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A chapel at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary’s new Ambler campus in Montgomery County has earned an international architecture award for blending centuries of Catholic tradition with contemporary design.

Immaculate Conception Chapel, designed by Voith & Mactavish Architects LLP, incorporates historic elements salvaged from the seminary’s former Lower Merion campus, including carved pews, statues and stained-glass windows. The adapted features preserve the legacy of the oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in Pennsylvania and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The chapel was one of 12 winners selected from 75 submissions worldwide in the 2026 Faith & Form International Awards for Religious Architecture & Art, presented by Philadelphia-based Partners for Sacred Places.

“It’s one of these projects that totally balances the contemporary needs of the client with this commitment to … liturgical tradition, institutional memory and preservation,” said

Kevin Block, the nonprofit’s director of special initiatives.

“So that combination … balancing the old and the new, was, in the jury’s opinion, really award worthy.”

Chapel design holds ‘universal appeal’

John Cluver, senior partner and director of historic preservation at Voith & Mactavish, said he worked closely with the seminary to understand the physical and spiritual needs of the people who would be in the building every day.

Incorporating historic elements at the old seminary was key for the institution, Cluver said.

“They were very interested in having this new chapel relate back to these other chapels and to continue this sense of tradition and this historic continuity with their previous campus,” he said. “So the basic form, configuration, individual elements all were based on elements from these two chapels that we could integrate into a single one.”

Cluver said the award from Partners for Sacred Places is recognition of achieving a “universal appeal” beyond the religious context.

“There’s something that resonated with people who had no connection whatsoever with this community, but they still felt that it really spoke to them as well, so it was very rewarding in that regard,” he said.

One of Rhode Island’s “longest-wanted” fugitives was finally arrested this week after 21 years on the run, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

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Former Rhode Island doctor Ronald Fischer disappeared during his 2005 trial on a first-degree sexual assault charge, according to the Marshals Service. Fischer was accused of raping a woman aboard his boat, the “Lion King,” in 2003, NBC New York reported.

“He was subsequently convicted in absentia of First-Degree Sexual Assault after failing to appear for trial and remained wanted for Failure to Appear, First Degree Sexual Assault, and Flight to Avoid Prosecution,” the Marshals Service said in a press release Thursday.

Earlier this week, investigators received information about Fischer’s whereabouts that they determined was credible, prompting members of the Rhode Island Violent Fugitive Task Force to deploy to New York.

Investigators determined Fischer was operating a 56-foot sailboat named “The Silver Lining,” which was registered under the name Richard Graydon, an alias authorities said Fischer used. U.S. Marshals and Coast Guard personnel intercepted the vessel about an hour offshore and arrested him without incident.

According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, fingerprints taken from Fischer by the Marshals Service and analyzed by the FBI confirmed that he was the same man on trial for rape charges in Rhode Island 21 years ago.

Books on how to evade law enforcement were found at Fischer’s residence during a search warrant, and it was determined that he was using what’s known as an “onion router” to hide his IP addresses and avoid being tracked, the district attorney’s office said.

Investigators also found emails between Fischer and family members who have been helping him evade law enforcement, according to the district attorney’s office.

Fischer’s capture was a coordinated effort by the Rhode Island Violent Fugitive Task Force, the Marshals Service New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force, the U.S. Marshals Service for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Coast Guard. The FBI also assisted in the investigation.

“This arrest demonstrates that time does not erase accountability,” said Wing Chau, the U.S. marshal for the District of Rhode Island. “For more than twenty years, Ronald Fischer believed he had successfully escaped justice. The men and women of the Rhode Island Violent Fugitive Task Force, together with our partners, remained committed to ensuring that day would eventually come.”

The victim, Cheryl Gingerich, told NBC 10 in an exclusive interview that news of Fischer’s arrest made her happy.

The trauma of the incident affected nearly every aspect of her life, she said, leaving her afraid to leave her home and forcing her to abandon her career as an English professor.

“I always lived in fear of seeing him again because I never felt that he was far away,” she told the outlet.

Fischer was arraigned in Manhattan on Friday, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which confirmed that he was “remanded and waived extradition.”

It is not clear whether Fischer has an attorney at this time.

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