The Post Gazette

August 4, 1995

Philanthropist donates sculpture to North End Church

The sculpture was dedicated at official ceremonies held June 4. His eminence Bernard Cardinal Law unveiled the six-foot bronze relief. The sculpture will remain on the outside wall of the church as an artistic testimonial to Bishop Scalabrini.

John Baptist Scalabrini was Bishop of Piacenza, Italy, at the turn of the century when Italians were emigrating in massive numbers to North and South America. He founded a congregation of missionaries to follow the immigrants to ensure that they would remain loyal to their Christian faith in countries which were predominantly Protestant. He was also instrumental in persuading Mother Cabrini to send her Sisters to care for Italian immigrants in the Americas. Bishop Scalabrini sent the first missionaries to America in 1887 to care for Italian immigrants. The following year, Father Francesco Zaboglio was installed as the first Pastor of the Sacred Heart Italian Parish.

The Rev. Joseph A. Cogo, CS, Pastor of Sacred Heart Italian Parish in the North End, commissioned Richard Aliberti to create the sculpture to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Bishop Scalabrini’s death in June of 1905. “It is only proper,” Fr. Cogo said, “ that the person and work of Bishop Scalabrini should be memorialized in this church where in the first century of its existence 32,000 Italians were baptized and 16,000 married – people who are now spread throughout the Boston area but who also maintain a strong attachment to the church of their roots.” Cardinal Law also emphasized the fact that Italian Americans in the Archdiocese of Boston are the backbone of the church and have enriched it with their values, culture and tradition.

 

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