“Not only is it a milestone and remarkable celebration of the church being built 100 years ago, it is also going to be a fundraiser to help get what our church is in need of,” said Rose Simonetti, chair of St. Clare’s Church’s 100th Anniversary Gala Committee. “It is a beautiful building and there are parts of it that need to be restored.”
On April 18 the St. Clare community held a press conference at the west Toronto parish to
announce plans for the year-long celebration.
It will kick off with a noon Mass on Aug. 11 to mark the Feast of St. Clare, followed by a Sept. 8 Mass celebrated by Cardinal Thomas Collins and an Oct. 18 gala. The gala will be at the Governor’s Ballroom inside the Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex and function as the major fundraising initiative.
Simonetti said it was decided to host the event off parish grounds to allow a larger number of parishioners, past and present, to attend.
“This is how we thought would be best to celebrate such a milestone but at the same time let the whole community and past and present parishioners feel that they are part of restoring this beautiful structure,” said Simonetti.
She is optimistic about selling all 700 tickets, which cost $150. Those purchasing tickets will be helping fund the next restoration phase and pay down debt from the last one — a throwback to how the church itself came about.
At the turn of the 20th century as immigrants, primarily from Ireland, began filling the then new subdivision known as Earlscourt District, a need for a parish arose.
So the community asked for a school.
“The way that they would convince the archdiocese to build a new church and the new parish was the notion that we have to build a school because we are losing children,” said Christine Horgan, lead researcher on the parish’s publications committee that is working on a history of the parish. “Catholic children were going to public schools and this was seen as a tragic situation to be avoided.”
In 1908, then Archbishop Fergus McEvay requested a census of the Catholic population in the area. Thirty-three families, though scattered across the area, identified themselves as Catholics and fundraising efforts began.
Through the summers of 1908 and 1909 several garden parties were organized, which yielded the
downpayment for the property located at the corner of St. Clair Avenue West and Westmount Avenue — known then as Ravensden Avenue.
With construction of the school taking priority, it was not until Aug. 17, 1913 when then Archbishop Neil McNeil laid the cornerstone. Fr. Edward McCabe, the parish’s first pastor, oversaw the construction which was completed within three years. Mass continued to be held inside the school’s chapel until McCabe was able to safely celebrate in the church’s basement while construction overhead continued.
Since then the parish has changed little physically, but the parishioners have. What started out as primarily an Irish parish transformed into a predominantly Italian parish following an immigration influx post-World War II.
“It’s still changing,” said Horgan. “Even though there is still a large number of Italians there is a large amount of Portuguese people and Latin American people and Filipinos. We have a really nice mix of different people
from different cultures.”
Fr. Vito Marzilliano, the current and 10th pastor, said marking the 100th anniversary of the city’s 15th oldest Catholic church has deepened the faith of the parishioners who now fill the pews.