School and graduated from Widener University with a BS in Business Administration. She worked for Scott Paper Company for 28 years, primarily in the IT Department as Technical Liaison, before moving into IT consulting at CoreTech Consulting Group. She made a career change in 2002 going to GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceutical Company as the Contract Manager for the US Pharmaceuticals IT division, primarily responsible for developing IT vendor contracts. She retired from GlaxoSmithKline in 2017.
Kathleen moved to Swarthmorewood in 1982 and has been a member of Notre Dame de Lourdes/Our Lady of Peace since. She served on the Pastoral Council at Notre Dame and was Chairperson of the Worship Committee. Most recently served as a member of the Limited Board of Jurisdiction (Enrollment Committee) and is currently on the Board of the Notre Dame de Lourdes Alumni Association.
Her favorite pastime is spending fun time with her nieces, grand nieces, nephews and grand nephews.

Bob Thorp

My name is Bob Thorp, and I am a member of the Our Lady Of Peace Parish Council and the Implementation team for the Usher Minister of the Next generation Parish program. I was one of the first groups of babies baptized at Notre Dame de Lourdes and grew up in Swathmorewood. I attended Our Lady of Peace Kindergarten, Notre Dame de Lourdes Grade School, where I received my sacraments, Cardinal O’Hara High School, and Drexel University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. After meeting and marrying my wonder wife Janet, we moved back to Swathmorewood to begin our family. We raised three daughters, Amanda, and twins, Katlyn, and Nicole, who partially followed their father by receiving the sacraments and attended Notre Dame de Lourdes School. I work in the Temple University Health System’s IT Department as a User Identity Management Analyst. I served Notre Dame del Lourdes by helping with fundraisers (carnival), coached CYO volleyball and as an Usher at Notre Dane de Lourdes. After the merger, I continued my service to the parish when Fr Delvin asked me to be part of our parish council. I was recently inducted into the Knights of Columbus to continue to give service to the Church.

Your Parish Council is working to make our parish a place where all can feel welcome.

Pauline Pappas

I have been a member of Our Lady of Peace Parish for over 10 years. I am part of the Prayerful Stitchers and the Down to Earth Christians. I am employed by Crozer. I am a Supervisor/Art Therapist and enjoy working with children and families in Delaware County. In my free time I enjoy being creative, reading, gardening, and going to the beach with family. I am happy to be a part of the Pastoral Counsel.

Lauralee Ryder

I was born and raised in Our Lady of Peace parish making all my sacraments, as well as attending our grammar school graduating in 1996. I have been an active member for 42 years and married my husband, Andrew, here in OLP church. We have 3 children, who attend the PREP program where I serve as the 4th grade teacher for the past 3 years. My children are involved in CYO and participate in the Drama Program. I currently serve on the Pastoral Council and am part of the Next Generation Parish Envisioning & Implementation teams.

Susan (Smith) Southwick

I have been a life long member of Our Lady of Peace Parish. I attended Our Lady of Peace Grade School, Cardinal O’Hara High School, and Neumann University. My husband Ken and I have 2 sons. I have been employed at the Boeing Company for 38 years serving as a Logistics Project Manager for the past 15 years on different programs. In my free time, I love to follow Philadelphia sports teams and read a really good book. I look forward to serving the parish and it’s members.

Kevin Gormley

I am a 30-year member of Our Lady of Peace Parish. I was a 7-year member of St. Gabriels Parish. I was born and raised in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, with 12 siblings. I attended Ridley High School and Widener University. My wife Sylvia and I are married 40 years. We raised 3 children and we have 5 grandchildren. I retired from Boeing after 31 years as a business systems programmer/analyst. I began my computing career at DuPont and worked there for 8 years. I was a 30 year long distance runner, but I am currently a long-distance walker. I am happy to assist OLP and the Parish Council.

Patrick Ireland

I grew up in NE Philly and graduated from Holy Ghost Prep. I studied Theology at the University of San Francisco, and have continued my training with courses at St. Charles Seminary and the Theology of the Body Institute with Dr. Christopher West, among others. I’m a Certified Catechist for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and taught CCD/PREP for many years.

My wife Shawn and I moved to OLP in 2002, when she was pregnant with our 10th child. Our 5 older children went through St. Bartholomew’s school in Frankford, and the younger 5 went to Our Lady of Peace school until it was closed. Three of our 11 grandchildren have attended NDDL School. When we first moved here, I became involved in the OLP Drama program. I helped direct the play for a number of years, and was in the band, back when we had live music for all of the performances! I also played music at Mass and directed the children singing at Mass in the past.

I was involved with the OLP CYO and, through our Evangelization Group, have helped bring speakers to our church on topics like the Unbound Ministry. I served on the OLP Pastoral Council for many years, helped found our OLP Men’s Group (when we had one!), and I lead our parish Bible Study group on Wednesday nights – which everyone is invited to attend!

Outside of OLP, I was one of the leaders who helped start the CCO (Catholic Christian Outreach) Missionary Discipleship program at St. Joe’s in Aston, and I received extensive training as a coach and evangelist from CCO in Canada. We’ve recently started a CCO group here at OLP, and I’m hoping to help bring this amazing program to more of our parishioners in the future! I’m also a lay associate of the Little Sisters of the Poor and volunteer at Holy Family Home. I work with Fr. Doug McKay in his ministry to alcoholics and addicts in Gray’s Ferry and at Malvern, and I’m involved in Pro-Life work with 40 Days for Life and the Pro-Life Union of Philadelphia.

I was recently invited back to our Parish Pastoral Council, and became part of our Next Generation Parish team. I am very excited and hopeful to help find new opportunities for our parishioners (my neighbors and friends) to experience the beauty, the richness, and the challenge of living our Catholic faith in ever deeper ways!