MIDTOWN MANHATTAN — The 80th Annual Columbus Day Parade took place on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue on Monday, Oct. 14, and 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 within the diocese’s borders — 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 featured 25,000 marchers, including dancers, twirlers, and marching bands. The march also featured plenty of colorful floats, many of which were blaring the “Tarantella” from their loudspeakers as people riding aboard bounced to the lively beat.

Greeting the parade participants, which included students from Xaverian and St. John’s, were hundreds of thousands of spectators who cheered along the route that ran up Fifth Avenue from 42nd Street to 72nd Street. 

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. Nunzio and her friends draped an Italian flag over a sidewalk barricade to honor the heritage of Christopher Columbus.

“This is so beautiful! I love it so much!” she said.

The day began with a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Afterward, he commented, “On St. Patrick’s Day, we say we’re all Irish. Today, we are all Italian.” 

Cardinal Dolan noted that the Catholic Church and the Italian-American community enjoy close ties that date back many decades. 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,” Cardinal Dolan recalled. 

For many, Columbus Day has taken on a much larger meaning 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 Mass. He called Columbus “a great man who changed history” and praised the contributions Italian-Americans have made to the United States. 

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,” Mazzola said. 

“My father came here in 1956 on the Cristopher Columbus [ship]. He came here on a cold day in March,” he added, explaining that his dad, Francesco Mazzola, survived a storm at sea. “I’m very proud to be here.” 

Several St. John’s students were eager to ride the university’s float along the parade route, dancing to the music even before their float joined the line of march. For Anthony Brandimarte, a junior, the parade allowed different parts of New York’s Italian-American community to come together. 

“It’s a chance to share our culture and our identity,” Brandimarte said.