Centennial celebrations begin for OLOI

January marks the inauguration of a six-month series of service-related observances celebrating the Centennial Jubilee of Our Lady of the Isle Parish — 1911 to 2011.

This Sunday, January 9, at 9:30 a.m., Bishop Peter Libasci, the Episcopal Vicar for the Eastern Vicariate of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, will celebrate the Inaugural Mass for the Centennial Jubilee.

Later in the month, on Saturday, January 22 at 4 p.m., Reverend Alan Krauss will address the congregation in observance of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. On the 23rd, recognizing the theme of service, the church is inviting members of the community who have assisted the parish during the year to an appreciation buffet at the Center firehouse.

Other events planned each month through June will be described in the Reporter on a regular basis, as well as some highlights of parish history on the Island.

According to the Diamond Jubilee Journal prepared on the 75th anniversary of the building of the church, Catholic families on the Island actually had a church before they had a parish. The church was dedicated in 1907 and named Our Lady of the Isle by the second Bishop of Brooklyn, the Most Reverend Charles E. McConnell, in memory of a chapel in Ireland. Due to a scarcity of priests, however, “the Bishop had to make Our Lady of the Isle a summer mission of St. Agnes in Greenport.” So for nine months of the year, families still had to make the ferry trip across the bay.

That changed in 1911 when the Passionist Fathers purchased several acres along Coecles Harbor as a summer residence for priests and seminarians. Although they were not founded to do parish work, according to the journal history, the Passionists complied with the Bishop’s request to provide a resident pastor for the 25 Catholic families living year-round on the Island. And so the parish was established and the first parishioner, Josephine Laspia, was baptized on June 11, 1911.