MIDTOWN MANHATTAN — The 80th Annual Columbus Day Parade took place on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue on Monday, Oct. 14, but the Diocese of Brooklyn put its stamp on the event in a big way.
The grand marshal, Michael T. Strianese, is a graduate of two schools in the diocese — Xaverian High School in Bay Ridge and St. John’s University in Jamaica.
“It’s a great day for Italians in New York and a great day for Brooklyn!” said Strianese, the retired chairman and CEO of L3 Technologies Inc., a global aerospace company. He rode the parade route in a white Maserati.
The grandest of Columbus Day parades, the big event featured 25,000 marchers, including dancers, twirlers, marching bands. There were plenty of colorful floats blaring the “Tarantella” from their loudspeakers as the people riding aboard bounced to the lively beat.
Greeting the parade participants — who included students from Xaverian High School and St. John’s University — were hundre
ds of thousands of spectators who lined the route along Fifth Avenue from 42nd Street to 72nd Street to cheer for them.
One of those spectators was Maria Nunzio, an Italian-American who lives in Ridgewood and is a parishioner of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church. “This is so beautiful! I love it so much!” she said. She and her friends draped an Italian flag over the sidewalk barricade to honor the Italian heritage of Christopher Columbus.
The day began with a Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral celebrated by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York Archdiocese. “On St. Patrick’s Day, we say we’re all Irish. Today, all Italian. We’re all twirling the pasta today!” he joked after the Mass.
The Catholic Church
and the Italian-American community enjoy close ties that date back many decades, Cardinal Dolan said.
He recalled what former mayor Ed Koch told him when he first came to New York as the archbishop in 2009. “When the immigrants came, two women welcomed them — Lady Liberty and the Mother Church,” he said.
For many, Columbus Day has taken on a meaning much larger than Christopher Columbus himself. It’s a day for Italian-American pride.
Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, delivered the homily at the Mass and while he called Columbus, “a great man who changed history,” he also praised the contributions Italian-Americans have made to the U.S.
John Mazzola, a parishioner of St. Finbar Church in Bath Beach, said the day filled him with a sense of pride as an Italian-American and as the son of immigrants.
“Today is a beautiful day for Italian pride. My father came here in 1956 on the Cristopher Columbus, the ship. He came here on a cold, entry day in March,” he said, explaining that his dad, Francesco Mazzola, survived a storm at sea. “I’m very proud to be here,” he added.
Several students aboard the St. John’s University float could not wait to ride along the parade route. They were dancing to the music even before their float joined the line of march.
For Anthony Brandimarte, a junior, the parade was an opportunity for different parts of New York’s Italian-American community to come together. “It’s a chance to share our culture and our identity,” he said.