By Lore Croghan

Our Lady of Loreto was the immigrants' Madonna. Her church was their refuge. The now-closed church in the Ocean Hill section of Brownsville was a beacon of hope for Brooklyn's new arrivals from Italy at the start of the 20th Century — a beacon they built for themselves.

"We came because we were poor," said Dr. Marilyn Verna, a past president of the Italian Genealogical Group. "We had no food. There were diseases. The crops were dying. "We expected the Catholic Church to take us in. It didn't."

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Source: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/