His Eminence Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic
Archbishop Emeritus of Toronto
Biography :: Letters, Homilies, Statements :: Articles

Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic's Address
27th Annual Cardinal's Dinner
November 9, 2006

click here for photos of the evening

Recently I have been reading and enjoying the detective stories by Andrea Camilleri. His sleuth is Inspector Salvo Montalbano who does his detecting in Sicily. Besides being a good mystery writer, Mr. Camilleri also knows how to describe lovingly the kind of meals that Inspector Salvo Montalbano enjoys and eats. And, I must say that the description alone makes your mouth water.

When I read Andrea Camilleri's novels, I cannot help but think of the time I went with a group of Italian priests to an Italian restaurant here in Toronto. They put the waiter through his paces and I must say that he was ready for them. Not only did they want to know how the meat was done, but how potatoes were done and how carrots were done, and whatever other vegetable we had with it. I thought at that time that had it not been for a good number of Italians in Toronto, well the priests would not be present, of course, and such a restaurant would be quite impossible.

This brings to mind Fr. Evasio Pollo, the founding Pastor of St. Fidelis church in the west end of Toronto. He was given a certain territory, without a church, and he did his best to find a spot for the church. Eventually, he was helped by Mr. Freddy DeGasperis and his Con-Drain firm, which sold to Father -- at a reduced price I am sure -- a house where he could live and have his offices, as well as two hangars for cement trucks. I remember, of course, that he changed the cement truck hangars into a church, and then ended up in an Italian art publication as a fine example of the changed functioning of various buildings.

I had no idea that Mr. Fred DeGasperis, a rather prosperous owner of the Con-Drain firm, was the DeGasperis that I had worked with as a student under Emilio Pompilio -- among us he was known as "Pompi"; to his face, of course, we called him Mr. Pompilio. It was only a few months ago when I met Mr. Fred DeGasperis as the future Chairman of the Cardinal's Dinner that I discovered that one summer we worked together under Emilio Pompilio. I remembered his name, because it was very much like Alcide DeGasperi, who was one of my heroes after the War -- I am afraid that I have forgotten the names of my co‑workers, except for the boss' name and that of DeGasperis. Alcide DeGasperi was one of the three heroes that I greatly worshipped after the Second World War; he became one of the fathers of the present European Union. The three heroes were Konrad Adenauer, Maurice Schuman and Alcide DeGasperi. Mr. DeGasperis tells me that the final "s" in his name indicates the fact of the Greek origin.

This brings me to the composition of the Archdiocese of Toronto. There is no doubt that its inhabitants of whom I became aware very quickly after coming to Canada in 1948, were the Irish-Canadians. It was they who built the main churches and inhabited its parishes. I remember well the one and only Pastor whom I ever had, namely Fr. Basil Malone of St. Therese's in Port Colborne -- at that time Port Colborne was part of the Archdiocese of Toronto -- I remember Fr. Malone speaking of his younger days as a priest, when the tension was between the foreign-born Irish and Canadian-born Irish. That was, of course, back in the 20's and the 30's. Eventually the foreign-born Irish simply died out, and the Canadian-born Irish predominated. That was not meant to last: in the early 50's and the 60's, the Italians came to Toronto in droves and changed the composition of the Catholic life in the City. Until their coming, the main parishes in the Archdiocese were populated by the Irish-Canadians. The so-called ethnic parishes were few and far between, such as the odd Italian parish, the Lithuanian parish, the Hungarian parish, the Maltese parish, and others.

Because of their numbers, the Italians quickly became the second backbone of the Archdiocese and of the Toronto society in general. They became prominent in the construction business, but far more than that, they organized all sorts of clubs and associations. Italians know how to remain themselves, even though they became very quickly aware of the possibilities that were offered by the Canadian society. They have made their money in the construction business, but it would be totally mistaken to imagine that they were limited to construction alone. They are very present in teaching professions, in the legal profession, in politics at various levels, as well as in the Church. Italians have become very well acquainted with Canada and are making their mark right across the various levels of society.

If we enjoy the multi-ethnic character of our society, it is because of the Italians, because most of us become tolerant when we are forced to be so by the presence of others within our midst.

Thus, tonight, I am only too glad to greet the Italians with us for their magnificent contribution to the Archdiocese, to the GTA and to Toronto, and to our country. We are all in their debt. And I wish to thank Mr. Fred DeGasperis for providing us with very fine Chairmanship, and probably the second-greatest number of attendance at this Dinner.

Thank you very much.