Mass marks church's seven decades

The Rev. John M. Knapp presents the Eucharist at the anniversary Mass. Photo by Jason Fields

By Jason Fields

The special mass and reception in honor of the 70th anniversary of St. Gabriel’s Parish was held not in a cavernous place where whispers become echoes, but in an intimate church reflecting the congregation.

Sister Amy Amadeus McKenna, a nun at the parish whose smile suggests she’s probably discovered the secret to life, has been at St. Gabriel’s Parish based at Netherland Avenue and West 235th Street since 2000. She was among those who came to celebrate in a church filled with plain pews and covered in red carpet Saturday evening.

“It’s a wonderful parish,” she said in a conversation held at the church’s rectory, in a small room filled with old chairs, an inexpensive table and several bibles and many copies of the Catholic catechism.

She leaned forward. “I’m prejudiced, but it’s a good prejudiced.”

The parish is wonderful for many reasons, she said, though they all seem to boil down to a single element: fellowship.

“Everybody ministers to each other. There’s nothing that we can ask that people won’t answer,” she said.

If someone dies, whether in the parish or outside of it, members of the community will accompany the grieved member of the parish to the site of the service, to show support, she said.

The pastor, the Rev. John M. Knapp, spoke to the assembly of about 120 people from a dais he shared with potted plants, an altar, and a large figure of Jesus that adorns the wall behind.

He began with a welcome and quoted St. Luke on God’s relationship to history and then recalled some history of the parish itself.

“Here is a little of what was going on in the world in 1939,” when the parish was founded, Father Knapp said. “In December of 1939:

Dec. 1, Himmler begins deportation of Jews from Poland to concentration camps.

Dec. 2, LaGuardia airport began operations.

Dec. 7, Lou Gehrig, at 36, is inducted into the baseball hall of fame.”

The list continued all the way through nylon and the premier of the movie Gone With the Wind, to the introduction of Rudolph as the ninth of Santa’s reindeer by the department store Montgomery Ward.

He then recited a list of items and events from 1989, the parish’s 50th anniversary, including the Exxon Valdez debacle that ruined an enormous bay in Alaska by spilling ton after ton of oil, then-Vice President Dan Quayle sending out 30,000 Christmas cards with the word “beacon” spelled with a “k,” and the debut of The Simpsons.

“Yet, in the midst of time, the movement of history, changes great and small, there is one constant,” the priest said, with a pause. “And that one constant is the church!”

Though he was speaking broadly of Catholicism, his words applied to St. Gabe’s role in the lives of many of he parishioners present.

One of the few changes George Zambetti, 88, has seen in his 70 years attending the church is an increase in the diversity of the worshippers.

“It used to be Irish and Italian, now we have everyone,” said Mr. Zambetti, who put five children through the church’s attached school.

Other parishioners echoed what Sister Amy said about the warmth of St. Gabriel’s community.

“I consider St. Gabe’s my second home,” said Huguette Nett, who has been attending the church for 42 years. She describes herself as a French war bride, and lived in Marseilles until the American invasion of France during World War II brought her a young soldier named Joseph, who has now been dead for 20 years. The moment feels like yesterday, she said. The church offers comfort.

“I thank God every day I can come here,” she said.

And there is something more than solace at St. Gabriel’s parish.

There is faith and fervor, too. After the Mass, a man in a darkly patterned blue and red sweater, jeans, sneakers and slightly disheveled gray hair reached out to a statue of the Virgin Mary, clasping his hands and hers and bowed his head, for a minute, maybe more. He pulled himself away, and walked down to a statue of the Mother and Child, and put is hand on Mary’s arm and held it.

After a short while, he removed it, turned and walked away.

Archbishop pays a visit

In addition to celebrating the parish’s 70th anniversary, last week was marked by another major even at St. Gabriel’s: the visit of New York’s new archbishop, Timothy Dolan.

Archbishop Dolan met with the faithful from a number of congregations in the Northwest Bronx, Tuesday, Dec. 1. Each parish was allowed to send 20 representatives, but many sent a few more, Sister Amy of St. Gabe’s said.

“We were ver y blessed to have him,” St. Gabe’s pastor, the Rev. John M. Knapp said. “It was a very good visit and a great honor. He stayed until the last person left.”

This is part of the December 10, 2009 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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