Diamond Jubilee

The headlines in The Catholic News read: "Diamond Jubilee Is Celebrated at St. Cecilia's" "His Eminence Presides At Mass of Thanksgiving" "Bishop Kearney of Rochester, Former Assistant, Offers Pontifical Mass - Fr. Hosey, Once Pastor, Preaches" in its issue of November 27, 1948. Just six days earlier, parishioners and former residents of St. Cecilia's Parish had filled the church to capacity at a Solemn Mass of Thanksgiving commemorating the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the founding of the parish. It was a day of great rejoicing, with more than two hundred persons, including a large group of schoolchildren, participating in a procession to the church from the Regina Angelorum prior to the Mass. Included in the line of march were more than fifty prelates and priests, among them many dear and treasured friends who had played an invaluable role in the development and transformation of the parish.

His Eminence, Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York, presided. The Most Reverend James E. Kearney, now Bishop of Rochester, was celebrant. The Reverend John J. Hosey, C.SS.R., who had been succeeded by the Very Reverend Jeremiah Scannell, C.SS.R., in 1945, preached the sermon and reviewed the history of the parish. "Throughout the years," Father Hosey said, "the secret of Saint Cecilia's undying vitality has ever been her deeply-personal love of God, molded by faith in the Eucharistic Heart of Christ in the Tabernacle and expressed in loyalty - loyalty to the parish and to everything for which the parish stands."

The three-day Diamond Jubilee observance closed with a dinner at the Astor Hotel on Tuesday evening, November 23rd, and was attended by a large gathering of parishioners and former residents of the parish.

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