GLENDALE — At 100 years old, Albert Belay has outlived nearly everyone he once knew.
On Nov. 15, he prayed for his lost loved ones in a way most comforting to him — through song in his native tongue at a memorial Mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Glendale — surrounded by fellow immigrants and their descendants.
Belay was born and raised in Gottschee — a former German-speaking region located in what’s today considered Slovenia. During World War II, the Gottscheer people were forced from their homes and scattered throughout refugee camps in Austria.
In 1950, at the age of 25, Belay immigrated to Queens, where most Gottscheer immigrants and their families now reside.
“The annual Memorial Mass is a very important time to reminisce — to be together as Gottscheers and family,” he said. “When I was a child in Gottschee, and later after immigrating to America, those moments of coming together brought joy after long separations, hardships, and sorrow. Even today, it is a blessing that our community can still celebrate, remember, and be together.”
The annual Gottscheer Memorial Mass is the brainchild of Tom Stalzer, president of the Gottscheer Men’s Choir and a Eucharistic minister and lector at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. This year marked the third annual Mass, and he says the idea came to him four years ago while reflecting on his Gottscheer roots and the deep Catholic faith within the community.
“We have our traditions — the music, the food, the dances — and the Catholic faith is a big part of it, but I felt like the faith piece had drifted a bit,” Stalzer said. “In Europe, Gottscheers always held an annual All Souls memorial Mass. I wanted to bring that back, so at least once a year, we come together, remember our parents and grandparents, and honor where we came from.
“Our people didn’t have much, but the faith is what kept us strong.”
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Belay’s hometown of Lienfeld only had one small chapel, with Mass held there on occasion. Everyone from the nearby towns and villages gathered for weekly Mass in the larger city of Gottschee, like the Memorial Mass today, where Gottscheers from several parishes unite.
“When I was growing up, the Mass in Gottschee was in Latin and the homily and songs in German,” he said. “That’s why I’m so pleased to sing with the Gottscheer Choirs at the Memorial Mass.”
The Mass readings were done in German, with hymns sung in both German and Gottscheerish — an Upper German dialect that was the native language of Gottschee. UNESCO classifies it as a critically endangered language, with only a few speakers remaining.
Gillian Guile, 26, is part of the generation now working to keep Gottscheer heritage alive. A lifelong member of the Gottscheer community, she has participated in the Die Erste Gottscheer Tanzgruppe folk dance group for 20 years, serves as president of the Gottscheer Women’s Choir, and formerly held the title of Miss Gottschee 2018 — a role meant to represent and inspire Gottscheer youth.
For her, singing during the Gottscheer Memorial Mass is both emotional and essential.
“It’s continuing the legacy that our grandparents and ancestors started for us,” Guile said. “They couldn’t stay in the place where they were born, but they came here and built a community rooted in faith. Remembering them this way shows how much we want to keep everything going.”
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During Mass, the names of Gottscheers who passed away in the past year were read aloud, each one followed by the toll of a bell and a soft hymn from the choir.
In his homily, Father Kevin McBrien reflected on the meaning of remembrance, reminding those gathered that love, faith, and memory continue to bind the living and the dead together in Christ.
Although he’s not of Gottscheer or German heritage, Father McBrien said the Gottscheer community has made him feel like “part of their family” since he began celebrating the Memorial Mass after becoming pastor of Sacred Heart Church last year.
“It is really their faith that has sustained them and kept them going all these years,” Father McBrien said. “When you think of the hardships they endured — leaving their homeland, starting over — it was faith that carried them through.”
When asked whom they were holding close in prayer at this year’s Mass, both Belay and Guile named beloved family members, but each also mentioned the same person: Albert Tscherne, who died earlier this year. It was a reminder that Gottscheer heritage is something shared across generations.
Belay remembered Tscherne from childhood in their hometown of Lienfeld, while Guile spoke of the heartfelt conversations they shared at events in Gottscheer Hall — the lively bar, catering hall, and clubhouse Gottscheer immigrants founded in Ridgewood, Queens, 101 years ago.
“Hearing the names is the tough part, but knowing our loved ones are still with us — in that church, and at all times — makes you remember the good times,” Guile said.
“Age doesn’t matter in the Gottscheer community in terms of friendship,” she continued. “We’re all connected through this shared passion for our traditions and the same love for where we come from. Being together in prayer, remembering the people we learned so much from — it’s a beautiful sight to see.”
