Local Italians call Santa Maria Goretti Parish 'their church'

At their 50th anniversary, the congregation yearns for an Italian priest

- WCR photo by Ramon Gonzalez Generations of parishioners have worshiped at Santa Maria Goetti Church.

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton

Fifty years after it was established, Santa Maria Goretti Italian Parish is still the vibrant, energetic and faithful parish Maria Mauro has grown accustomed to — except for one thing.

The parish has not had an Italian-speaking priest since Father Oscar Monroy took a leave of absence last November.

Archbishop Richard Smith then approached Jerry Archibald, the former CEO of the Grey Nuns Centre, and appointed him administrator of the 2,000-family parish. Father John Hesse came out of retirement to become the parish’s dominical vicar and has been celebrating Mass regularly since November 2007.

Longing for an Italian priest

“It’s really a sad story but we are pulling together and we hope we will have soon a (permanent) priest,” said Mauro, a longtime parishioner who is leading the parish’s 50th anniversary celebrations. “We have trust in Archbishop Smith that he will find an Italian priest for us.”

Mauro, mother of two adult daughters, is a parish pioneer and a well-known figure at Santa Maria Goretti. As a founding member of Le Done del Santo Rosario — The Ladies of the Holy Rosary — she went door-to-door collecting money to build the church. Later, she and her husband Giuseppe even gave the $60 they had saved for a fridge to help pay the church’s debt.

“I was here before the church was founded,” Mauro said. “I remember when I came from Italy (in 1958), the first thing I asked my family is ‘Where is the church’ And we had no church. We used to go to the basement of the Sacred Heart Church.”

Mauro would help the two parish founders — Scalabrinian Fathers Rino Ziliotti and Giovanni Bonelli — to set up chairs and the altar in the basement, so the priests could celebrate Mass.

Passionate fundraising

“When we got news that we were going to have a parish of our own, we were very excited and went fundraising door to door. We used to go travelling around even if to ask for 50 cents,” Mauro recalls. “Some of us went walking, some of us with a car and some of us by bus.”

- WCR photo by Ramon Gonzalez Parishioners Rudy Cavaliere and Maria Mauro love Santa Maria Goretti Parish.

Mauro was a young girl then. She remembers the first soil removal in March 1958. “We had a beautiful celebration. The mayor at that time came and removed the first shovel of dirt and then (the priest) blessed the ground.”

Construction of the church started in March 1958 on land offered by the Christopher Columbus Society at 110th Avenue and 90th Street. When the church opened Dec. 23, 1958, Mauro was a happy woman.

“I was home; I was in the church we could call our own,” she recalls. “It was our own church. We had worked very hard up to that point to have that beautiful church. The parish was ours to keep and ours to maintain.”

In less than 15 years the church and hall were paid off. And when the parishioners realized the priests’ residence was little more than a shack, they went to work again and in the winter of 1966, Fathers Bonelli and Joseph Vincenti moved into a new rectory.

Santa Maria Goretti celebrated its 50th anniversary Oct. 5 with an 11 a.m. Mass followed by a seven-course meal (pranzo) and entertainment at St. Maria Goretti Hall.

In 1960, Maria and Giuseppe Mauro married at Santa Maria Goretti. The young couple was trying to save to buy a fridge and had $60 put away in a jar.

But the priests were so eager to pay off the debt with the archdiocese they did a second collection after the church had been built.

“One day, Father John came to our house. We said, ‘Father John, we don’t have money.’”

But the Mauros looked at each other and decided to give their savings away.

“The parish belongs to us,” says Mauro. “It is home. It’s like a family. We were married there, our children were born there, they were baptized there, they receive d all the sacraments there and they got married there. Our parents, our brothers, our family that passed away had their funerals over there. To us, it is the home that we could never do without.”

That’s the spirit that makes Santa Maria Goretti strong, noted Archibald, the parish administrator. “This is a very dynamic parish. Without a fulltime pastor, the parish has carried on with a great deal of confidence and trust and hope and enthusiasm.”

Archibald said parishioners welcomed him and have been exceptionally supportive.

A great number of parishioners volunteer in a variety of ministries — from sacramental and music ministries to the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

“We have an amazing set of volunteers here,” noted Luciana Floreancig, the chair of the parish advisory council. “Whenever we need something, people are always stepping forward to help out. We have pretty much all the ministries. And we have a wonderful catechism program that runs from October right up into April.”

The church seats about 600 people and 300 to 350 people attend each Sunday Mass. On special occasions such as Easter, Christmas and the big parish feast day in July, the church is filled. The parish has three choirs, one for each weekend Mass. People come from all over the city and surrounding towns for Mass.

Rudy Cavaliere, a native of Calabria who serves on the parish advisory council, describes Santa Maria as “a wonderful parish” filled with hard-working, generous people.

Plea for a priest

Its drawing feature is that it offers Mass in Italian, although lately this feature has become a source of concern for Cavaliere because there is no Italian-speaking priest. And as he points out, one of the goals of the parish is to preserve the Italian culture and language.

“We would like the message to get to the archdiocese that we are hopeful for a priest that’s going to help us continue the parish,” he says. “We would not like to see it fall apart.”

If an Italian-speaking priest is not found, some parishioners may stop coming, Cavaliere said. Presently there is no active youth group in the parish as many of the young people have left. “But we hope we can get them back.”

Archibald is conscious of the parish’s desire. “This is a parish in waiting for an Italian priest,” he said. “We are worried about families going to other parishes. But the main group is hanging in.”

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