At a time when many Catholic churches and schools are closing or consolidating, Holy Rosary Catholic Church at East Gun Hill Road and Eastchester Road is celebrating 100 years in the community.
Holy Rosary remains strong with around 700 parishioners, an active youth group and nursing home ministry, and strong fellowship among its diverse attendees, according to Pastor Dennis Williams.
During a visit to the church, the Bronx Times spoke with one of the church’s most longstanding members: Mary Oieni McCabe, who turned 91 that same day.
Oieni McCabe was baptized at the church in 1934 and is a third-generation Holy Rosary parishioner. She recalled the church’s early days as a simple wooden structure with cross-beamed ceiling, with nothing but a baseball field nearby.
Even though the church resembled a barn, “You felt like you were home,” she said.
Oieni McCabe got married there in 1961, but it burned down the following year in a suspected arson incident. The current building opened in 1968 and features numerous stained glass windows, a dramatic skylight, large wooden pews and antique statues of divine figures.
Over the years, the people sitting in the pews began to look different, Oieni McCabe said. Whereas Holy Rosary was once dominated by Italian and Irish immigrants, it gradually became a more diverse mix of people from Nigeria, Vietnam and other countries, she said.
As involved as Oieni McCabe has been throughout her decades with the church, she began volunteering in the early 1990s and has remained an office fixture ever since, coming on Thursdays to answer the phone and doorbell and file paperwork.
About ten people like her have 80 or more years in the parish, Oieni McCabe said. “There were a lot more when I [first] got here.”
Now that the church itself has reached 100 years, she said she remains thankful for its consistent presence in the community that has seen so much change.
“It’s just wonderful that we have survived, and I thank God for that every day,” she said.
Keeping the parish strong
Williams, who came to Holy Rosary in 2014, has been in the priesthood for 34 years after leaving a career in banking.
New York City has many diverse parishes, but Holy Rosary is “more diverse and larger than some of the others,” he said. And though membership is “still pretty high,” it used to be closer to 900 or 1,000 before the COVID pandemic, Williams said.
“I think the ability to go to church on television suggested to people that it’s not important to come to the church,” he said.
Like other churches, Holy Rosary lost parishioners due to the pandemic but also the clergy sexual abuse scandal and what Williams called “increasing secularization” of society.
But even as some have lost their religious faith, or never felt it to begin with, many others rely on the spiritual fulfillment the church offers.
“Most people want to believe in something beyond themselves, and Holy Rosary, as well as other parishes, teaches that,” Williams said. In general, he said, the Church “proclaims what’s true.”
Parishioners celebrated the 100th anniversary with a Nov. 2 dinner dance at Marina del Rey and a visit from Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, in October.
Those like Oieni McCabe who have seen the church through most of its 100 years, along with its many new residents and converting members, will likely keep Holy Rosary going strong for at least another century.
“One hundred years is a small amount of the 2,025 years of the church,” Williams said, but in today’s world, “It’s a miracle how vibrant this parish continues to be.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
