The 40th Anniversary of the St Coleman Italian Festival

Coming up next month is the St. Coleman Italian Festival. It's always in February, and we're going to talk now to Steve Feeley. He's the director of this year's festival, and Steve, I know this year, it's a very special year. Why is that? This is our 40th anniversary, and we are super excited to have our Italian festival this year and we can't wait for everybody to come out and have a great time. Alright we've got a lot of new people that have come to San Colman. They've never been to the Italian Festival, even though this is a decades long tradition. Tell us what, what is all included? It's fun for the whole family, right?

There's a little bit for everything. This year we are excited to to bring back arts and crafts. So we have, we'll have arts and crafts and the parish hall, like we have for many years before people really miss that. We have great entertainment. The entertainment is basically from the beginning of the festival until the end of the festival from noon until 11 PM each day and except for Sunday, I think we leave about eight 30 or nine o'clock. we Have great bands, the bands we have a Billy Joel tribute band. We have a the long run, which is an Eagles tribute band. We have Southern blood closing out Saturday night. They're very popular band rock and roll band. Really excited this year to try something different. We have a Frank Sinatra band, tribute band. A six piece band that will be playing just before Billy Joel the Billy Joel tribute band on Sunday afternoon at about five o'clock.

All right. So the Italian festival is over three days. It's always on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So people can actually come multiple days, right? How about the food? What kind of food do we have? So we typically have the some Italian food that'll be sausage and peppers. There'll be pizza there'll be some Italian dishes we'll have hamburgers and hot dogs we will have chicken strips, french fries we'll have a little bit of different kinds of food for just about everybody.

Okay, now there's a raffle. What is the prize this year? This year we are raffling off a brand new Dodge Charger. We are super excited last year. We raffled off a brand new jeep from a cardi deal, the cardi dealership Dodge dealership and Palm Beach this year we've been fortunate enough to get a Dodge Charger.

This is the last year for the Dodge Charger. It makes it a little bit more special and someone will be able to win either the Dodge Charger or in lieu of the Dodge Charger, they can take 20, 000 in cash. Now, we also have a silent auction. Is that on one, just one day or is that over the course of the whole festival?

That'll be over the course of the festival. It'll close out sometime on Sunday. Most of it will be online. The items will be online. There'll be great places to eat great places to drink. There'll be some vacations a little bit of some sporting tickets. There'll be just a little bit of everything that you'd expect on a live auction and people can bid as a during the entire festival and we'll close it out at some point on Sunday and we're super excited about the fest the Italian Festival and the Ceylon Auction this year. I think the kids always like the rides, right? That's their favorite thing. What kind of rides are for the children?

We got the Ferris wheel, of course. We've got the Ferris wheel and we've got rides like the zipper and there's all kinds of different rides that come little roller coaster type rides. We have rides for the real small ones as well for the small kids as well as the big kids and and even the big adults.

We we always have great rides and have a great relationship with our vendor who brings in the rides every year. And Rides never disappoint the kids have a great time and between the rides and the food and the beverages and the raffle and the silent auction is a very busy weekend, but it's a very much of a community weekend where we have a lot of people from the community that come to the festival.

Over a three day period and of course the funds that are raised the proceeds go to the parish, right? Everything stays, at st. Coleman the money that we have raised in the past has have gone to security upgrades the school, that were required, several years ago, we put in doors and alarms and cameras and windows all kinds of different things to harden our school and make our school safe.

It's also been used over at the church. The church is in permitting right now. We'll be getting a nice brand new sign out front of the church. We're excited and we use this money and we raised this money and we use it to make St. Coleman's a great place to come and visit.

And it's a great school to go to school at. Alright, the Italian Festival is the 16th of February, which is a Friday, the 17th, Saturday, and the 18th, Sunday. A couple more questions, Steve. So parking is always a little bit of a challenge. Tell us about that. So parking is always a little bit of a challenge.

The challenging at the Italian festival. We have a lot of people coming to visit us and to have a good time. We have three overflow parking lots that we hope people will use. They're just south of McNabb road on federal highway. And they are very easy. They'll be you can jump on a trolley and take a trolley right to the festival and Come back and jump on the trolley and it'll take you right back to your car.

This year for the first time we'll be offering some premium parking, where you can buy a spot for the entire day or you can buy a spot for the entire weekend. There's a very limited number of those spots that will be available and details on that should be on our website and on social media.

So please look for that because we expect those to sell out. Okay. Friday the 16th is the start. What time on Friday is the doors open? Doors open for the kids at one o'clock. And for the public typically about four o'clock is when we allow the public to come in. And Saturday, it's noon to 11 and Sunday, it's noon to nine o'clock and there's free admission and free parking unless you opt for the the premium parking which will again there'll be a daily fee and a weekend fee, but we believe that there's a high demand for the parking.

And again, that's, Another way for us to raise money and keep it right there in our community. And used it to help, make St. Coleman's a better place. Alright, it's the 40th annual Italian Festival. And what is the website? Steve, what is the website where we can get more information? So it's ital italian fest.org.

That's www.italianfest.org. You can also put in St. Coleman Italian Festival on Instagram and Facebook and find it on Instagram and Facebook.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that by the Sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized are more perfectly bound to the church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit.

If you were baptized Catholic and didn't receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, the church is here to help you. There are many benefits to being confirmed. Confirmation is a rite of strengthening and empowerment, and it brings special graces and blessings to the believer. If you or someone you know was baptized Catholic, but didn't complete their sacraments of initiation, reach out to them and remind them the church is here.

And they can call the church office to learn more about completing their sacraments of initiation. Well, every January since the 1970s, the March for Life has occurred in Washington, D. C., and it's going to be Coming up on Friday, January 19th. And of course, it's about promoting a culture of life. Now, the Catholic Church, of course, is famous for its pro life position.

We hold the sanctity of life in the highest regard. And we have an unwavering belief that every human life is valuable. That means especially those most defenseless, the unborn child in the mother's womb, or the person who's very old and infirmed. We don't want to live in a society where euthanasia becomes the norm.

We want to protect life every second, from conception to natural death. And we do that because we believe life is a gift from God. Every person is created in His image. All human beings, regardless of their age, Race, condition, or any other status are deserving of respect and protection. We look in the Bible in the creation story, God breathes life into Adam.

He created life. He forbade the taking of life in the Ten Commandments. So, as a result of this, of course, the Church teaches that all human life must be protected and respected. Pope Benedict XVI said, The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end.

He went on to say, Abortion, consequentially, cannot be a human right. And Pope Francis has been very strong on the pro life issue. He said, Every child who, rather than being born, is condemned unjustly to being aborted bears the face of Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who even before he was born, and then just after birth, experienced the world's rejection.

Now, when abortion was made legal by the Supreme Court nationally in the 1970s, the Church didn't give up its belief. In the dignity of human life. Of course, the church believed that human life should be protected by law, but the right to life is not granted by the state or any human institution. The church believes it's inherent in the nature of the human person given by God.

We must respect and protect the most vulnerable members of our society, including the unborn, the elderly, and the disabled. Now, some might say the Supreme Court decision has been overturned. Why should we continue to march for life? Well, the battle will always go on. We must continue to give a witness to life. And every prayer, every rosary, every attendee, and every pro life demonstration is a public witness in this battle to transform our culture into a culture of life.

One of the most needed virtues today that God has given us is hope, one of the three theological virtues. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines hope as the theological virtue by which we desire the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. The Holy Spirit. He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that we might be justified by His grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.