On one of the most historically rich days of our Italian community, I was fortunate to be on the diocesan float with Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and the Mother Cabrini statue that was presented to our community in a procession and Mass which I had attended with my mother and many of the proud religious organizations.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Oct. 24 that the funding and construction of a New York City statue honoring St. Frances Xavier Cabrini will be overseen by a new 19-member committee which includes members from the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Dear Editor: It is a noble gesture to honor Mother Cabrini by establishing a fund to erect a statue of her in Brooklyn (“Mother Cabrini, a Heroine Who Should Be Recognized,” Put Out Into the Deep, Sept. 28). But it grants the city, by preemption, its responsibility to recognize what the majority of recently surveyed New Yorkers consider Mother Cabrini to be as a public figure, and as a woman who made “extraordinary contributions to the city and beyond.”
After marching in the Columbus Day Parade on Oct. 14, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that New York state will build a statue of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini.
Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-Brooklyn/Staten Island) said that she was contacted by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office on Oct. 11 to say that Mother Cabrini is still in the running for the next round of statues to be built around the city.
The Diocese of Brooklyn will have a float of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini at Manhattan’s Columbus Day Parade on Oct. 14. The float will be two or three car-lengths long, and will include youth and adults, according to a report.
Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis writes to the New York City Mayor’s Office expressing her strong opposition to the decision to deny Mother Frances Cabrini a statute in the “She Built NYC” competition.
Congressman Pete King joins other Italian-American leaders in support of erecting a New York City statue in honor of Mother Cabrini.
The cause is personal for Msgr. Cassato. One night in 1953, David Cassato, then 5 years old, was headed home from his grandparents’ house. He turned to his father and asked about a photo he had seen. That night, he first heard about Mother Cabrini, who had helped Msgr. Cassato’s grandparents when they came from Sicily to the Lower East Side of Manhattan on 1910 with nothing.
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Italian Apostolate will hold a procession and Mass on Oct. 6 in support of a public statue of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini.
