Retired Auxiliary Bishop Guy Sansaricq celebrated Mass at St. Bernard, Mill Basin, to mark the beginning of the 50th anniversary year of the establishment of the parish. At left, Bishop Sansaricq and Father Ralph Caputo, pastor, cut the jubilee cake. At right, on the altar were, from right, Father Caputo, Deacon Frank D’Accordo, Bishop Sansaricq, Deacon Christopher Wagner, and Father Timothy Lambert. The church was opened on Aug. 20, 1961 with Father Patrick Kenny as the founding pastor. In 1961, he received orders to oversee the establishment of a new parish in Brooklyn, to be named St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church.  The first few years at St. Bernard’s proved to be trying ones. While the church was being built, services were held in a makeshift tent. Father Kenny could often be seen outside in the cold, sweeping inside the tent or shoveling snow. In 1980 the church structure was completed and officially opened.