JEFF BESSEN
Antoinette Capobianco and Grace Candreva both described Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Inwood as their home. Parishioners have worshipped in the building, which was dedicated in 1910, for 100 years.
Founded as an offshoot of the St. Mary Star-of-the-Sea congregation in Far Rockaway, Our Lady of Good Counsel once held services in less reverential settings. "My father told me the story he remembered of being an altar boy and mass was conducted in a converted garage," said Capobianco, 87, who also noted that masses were held in homes before the church was built.
Capobianco's father, Nicholas Mazza, was in the church band, became its leader and for many years taught music to local teenagers, she said.
According to the recently released "The Five Towns" by Hewlett-Woodmere reference librarian Millicent Vollono, an increase in the Italian immigrant population of Inwood produced the need for a Roman Catholic place of worship. St. Mary's acquired property to establish a school and settlement house. The first mass in the Our Lady of Good Counsel chapel was celebrated on Christmas morning 1909, and the church was dedicated the following spring.
The Rev. Luigi Salamoni oversaw the mission, and in 1910 the Rev. John J. Mahon was appointed rector of the new parish. The Rev. Lawrence Duncklee, or "Father Larry," is the current pastor. Candreva and Capobianco remember one of the priests, the Rev. Francis Aegis, for two things: maintaining goats, and expanding the school from sixth to eighth grade before it closed.
Both longtime parishioners recalled attending church as youngsters, receiving religious instruction and going to various feasts. They remember how family life revolved around the church, the center of congregants' social lives.
"I always remember the church so packed that people were standing on the steps outside, and extra masses were held in the basement," said Candreva, 76, whose five children were baptized at the church.
For Capobianco, the church was not only like home, but a landmark by which to find her way back to her real home. "One day, where the A&P used to be, I got lost. If you went back to the church, you would know your way home," said Capobianco, who received her sacraments at the church and baptized her four daughters there, three of whom were married in the church.
A decade ago, Candreva was diagnosed with cancer, and benefited from the parish's support. "I love the people I am involved with," she sad. "The outpouring of that community, that church was wonderful and was there months after."
This past May, during the Santa Marina Feast, Grace's husband, Charles, fainted, overcome by the heat, and many parishioners came to his aid and, afterward, inquired about his health.
Though both women noted that church attendance and participation in church-related organizations is not what it once was, this church remains very much a part of their lives. "It belongs to us and is a part of my life — I can't see doing without it," Capobianco said. "It filled my life."
Candreva was no less enthusiastic. "This has always been my church and my home," she said. "Culturally we have a wonderful community."
The church had a 100th anniversary carnival for children on Aug. 7, run by religious education instructor Sister Kathy Slevin, and is planning a celebratory dinner/dance on Oct. 24 at Molloy Collge and a mass with a reception on Oct. 30.
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