GREEK CATHOLICS IN AMERICA 211 



and from Sicily began in large proportions, the Italo-Greeks 

 came also. They are from Calabria, Apulia and Basilicata in 

 Italy, and from the Dioceses of Palermo, Monreale and Mes- 

 sina, in Sicily. They are settled in the United States chiefly 

 in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, and throughout the 

 States of Pennsylvania and Illinois. It is claimed that the 

 Greek CathoHc population of Italy has sent a third of its num- 

 ber to America, and some well-informed Albanese have even 

 declared that there are perhaps more. They estimate that 

 there are 20,000 of them in the United States, the greater part 

 of whom are in the vicinity of New York and Philadelphia. 

 As a rule they have not shown themselves in any wise as 

 devoted church-attendants, but that may be because they have 

 been in a measure neglected, for every one assumes that an 

 Italian must be of the Roman Rite and ought to go to a Latin 

 church. They have neither the means to construct churches 

 of their own rite nor do they care to frequent churches of the 

 Latin Rite, although their societies usually attend the Italian 

 CathoHc churches and celebrate their festivals according to 

 the Latin Rite. In many places they attend the churches of 

 the Ruthenian Greek Catholics, and in some few instances 

 some have gone to the Hellenic churches of the Greek Ortho- 

 dox, where the language of the ritual is Greek. During the 

 year 1904 the first (and so far the only) Itahan Greek Catholic 

 priest. Papas (Rev.) Giro Pinnola, was sent from Sicily by 

 Cardinal Celesia of Palermo to the United States, to look after 

 the scattered flock of Greek Catholics here, and he is now a 

 priest of the Archdiocese of New York. He found that these 

 Italians, being accustomed to the language and rites of the 

 Greek Church, as well as infected by the inertia of so many 

 of the newcomers to these shores, had not attended the Latin 

 Catholic churches, and that they had become the prey of all 

 sorts of missionary experiments to draw them away from their 

 allegiance to the Faith. Besides, they were among the poorest 

 of the Italian immigrants and had been unable to establish or 

 maintain a chapel or church of their rite. He took energetic 

 steps to look after them and on Easter Day, 1906, had the 

 pleasure of opening the first Italian Greek Catholic chapel on 

 Broome Street in the City of New York. This has progressed 

 so far that he has now a larger missionary chapel (Our Lady 

 of Grace) on Stanton Street, with a congregation of about 



