I grew up Roman Catholic on the West side of Cleveland. Since one side of my family is Polish and the other is Italian I was destined to attend Catholic schools. We lived equidistant between a Polish Catholic parish, St. Casimir, and an Italian Catholic parish, Maria Santissima delle Grazie, so we went to the neighborhood Irish parish, St. Brendan's, which had a grade school. After St. Brendan's school I went to St. Columba's Catholic school for fallen women, I mean girls, but it actually wasn't that bad. Just don't get on Sister Mary Albertine's bad side. Sister Mary Henrica was a saint, but Sister Teresa Maria was the devil incarnate sent to torture us girls and make us hate the Church forever.

The only boys invited to our school dances were the guys from St. Rocco's. Now St. Rocco's was known for producing three things, cops, basketball players and priests. At the dances it was easy to tell which guys might swing which way. The future cops usually had a hip flask hidden on them and Sister Mary George was always telling them to stop huddling up and get out on the dance floor, as if they were dragons that needed slaying. The basketball players were great dancers, smelled good, and were usually really chatty with us girls. The future priests were always well groomed, polite, usually the first ones to ask anyone to dance, were always eager to ask us out, but it always ended in friendship, never a romantic relationship. There were always other guys who didn't fit any of the St. Rocco stereotypes, and they were usually the most interesting since you never knew what you were going to get with them.

During my year of high school I ended up dating an unusually high number of future priests. So much so that I earned the moniker "The Priest maker." It's not as if dating me drove them to seminary, at least I don't think so. I dated a lot, but it still hurt my feelings. It wasn't until a year after college, and I didn't attend a Catholic college, that I met my future husband. My high school friends still call me the priest maker whenever I see them.

Most Reverend Anthony Pilla,

Your Excellency, I took your sage advice and dated the most beautiful Catholic girl I could find. We met at a dance at St. Columba's School. Although she was beautiful, was a good Catholic as far as I could ascertain, and had a wonderful personality, I am still convinced of my calling to the priesthood. Thank you for your wise counsel. I look forward to continuing our meetings as I continue to explore admission to seminary.

Yours Faithfully,

Anthony Fiordilino"

Bishop Pilla made a point to visit St. Columba's School during Lent; he didn't often visit the smaller high schools except on special occasions. After addressing the students at a special assembly, he met with the nuns. He had to know who the beautiful girl from St. Columba's is that so many of the young men destined for seminary had mentioned. Sister Mary Henrica was the first to speak up. "Well it has to be Giulia Nowak. She's such a lovely girl, and so faithful." The other nuns all agreed. The Bishop kept the priest maker in his prayers nightly, giving thanks for her unknowing willingness to help confirm the calling of no less than 10 young men to the Catholic priesthood that year. She also helped weed out many more who thought they had a calling but preferred the company of women in a less than chaste manner.