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Monday, October 2, 2023
 
 
P10471 - Courtesy of St. Angela Merici Church
  On March 14, 1946, just three and a half years after his return to St. Angela Merici parish, and only eight years after his first arrival in Windsor, Fr. DeSantis called the first meeting to discuss plans for a youth centre. There was the same eager co-operation as in 1939, and work was started a few months later. The grand opening of the St. Angela

P10471 - Group of altar boys with Fr. John Stopponi, Fr. De Santis, and Fr. Beda Barcatta, 1958-1960. Courtesy of St. Angela Merici Church
  Youth Centre, after its blessing by Bishop J. T.Kidd, took place on December 11, 1949.
 

Since then, the youth and the Italian community at large, have enjoyed bowling in the Centre’s bowling alley, and recreation, movies, plays, dances and parties in the Centre’s main hall. All of the parish organizations have made use of the Centre for meetings and functions.

In 1952, an addition to the hall for kindergarten classes was completed, and in the 1950s, the Centre was used as classrooms for Grades one and four from Immaculate Conception School. Later, many of the new arrivals benefited from the use of these facilities for English language instruction.

The Youth Centre eventually became known as St. Angela Hall, and over the years, has been host of many of the parishioners’ wedding receptions and parties.

As the parish continued to grow in the decade following the end of the Second World War, other priests, primarily members of the Benedictine Fathers of Detroit, came to assist Fr. DeSantis.

 
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