Parish History
Ad Jesum per Mariam - To Jesus through Mary
Fr. Rene LeCair, Founder and First Pastor of SMGH.
St. Mary Gate of Heaven was founded in 1904 by Bishop Charles McDonnell, 2nd Bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn. The parish was established to serve the Catholics of Ozone Park and to reach out to French speaking immigrants. The Montfort Fathers were invited to staff the parish and Fr. Rene LeCair, S.M.M. was appointed the first pastor. On August 28, 1904, the parish’s first Mass was celebrated.
Construction of the church building began almost immediately, with the basement church’s cornerstone being blessed on July 9, 1905. Earlier that year, in January 1905, the Daughters of Wisdom opened the parish school at a nearby store on 101st Avenue. By 1907 a new three-story school building was completed. The cornerstone for the upper church was blessed on December 7, 1924 and the first Mass in the completed church was celebrated on December 8, 1926.
Constructed in modified French Gothic design with a cruciform plan, the church building has a seating capacity of around 1,000. It is beautifully decorated with artistic treasures, designed to offer parishioners and visitors a glimpse of the beauty of Heaven. The building’s foundation is black granite with foundation-work rising to a height of 8 feet above street level. The distance from the vestibule to the apse is approximately 130 feet, with a building width of 62 feet. The front of the church includes an impressive bell tower and two statues. The topmost is a bronze representation of Christ the King. The second is a white marble copy of the famous statue of Our Lady with the Christ Child of Westminster Abbey.
The interior of the church is equally impressive. The Marian focused stained-glass windows were designed by Franz Meyer of Munich, Germany. The windows behind the altar and along the sides of the church depict the Mysteries of the Rosary, while the large transept windows show Mary, Queen of All Hearts and Our Lady Help of Christians. The Stations of the Cross are original oil paintings commissioned of an artist-parishioner, Leonardo Stefanelli. Hidden within the traditional Stations, is another narrative of the conversion of Longinus – the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Christ with a lance at the Crucifixion. Two large paintings adorn the back walls of the church on either side of the choir gallery, painted by an anonymous German Redemptorist lay brother. One side, entitled Jacob’s Vision, shows Jacob’s vision of the heavenly ladder with angels ascending and descending. The other, entitled The Happy Death, depicts a dying Christian looking up to heaven where graces represented as rays of light flow from Christ through the hands of Mary as Mediatrix of All Graces and Gate of Heaven.
In 1952 construction began on a new school building, which was finished in 1954. A new convent building was completed in 1962 for the Daughters of Wisdom, who taught in the parish school. School enrollment numbered about a thousand students. During the 1970s and 1980s, various restructurings and repairs were necessary to meet the changing needs of the parish and the community. The convent was repurposed as a residence for troubled teens and the church was modernized consistent with the ideals of the time. In 2004 the parish celebrated its 100th Anniversary.
In 2018 the Montfort Fathers completed their ministry at the parish. The parish is now staffed by priests of the Diocese of Brooklyn. On June 12, 2022, Fr. Baltazar Sánchez Alonzo was appointed the 26th pastor of St. Mary Gate of Heaven. Today the parish has an average weekend Mass attendance of over 1200 people. It is a vibrant, culturally diverse community with Masses and ministries in both English and Spanish. Our Spanish speaking community is comprised of people from many different countries; reflected in many, diverse, cultural celebrations throughout the year. The parish also reaches out to the larger community with a food pantry, meals on wheels, and a senior center.
