The Italian Cultural Foundation at Casa Belvedere annually displays the Solidarity Creche, a gift by the Naples (Italy) Chamber of Commerce to the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) following the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Il Presepio Della Solidarieta, an exquisite, artisanal exhibit of museum quality that tells a...
READ MOREA new GoFundMe campaign was recently launched by the Società Madonna Della Fontana and Spilingese Social Club in Newark, New Jersey to help raise money for the creation of a new processional statue of the Madonna della Fontana. Devotees will carry the statue during the Annual Feast of the Madonna della Fontana and San Michele Arcangelo, celebrated...
READ MOREA few years ago, the New York City public arts program decided to build more statues of women. When they held a poll to decide which statues to erect, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini received the most votes. Nevertheless, they decided not to include her. Citizens spoke up, however, and on Columbus Day 2020 a permanent statue of St. Cabrini was unveil...
READ MOREOn October 28th and 29th, The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law (Catholic Law) hosted the National Italian American Bar Association’s (NIABA) annual meeting of its board of directors. Francis Donnarumma '78, serves as NIABA’s current president leading a board of 38 lawyers from across the United States, Canada, and Italy. Also a...
READ MOREToday, Our Lady of the Rosary Church of San Diego — popularly known as “The Jewel of Little Italy” — shines even brighter after undergoing a major, award-winning restoration in 2021 to highlight its original liturgical art and beauty. The church was built by its first pastor, Father Sylvester Rabagliati, a native of Italy and student of St. John Bo...
READ MOREThe story of an American Catholic Saint and the baby of a family from Castletara whose eyesight was restored is virtually unknown in Ireland. The miracle centred around a baby who received horrific damage, albeit accidental, to his eyes. The child would live and one day enter religious life himself. Peter Smith Jnr was born on March 14, 1921, at a...
READ MOREThe Catholic New York office at the New York Catholic Center is a short walk from the Center for Migration Studies of New York on East 60th Street near the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. I have not made the short trip, but I hope that may soon change after my conversation last week with Don Kerwin, the center’s executive director. Our talk came on the...
READ MOREHis four brothers were mob bosses, but he had chosen the path of faith: Father Louis Gigante, a Catholic priest central to the rebuilding of the South Bronx, has died at age 90 after a life that seems straight out of a movie script. Father Louis bore a heavy last name for a priest. Vincent, one of his brothers known as ‘Chin,’ roamed the streets o...
READ MOREIn Catholicism, the Cult of the Dead is very important. Who isn’t familiar, especially in America, with the traditional Mexican celebrations for El Dia de los Muertos? In Italy, too, religious events and spiritual moments of remembrance hold hands with more prosaic examples of the country’s attachment to her faithful departed. Among them, we also f...
READ MOREThe Cultural Italian American Organization of Cayuga County recently honored two Catholic priests for their dedication to the Auburn community. Father Frank Lioi and Father Louis Vasile were the guests of honor at the organization’s seventh-annual recognition dinner, which took place Oct. 9 at Auburn’s Springside Inn. The organization, known as C.I...
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