St. A's gets a Big C.
The thriving Brooklyn church known as St. Athanasius turns a century old this year.
When other churches in New York are struggling, padlocking schools and closing down, St. Athanasius of Bensonhurst will celebrate its 100th feast of its patron saint this Thursday with a 7 p.m. Mass.
Come see why this parish flourishes in a time when others are fading.

After the Feast of St. Athanasius Mass, a mariachi band will lead the worshipers — most of them Italian or Hispanic — from the church across Bay Parkway to a free-to-everyone cake and coffee party in the basement of the school where an all-star doo-wop band called the Tercels will perform.
Msgr. David Cassato will present a Distinguished Parishioner Award to ex-NYPD Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, who reached mandatory retirement last month after 44 years as a cop, with 12 years in the top uniformed post.
"Chief Esposito attends the 11:30 mass at St. A's every Sunday with his 89-year-old mother, his wife, his kids and his grandkids," says Cassato, an NYPD chaplain. "Four generations of the same great family. We're perfectly located in the heart of Bensonhurst, attracting traditional Italian families and a swelling flock of new immigrants, especially Hispanics. They love our Spanish-language masses said by Father Gabriel, our music and the message of hope and light that has been spread from here for 100 years into the streets of Brooklyn."
St. A's stands like a timeless fortress to the Brooklyn I remember as an altar boy in the Borough of Churches where people identified themselves by parishes.
That Brooklyn has mostly vanished.
And while parish priests across the city cringe on Sunday mornings at the growing number of empty pews because of a shifting socioeconomic demographic, the sexual predator scandals and an inability to attract younger parishioners, St. Athanasius still packs 2,500 to 3,000 worshipers into the pews every Sunday.
"The secret is Msgr. Cassato," says Esposito. "He's amazing. He reaches out to the new immigrants and young people. And his homilies are better than a comedy show, with a regular neighborhood-guy touch. I remember one Mass when he was pastor at Mount St. Carmel's in Williamsburg. He looked out at the packed church and said, 'It's so nice to see that everybody's in church today.' "

NANCY SIESEL/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

St. Athanatius Church, at 2154 61 St. in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, is turning 100 years old.

Then Cassato pointed to the pews on the right packed with cops and said, " 'Over here we have the good guys.' Then he pointed left, to the pews jammed with guys from the local social clubs, and said, 'And over here we have the wiseguys.' The church rocked with laughter. Only he could pull it off."
So true.
Downtown Ronnie Califano, an old-school Bensonhurst street guy, runs the annual sold-out St. Athanasius Christmas Doo Wop Fundraiser.
"I never miss 10 o'clock Sunday Mass here except when I'm in L.A. on show business," Downtown says. "Then I go to Good Shepherd where Sinatra was laid out. Otherwise I'm here in St. A's. This church, this parish, it holds this neighborhood together like holy crazy glue. The stuff I learned in Catholic school stuck to my ribs. I might not have always obeyed every Commandment, but I'm here every Sunday. And like any good band, movie set or crew, a parish church gotta have a leader. That's Msgr. Cassato, who local people trust because he's a regular neighborhood guy — but with connections upstairs."

Cassato also came up with a dozen new ways to celebrate the St. Athanasius centennial. "We started last November by inviting back former parishioners who moved away mostly to Staten Island and Jersey," he says. "December we had the tree lighting and doo-wop fund-raiser. January, we welcomed home all our former nuns. In March, former St. A's priests came to say one more Mass each."
In July, 65 parishioners will pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Athanasius in Venice. In October, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio will say a closing centennial Mass before the November 2013 gala dinner dance in the El Caribe catering hall.
Chief Esposito spent a lifetime coaxing confessions out of some of the city's worst sinners. "But I hadn't gone to confession myself since high school," he says, "until Msgr. Cassato collared me into letting him hear my first confession in over 40 years at age 60."
How long did it take to absolve four decades of sins?
"I got the chief of department discount," Esposito says. "It was more like a plea bargain. Msgr. Cassato knows everybody in Bensonhurst and all their secrets. Including mine now. And as a police chaplain he's saved more souls and soothed more hurting families than anyone I know."
And he's kept St. Athanasius vibrant in grim times.
"In June we're doing a carnival/bazaar with an anti-bullying program for young people," says Cassato. "Music, dancing, laser light show. It's great to celebrate 100 years of St. Athanasius. But without the kids we'll never make another 100 years."

by Denis Hamill / The New York Daily News