Festival honours Italian migrants
Local
The contribution of Italian immigrants to South Australia was honoured at the Adelaide Italian Festival Mass in St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral last month.
The celebration was an opportunity to reflect on the significance of the immigrants’ journey of faith to a new life in a new country.
Held as part of Adelaide Italian Festival Week, the Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Patrick O’Regan and Fr Michael Romeo, parish priest of Penola.
Dozens of Italian migrant community representatives pro-cessed into the Cathedral with the banners of their respective patron saints.
Archbishop O’Regan welcomed worshippers and described the Mass as “a great array of splendour, of colour, grace, light and music”.
“This is one expression of the wonderful beauty of God that we celebrate today, our hearts are full of thanksgiving.”
The Mass had a special focus on St Frances Xavier Cabrini, patron saint of immigrants, also known as Mother Cabrini. She was an Italian-American Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a religious institute that was a major support to the Italian immigrants in the United States. Mother Cabrini was canonised by the Roman Catholic Church, on July 7 1946.
Highlights of the Mass were the music by the Italian Choral and the Angelic Music Quartet and the delivery of the homily in Italian by Fr Romeo.
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