Basilica of Regina Pacis — Attraction in New York

I went to school from K - 8 at Regina Pacis school back in the 70's and I always felt a strong connection to this church. If you've been to it you know the sacred feeling you experience being there. It is truly magnificent. That being said now I regret to express my disappointments. Monsignor Ronald Marino who has been in charge a good many years or should I say many bad years is a disgrace. At his request he had the original mother church St. Rosalia deemed no longer sacred and thrown down. Many a generation have their grandparents and great grandparents connected to that beautiful country church he had no respect for. Instead he should have had it landmarked. All who came and settled in that area from Italy felt a reverence for their St. Rosalia parish that they formed as new immigrants and felt a strong connection with. In fact if it weren't for the parishioners of St. Rosalia promising to donate their money to have a grandiose church built if the War ended there would be no Regina Pacis. Recently other immigrants also embraced St. Rosalia as their own in Spanish and other native languages. Up until the point of demolition it still had a thriving congregation. How dare he?! And it was done so underhandedly that no one was informed or had time to try and oppose what was already in place. There was no reason for that church to be torn down. Sheer greed and laziness on the part of this heretic that he rather have the church demolished for the value of the property as well as loathing to do his job of having to perform mass at a 2nd church on Sundays. He had money to finance his St. Joseph memorial in the basement of Regina Pacis for cremations which he had constructed to generate more money and then cried no money as an excuse to do away with St. Rosalia. Shame on him. Another shame is how much he set the fee for a marriage ceremony at Regina Pacis church, $1,700 for a sacrament! What church charges a fee like this? None. Another bacilica Our Lady of Perpetual Help nearby charges $500 and other area churches $700, $800 depending upon if your in parish or out of parish, none close to this outrageous amount. Their website tries to justify $1,500 and a $200 security fee which they keep if you are more than 15 min. late for your ceremony. They explain on their website their fee covers the secretaries who do paperwork, cleaners, music director, etc. Are they kidding? They have to get paid for doing this job at every church and they do it obviously for half the cost elsewhere, how is this extaordinary fee justified? This monsignor should be ostracized for such an unbelievable fee. He is not a nice person, he told funeral directors if he had a funeral mass already scheduled for a particular day that they had to go elsewhere because he was only allowing one per day. When the directors complained to the diocese they told him he must perform as many funeral masses as necessary on any given day so he was shot down on that one. He installed ATM machines inside the church, this is so wrong and tacky and reaffirms anyone's view of the church being greedy. He is now retiring, good riddance and hope whomever takes over rectifies his many wongs. Unfortunately it's too late for St. Rosalia ironically the saint invoked in times of plague. God...

This is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever visited - in my opinion it beats St. Patrick's Cathedral. It's painted ceiling is lovely and there are so many things to see that you can look around for quite some time. It was recently given the honor of being called a Basilica and when you enter, you will see why for yourself. Simply stunning place to attend mass or just check out if you're...

This cathedral is nothing short of Beautiful. It's a wonderful place to visit and sit in for Sunday service . I feel as if I'm in italy every time I step in. . Service is in itailan and English at 12 . 1030 in English. 9am in Spanish. 130 in Mandarin . The architecture is incredibly done and preserved with...