Our Lady of Guadeloupe. (NY Post: Tamara Beckwith)
ROME — Timothy Cardinal Dolan may be the shepherd of 2.6 million New York-area Catholics — but now he also has the responsibility of overseeing 25,000 parishioners in Italy.
The tiny Church of Our Lady of Guadelupe at Monte Mario, in the San Onofrio neighborhood, just north of Vatican City, has been assigned to Dolan by Pope Benedict XVI as his “Roman parish” now that he’s been made a cardinal.
“It’s located in a neighborhood where they have a lot of immigrants, a lot of Africans and Asians,” Dolan said. “So I was thinking, ‘Gosh, it sounds just like New York!’ So I’m very happy about it.”
Dolan said the honor — known as the granting of the “titular church” and bestowed by the pope to all clergymen elevated to cardinal — was also a “fitting tribute” to New York because immigrants from Latin America are so devout to Our Lady of Guadelupe, the patron saint of Mexico.
“This is a gift the pope is giving to New Yorkers and to the many, many Latinos who are part of the church,” he said. “I’m very proud of that.”
At his elevation, Dolan was handed a scroll containing the name of his titular church.
Dolan visited the church this past week and met Monsignor Franco Mammoli, who heads the congregation.
“Dolan is a magnificent person. I can tell he is someone who loves the people,” Mammoli told The Post. “He is a caring man and someone who brings energy to the flock and the church. I look forward to seeing him here again so he can meet the people.”
Mammoli said Dolan told him he would return in April, after Easter, to do a Mass.
“I look forward to celebrating Mass with the cardinal and the community as a whole,” he said. “Of course, the Mass will be in Italian, but we hope to do a reading in English in his honor.”
He even presented Dolan with a gift — a bronze cross made by a local artist — and will place a plaque honoring him outside the church’s doors next month.
“The pope may give him the ring, but I got him the cross,” Mammoli said.
Built in 1922 and headed by nuns from Mexico, the small church “is a fairly new place” given the history of Rome’s ancient houses of worship, Dolan said.
Mammoli said that the church has four priests but that he’d always make room for Dolan.
“Dolan is welcome here any time,” said Mammoli, who has met the last three pontiffs and even celebrated a pre-Easter Mass with Pope John Paul II at the church in April 1983.