{"id":37541,"date":"2025-11-12T20:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T20:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/37541\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T20:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T20:46:10","slug":"holy-rosary-church-celebrates-100-years-bronx-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/37541\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Rosary Church celebrates 100 years \u2013 Bronx Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This year, Holy Rosary Church at East Gun Hill Rd. and Eastchester Rd. celebrates 100 years serving the community. <\/p>\n

Photo by Emily Swanson <\/p>\n

At a time when many Catholic churches and schools are closing or consolidating,\u00a0Holy Rosary Catholic Church<\/a> at East Gun Hill Road and Eastchester Road is celebrating 100 years in the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A commemorative sign from Pope Leo XIV is displayed in the church entryway. Photo by Emily Swanson<\/p>\n

During a visit to the church, the Bronx Times spoke with one of the church\u2019s most longstanding members: Mary Oieni McCabe, who turned 91 that same day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oieni McCabe was baptized at the church in 1934 and is a third-generation Holy Rosary parishioner. She recalled the church\u2019s early days as a simple wooden structure with cross-beamed ceiling, with nothing but a baseball field nearby.<\/p>\n

Even though the church resembled a barn, \u201cYou felt like you were home,\u201d she said.\u00a0
\n\"\"Pastor Dennis Williams with Mary Oieni McCabe, who has been with Holy Rosary for 91 of its 100 years in existence.Photo by Emily Swanson\n<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About ten people like her have 80 or more years in the parish, Oieni McCabe said. \u201cThere were a lot more when I [first] got here.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just wonderful that we have survived, and I thank God for that every day,\u201d she said.\u00a0
\n\"\"The church features numerous stained glass windows.Photo by Emily Swanson\n<\/p>\n

Keeping the parish strong\u00a0<\/p>\n

Williams, who came to Holy Rosary in 2014, has been in the priesthood for 34 years after leaving a career in banking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York City has many diverse parishes, but Holy Rosary is \u201cmore diverse and larger than some of the others,\u201d he said. And though membership is \u201cstill pretty high,\u201d it used to be closer to 900 or 1,000 before the COVID pandemic, Williams said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the ability to go to church on television suggested to people that it\u2019s not important to come to the church,\u201d he said.\u00a0
\n\"\"The dramatic skylight at Holy Rosary.Photo by Emily Swanson\n<\/p>\n

Like other churches, Holy Rosary lost parishioners due to the pandemic but also the clergy sexual abuse scandal and what Williams called \u201cincreasing secularization\u201d of society.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people want to believe in something beyond themselves, and Holy Rosary, as well as other parishes, teaches that,\u201d Williams said. In general, he said, the Church \u201cproclaims what\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred years is a small amount of the 2,025 years of the church,\u201d Williams said, but in today\u2019s world, \u201cIt\u2019s a miracle how vibrant this parish continues to be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reach Emily Swanson at\u00a0eswanson@schnepsmedia.com<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0(646) 717-0015<\/a>. For more coverage, subscribe to our\u00a0newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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