Marilyn Verna: ‘We Came Because We Were Poor’
Eye on Real Estate: Contemplating the future of Our Lady of Loreto
Our Lady of Loreto was the immigrants’ Madonna. Her church was their refuge.
The now-closed church in the Ocean Hill section of Brownsville was a beacon of hope for Brooklyn’s new arrivals from Italy at the start of the 20th Century — a beacon they built for themselves.
“We came because we were poor,” said Dr. Marilyn Verna, a past president of the Italian Genealogical Group. “We had no food. There were diseases. The crops were dying.