By Bill Forry

When all is said and done, Richard Lennon will likely be little more than a footnote in the history of Boston Catholicism. The man who stepped aside yesterday as the interim apostolic administrator of Boston's Catholic archdiocese served for less than a year before the new archbishop, Sean Patrick O'Malley, was installed.

If Lennon eventually enjoys even a modest legacy, let's hope it is that he had the wisdom to embrace a remarkable group of lay women and nuns and their bold idea in a year of despair: the birth of a new girls high school here in Dorchester.

Since last October, a committee of volunteers &emdash; most of them alumnae of the now-defunct Monsignor Ryan Memorial High School &emdash; have met every Tuesday night without fail to plan out the new school. It's called Elizabeth Seton Academy and it's named for the woman who founded the Sisters of Charity; the order that ran MRM for 85 years. Determined to keep Catholic education alive for city girls, the Seton committee has raised over $300,000. They probably would have raised a lot more this summer, but until Lennon's pen-stroke two weeks ago, Seton Academy was pretty much just an idea.

In one of his final acts, Bishop Lennon signed off on Elizabeth Seton Academy, giving the newly-formed board of trustees the "go" sign to begin classes in September. With his blessing, Seton Academy will be housed in what was once St. Gregory High School in Lower Mills. At least 60 girls are expected to fill out the first-year seats at the old St. Greg's, according to Sr. Esther Plefka, the Dorchester born-and-bred president of Seton Academy's fledgling board.

Just as important to women like Sr. Esther, Lennon's approval means that Seton Academy will be officially recognized as a Catholic school, even though it will not technically be under the umbrella of the archdiocese and will not get church funding. Without the affiliation, though, the new school would have been stripped of any real meaning.

The idea behind Seton Academy is to preserve a part of Dorchester's long tradition of Catholic schooling &emdash; with an emphasis on the good parts, which are legion. It's become fashionable these days to trash Catholic schools for their shortcomings and stereotypes. Many of us who are Catholic enjoy poking fun at parochial schools, too. There's even a T-shirt that says, "I Survived Catholic School," replete with a menacing nun ready to strike with her ruler.

The truth, as Dorchester people well know, is that this neighborhood has survived, in part, because of Catholic schools. They've been an invaluable outlet for parents who otherwise would have left the city. It's schooled generations of immigrant kids, including today's most recent arrivals from Haiti, Cape Verde, Kosovo, and Vietnam &emdash; a large number of whom are not Catholic. And Catholic schools, by and large, have been the real melting pots in this town for the last three decades.

The women of MRM &emdash; and men like Marty Walsh, the state rep who urged them on over the last year &emdash; never lost sight of why Catholic schools mattered here, even in the haze of the sex abuse meltdown.

Savin Hill's Pattie Brett, who is not even an alumnae of MRM, joined the Seton Academy effort early on &emdash; and for all the right reasons. Today, she's grateful she did.

"It's a real morale boost for our girls in the neighborhood," says Brett. "We're saying as a church that we haven't abandoned you.The neighborhood wins, too, because we're bringing young life back here."

Last week, Pattie bumped into a former MRM student who had been planning to attend Mount St. Joseph Academy in Brighton this fall. She had to find a new school when the archdiocese closed MRM down in May. Now, this young lady is ecstatic that she won't have to leave her hometown after all.

"These girls don't want to leave Dorchester. You mark my word: There's not question we'll have these girls back," says Brett.

Early on, the Seton Academy dream seemed like a real long shot. No money. No building. No teachers. No students. But when they learned earlier this year that a vacant floor at St. Gregory was available &emdash; and that the parish's pastor, Monsignor Paul Ryan, was rooting for their effort to succeed &emdash; the Seton Academy team took it as a minor miracle. They fought past the reluctance of some skeptical, lower-level church officials and lobbied Lennon directly. In the end, once they cleared the red tape and legal hurdles, thanks to a volunteer lawyer who happens to be an MRM alum, Lennon was enthusiastic. To his credit, he knew a great idea when he saw it.

"More and more, I think Catholics &emdash; if they really want this education &emdash; will have to step up to the plate to make it happen," says Sr. Esther.

"There's not been any negative energy around this. If it wasn't meant to be, we were willing to let go of it. But education is in our blood, as well as a strong desire to serve those whose needs aren't meant by any other institution. That's where the Sisters of Charity belong. These young women were not going to be able to have the option of Catholic education in the city unless we provided it."

Now, just five weeks out from the first bell, Sr. Esther and the board are still recruiting students, teachers and a principal. They're getting books and furniture from the old MRM, and St. Mark's parish is pitching in to help them with supplies. They're posting a wish-list of their many unmet needs on a website, elizabeth setonacademy.org., which is also where prospective students and teachers should go.

Oh, and they still need to raise another $300,000 or so. But, there is not a trace of panic among the lot of them. Instead, there's the grace that comes to a group that has stared long odds in the face &emdash; and won. In their hearts, they now know it's meant to be.

"People came into our lives at precisely the right moments," Sr. Esther says. "Week after week, things fell into place almost effortlessly and gave us the courage to go on."

"We are not driving this particular school bus," she says. "God is driving."

Bill Forry can be reached at bforry@dotnews.com