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Our Lady of Consolation Church was founded in 1917 to
serve the Italian immigrant families that were moving into the
Tacony area at that time. The first Church was located on the corner
of Edmund & Wellington Streets, where it remained until 1928.
In 1928, the Church and School were jointly located on the corner of Edmund Street and Princeton
Avenue. The Giovanelli family donated the land to the Parish and the
cornerstone for the 3rd Church building was laid in 1956 at the
present location on Tulip Street.
While the Church was primarily intended to serve the religious needs
of the Italian community in Tacony, it soon became an integral
institution of the Tacony community as a whole. The Church
runs an annual spaghetti supper, which was begun in 1935 and
continues to this day. The Church also hosted countless festivals, processions and carnivals.
One of those festivals, the Feast of the Saints, has been an annual
tradition for over 30 years. On a designated Sunday, the parish
gathers for a procession in the parish streets. Parishioners
carry the patron saints of the various provinces of Italy, from which many of the ancestors of the present
parishioners came.
The Parish family remains an active one. The central focus
of the Parish has always been the living of and passing on
of the Catholic Faith. Jesus Christ is the center of the
lives of the people. The present pastor, Rev. Dennis J.
Carbonaro, has worked very hard to
bring the traditional values of this Italian Parish into the 21st
Century, while adapting to the needs of a changing society.
Our Lady of Consolation School, still located at its original
location of Edmund Street and Princeton Avenue, continues its
proud tradition. The school has an enrollment of 265 children, and
offers optional programs for Music and Italian Language in addition
to the traditional academic curriculum of a parochial school.
See the
Our
Lady of Consolation School website for more information.
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