The Church of St. Rocco in Glen Cove celebrated its 26th Annual Renewal of the Feast of St. Rocco with a festival that ran from Tuesday, July 25 through Sunday, July 30. This annual event honors the patron saint of our church. St. Rocco's is the only Italian national parish in the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

Father Aaron, pastor of St. Rocco's Church, and Vincent A. Suozzi, chairman of "The Best Feast In The East," want to thank all who participated. We were happy to see so many volunteers who manned our church booths, many of whom were non-parishioners. We are grateful to the members of our executive committee, the chairpersons of our church booths and the many parishioners who were so instrumental in the planning that resulted in a very successful celebration.

The spiritual success of our Feast was culminated by a concelebrated bi-lingual Mass on Sunday, July 30. The principal celebrant was Bishop John Dunne from the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Immediately following the Mass, a procession of the faithful carrying the statue of our patron saint walked through our parish neighborhoods. A relic of St. Rocco was brought to the homes of our sick and homebound parishioners. This is a part of our Italian heritage and culture. The devotion of our parishioners was very much in evidence as they waited in the rain before the statue left the church. Within a few minutes, to the cheers of all, the rain stopped.

The rain that we encountered earlier in the week did not dampen our enthusiasm for our annual festival. The outpouring of people from all over Long Island, New York City and Connecticut made this feast a very special event in the Jubilee Year of the Catholic Church. We estimate that over 85,000 visitors attended.

Finally, we want to thank our sponsors who enabled us to provide nightly entertainment and allowed us to publicize our celebration over a larger segment of the Metropolitan area.

A final feast committee meeting will be held next month to review the Feast of 2000 and a start-up committee appointed to plan for the year 2001.

On behalf of our committee and the church community, we want to thank all who made our feast the success that it was.