Bishop Joseph L. Coffey, of the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, recently visited Peg Seiz, age 101 and a World War II Navy veteran who lived in Lawncrest for 62 years and recently moved to the Delaware Valley Veterans Home on Southampton Road. Bishop Coffee joined Peg’s family and friends to extend fellowship, a blessing and Holy Communion. Peg will turn 102 on March 27. Peg shared her talents as a painter and taught the retired aged and infirmed Sisters from the Dominican Retreat House in Elkins Park, designed Lawncrest July 4 parade signs and painted the “Road to Emmaus” for then-Monsignor Nelson Perez of St. William Parish, now Archbishop of Philadelphia.
Coffey is the fifth of nine children and the proud uncle of 46 nieces and nephews and 42 great- nieces and nephews. He was raised in Philadelphia and is a lifelong fan of all the Philly sports teams. He graduated from La Salle University in 1982 with a double major in English/French, which included a year of study at Sorbonne University in Paris. After college, he worked as a grade school teacher, a ski instructor in Switzerland and in the automobile industry in Germany and Belgium for five years. Heeding a call to the priesthood, he attended St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and was ordained in 1996 by Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua.
Following ordination, he was assigned as an Associate Pastor to St. Katherine of Siena Parish. After five years in parish ministry, he was given permission by Cardinal Bevilacqua for full-time active duty as a Navy chaplain. ••
