following the aging father tomiak's transition to a new role as chaplain of the orphanage, the rev. paul guzik arrived from matopolska to take over tomiak's role as head of the parish. soon after beginning work, guzik determined that the existing school building was no longer adequate, raised $40,000 to build a "yellow brick eight-room school," and then invited the bernardine sisters to return as faculty before making the decision to return to poland. he was succeeded in 1913 by the rev. joseph poremba, of st. casimir's parish of mahanoy city, pennsylvania. both the school and the parish flourished under poremba's leadership, which ended when he died suddenly from a heart attack in 1920. he was then succeeded in june of that year by the pastor of st. stanislaus in shenandoah, pennsylvania, rev. louis stachowicz, who went on to lead st. josaphat's for nearly four decades. among his successes were the addition of 12 classrooms to the school building between 1927 and 1928, the launch of high school classes in 1939 (the first polish pastor to achieve this milestone), the construction of a new, $130,000 rectory in 1949, and the construction of a new church building at the corner of silverwood and cotton streets with a spacious hall below the structure, which was dedicated on march 16, 1958 by the most reverend john f. o'hara, c.s., d.d., archbishop of philadelphia.