{"id":219743,"date":"2026-05-04T21:02:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T21:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/219743\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T21:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T21:02:39","slug":"restaurateurs-padre-pio-park-is-a-recipe-for-renewal-faith-in-queens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/219743\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurateur\u2019s Padre Pio Park is a Recipe for Renewal, Faith in Queens"},"content":{"rendered":"

LITTLE NECK \u2014 Padre Pio<\/a> is Joe Oppedisano\u2019s favorite saint, and\u00a0now he is\u00a0inviting the public to share\u00a0in\u00a0his love for the Italian stigmata and mystic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oppedisano has erected a park on a plot of land he owns and placed\u00a0a life-size statue of Padre Pio, which\u00a0he\u00a0had\u00a0shipped over from Italy.\u00a0The space is\u00a0intended\u00a0to\u00a0provide the public\u00a0with\u00a0a place to find spiritual renewal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0for everybody to come and reflect and pray and hope and\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0worry, like Padre Pio said,\u201d\u00a0Oppedisano\u00a0explained.\u00a0\u201cThat was his famous words in life, \u2018You\u2019ve got to believe.\u2019 And I believe tremendously.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The park officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 26,\u00a0during which Bishop Emeritus Nicholas DiMarzio blessed the Padre Pio statue,\u00a0along with\u00a0other statues\u00a0of saints\u00a0that stand inside the peaceful\u00a0space\u00a0at 45-32 Little Neck Parkway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the gate swung open, hundreds of people strolled into the park to gaze at the statues, sit on the benches,\u00a0and pray.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maria Bertolino came\u00a0to pray\u00a0with her 25-year-old son Salvatore.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPadre Pio is very special to us,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople just need to pray.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The park,\u00a0which is open seven days a week from sunrise to sunset and is\u00a0located\u00a0around the corner from Il Bacco, the restaurant on Northern Boulevard that Oppedisano owns, is a dream come true for the Italian-born restaurateur.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2020, Oppedisano survived a plane crash, and he believes Padre Pio\u2019s intercession saved his life.\u00a0He said he\u00a0asked for Padre Pio\u2019s intercession\u00a0throughout\u00a0his recovery.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0truly believe\u00a0Padre Pio helped me.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0alive, and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0here today,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED: Queens Restaurateur\u2019s Special Dish Is His Devotion to St. Padre Pio<\/a><\/p>\n

Grateful to be alive, Oppedisano vowed to build a tribute to his favorite saint. The result of his labors was the park that opened on April 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Padre Pio (1887-1968) was an Italian friar of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin who bore the stigmata \u2014 the wounds of Jesus Christ on the cross, on his hands and feet \u2014 and was known as a mystic. He was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2002.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The statue in the park was one that Oppedisano found in Italy and arranged to have brought to the United States.\u00a0Oppedisano, who has made several pilgrimages to Padre Pio\u2019s tomb\u00a0in\u00a0Giovanni Rotondo in southern Italy, said he saw the statue during one of his journeys and decided to buy it and have it shipped home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0copper\u00a0statue depicts the saint with his arms raised, as if greeting a visitor, and\u00a0shows\u00a0the stigmata\u00a0on\u00a0his hands.\u00a0Oppedisano stored the\u00a0statue in the basement of Il Bacco until the park was ready to open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad has always been\u00a0very ambitious,\u201d\u00a0said his daughter, Tina Maria Oppedisano. \u201cHe had this vision. He had this idea. And\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0so proud of him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Father Joseph Fonti, pastor of the Church of St. Mel in Flushing, is the chaplain of the new\u00a0space. He praised Oppedisano\u2019s willingness to\u00a0put his faith\u00a0into\u00a0action.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo create a place\u00a0for people to come to commune with God is a great, great awareness\u00a0to God\u2019s goodness to him and God\u2019s nearness to us,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LITTLE NECK \u2014 Padre Pio is Joe Oppedisano\u2019s favorite saint, and\u00a0now he is\u00a0inviting the public to share\u00a0in\u00a0his love…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-219743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}