Holy Child Parish, One of Staten Island’s Biggest, Thrives in 50th Year

Posted

Holy Child parish on Staten Island started its jubilee celebration early, but it’s far from over.

What began with a visit from Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan on March 5 will continue with a dinner-dance on Saturday, May 14, and a 12:30 p.m. Mass and reception the next day.

Priests, who have served at the parish over the past 50 years, are being invited back to concelebrate the Mass on May 15. The parish officially turns 50 on May 17.

“It’s a landmark occasion. It’s a cause for a celebration,” said Father Alan Travers, pastor at Holy Child. “It also will bring the year to its conclusion, and we’ll start getting ready for the 75th.”

Other priests who serve at Holy Child are parochial vicars Father Edwin Cipot and Father Wilfred Dodo, and Father Percy Joseph, who is in residence.

Holy Child is one of the largest parishes on Staten Island with 5,000 families. The parish includes 24 Catholic Youth Organization basketball teams, 200 children in a soccer program and four cheerleading teams. Three hundred children are being prepared academically and spiritually in the preschool directed by JoAnn Gaal, and there are 1,100 students in the religious education program directed by Marie Ferro. For adults, Holy Child offers several programs including coed volleyball and Singles on the Go, which schedules trips for singles over 58 years of age.

“There are a lot of longtime parishioners,” said Richard Larkin, a parishioner for 41 years. “The priests we’ve had from Msgr. (Francis) Brennan to Father Travers have been great. There’s always been such a warm feeling here, and I enjoy feeling the warmth that emanates from here.”

Cardinal Dolan kicked off the jubilee by celebrating Mass in the parish church. Before the 5 p.m. Mass, the cardinal met parish council members, lectors and altar servers. Afterward, he greeted parishioners at a reception held in the gymnasium.

“He was warm and friendly,” Larkin said. “He made us feel he was pleased to be here and thanked everyone for all their good work. He said it was a treat to come to Staten Island…We hope he comes back soon.”

Holy Child dates to 1966 when Msgr. Brennan was tapped by Cardinal Francis Spellman to start a parish on the South Shore of Staten Island. Msgr. Brennan went door to door asking families to join. The first Mass was offered at the local Elks Club, and soon Masses were moved to the 1,400-seat Island Theater with religious education classes being held at Moore Catholic High School.

“The pioneer effort really amazes me,’’ Father Travers said. “The boundaries were given and the founding pastor came into this territory and generated the parish. He gathered the people and they raised the money.”

Cardinal Terence Cooke dedicated a new parish center in 1970 for the 1,900 families in the parish. The center included six classrooms for the 1,600 parish children taking religious education classes and a chapel with a seating capacity of 1,100.

In 1986, the parish turned 20 with a dinner-dance and a ground-breaking ceremony for a two-story education building with 10 classrooms, art facilities and a common area for meetings, movies, exhibits and workshops. There were 1,300 students and 185 pre-schoolers taking classes at the center, and the parish grew to 3,500 families.

A Mass and ceremonial hammer marked the 25th anniversary on May 19, 1991, as the parish hall was being renovated into a permanent church.

Cardinal John O’Connor celebrated Mass on May 28, 1994 to dedicate the remodeled church and bless the solid-marble altar. Nine hundred people took part in the liturgy including Msgr. Brennan, then pastor emeritus.

The parish continued to grow with the remodeled church and new parish center. By 2007, 5,400 families were in the parish, making Holy Child the second largest parish on Staten Island to St. Clare’s 7,000 families.

Six years earlier, Holy Child mourned the loss of 29 parishioners during the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Holy Child is still thriving in 2016 as it prepares for its weekend jubilee in May.

“Fifty years is a good chunk of time, and on the other hand, the parish is not that old,” Father Travers said. “There are a lot of folks here who remember the founding of the parish. I’ve never really been in a church where there is that type of memory of a parish beginning.”