MIDDLE VILLAGE — If Father Nicholas Colalella hadn’t pursued the priesthood, he could have been a linguist or a full-time lecturer on ancient languages like Greek, Latin, and Aramaic.
Still, Father Colalella experienced an early vocation, which eventually led him through formation at Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception in Douglaston, the Pontifical North American College in Rome, and the Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
He is now the parochial vicar for Our Lady of Hope Church in the neighborhood of his youth, Middle Village, Queens. He is also the part-time chaplain at Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood, Queens.
Throughout his formation, Father Colalella vigorously pursued knowledge of other languages. But his fluency in Italian, his immigrant father’s first language, has landed him another job — coordinator for the Italian Apostolate of the Diocese of Brooklyn. This appointment follows the longtime tenure of now-retired Msgr. David Cassato.
“I do appreciate and want to encourage cultural pride,” Father Colalella said. “But my role is more pastoral. I’m here to make sure that the sacraments are available. And if there’s an opportunity to do something in the Italian language for those who speak it, then that’s what I’m available for.”
Father Colalella’s father, the late Marco Colalella, was 5 years old when he came to the U.S. in 1967 with his parents and older brother from Abruzzo, east of Rome.
“They came to Middle Village because there were people from around the same area that were already here,” Father Colalella said. “So, growing up, we had our paisans, right?”
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Marco and his wife, Lisa, brought their son and his younger sisters, Maria and Guiliana, to St. Margaret Parish, also in Middle Village.
“My father’s parents took me to Sunday Mass in Italian almost every week,” Father Colalella said. “So, I became involved in the Italian-speaking community at a very young age. And that’s how I first came into contact with the Italian Apostolate.”
Father Colalella’s passion for languages accelerated with four years of Latin at Xavier High School in Manhattan.
“I was always looking for more languages to study,” he recalled. “So, when I was in Rome, I learned Greek, and that’s when I started learning more biblical languages. I liked it so much that I pursued that with my graduate degree.”
Knowing these languages, he explained, allows him to understand ancient scripture, which helps him “open the door for people to understand what the biblical writers wanted to convey.”
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Father Colalella said he became the apostolate’s new coordinator last winter. When The Tablet interviewed him on Oct. 8, he was preparing his first annual Mass for the group, held on Oct. 12 at St. Mel’s Parish in Flushing.
Typically, the annual Mass includes a procession through the surrounding neighborhood accompanied by a statue of a saint or the Blessed Mother. However, Father Colalella explained that because many of the attendees are expected to be older individuals, he decided to change things by holding a procession of the Eucharist inside the church.
“Certainly, the Italian culture is very much tied to the faith,” Father Colalella said. “But it’s the faith that really unites everybody, those that speak Italian, and those who don’t. And, so, it’s just navigating those two realities.”
