[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 85 (Thursday, June 25, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING ST. FRANCES OF ROME

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 25, 1998

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, St. Frances of Rome celebrates its centenary 
this year; one hundred years of neighborhood building in the Bronx.
  In 1898, using a tent with a cross atop it, St. Frances of Rome was 
founded in the mostly Irish, German and Italian Wakefield section. 
Three years later a wooden church building was erected and soon after 
the growth of the parish caused a Mission Church to be established in 
the nearby Woodlawn area. Further growth in the parish led to it being 
subdivided and the Mission Church became St. Barnabas Church.
  By the mid 1920's property was acquired for a more permanent church 
and in that same decade the school for St. Frances of Rome was started. 
The basement church was opened on Easter Sunday in 1926 with the 
rectory being constructed about the same time. In 1928 Father Moore, 
the first pastor of the church and a man of vision and energy, died. 
The great cross on the church is dedicated to him and the street 
outside was renamed Moore Plaza.
  In the following years the growth of the parish continued under 
hardworking pastors who tended their flood with great care and concern. 
The building continued with the present upper church, an additional 
school building constructed. The parish adapted to a newer congregation 
by expanding daycare and programs for the homebound and elderly and 
establishing a food pantry.
  I salute the parish of St. Frances of Rome. What it has given to the 
growth of the Bronx and to New York City cannot be measured in mere 
numbers. The spiritual unity it has conferred on us has made us a 
community.

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