Article From The Long Island Catholic - October 15, 2008

     Though its parishioners are scattered through 14 different ZIP code zones in this, the geographically largest parish in the diocese, pastor Father Gennaro DiSpigno calls Mary Immaculate a “hometown parish” where “people know one another.”

     There are a lot of community activities, including a huge annual yard sale, prayer on the lawn, an annual parish picnic and summer “porch chats,” held on the beautiful parish campus, located one block from the water in Bellport Village on the South Shore.

     Mary Immaculate parish started in 1898 as a summer mission of St. Francis de Sales, Patchogue, with Masses offered in “Woodman Hall,” a small, uncomfortable room over a drugstore. Area residents worked for eight years for funds to build the church, which was dedicated in May 1905.


     Mary Immaculate became an independent parish on July 4, 1907. The first pastor, Father John J. Robinson, boarded with a parish family and then rented a home before he was able to purchase a house adjacent to the church for a rectory. To help pay off the debt from that purchase, he erected a prefabricated bungalow on the property and lived in it while renting out the rectory to vacationers as a furnished summer cottage.

     The wooden country-style church seats only 125 and is used mostly for daily Mass and weddings. The large parish center, built in 1953, is used for weekly liturgies, religious education classes and social gatherings. An outdoor shrine in honor of Our Lady of Fatima was built in 1957.  

     The parish has many active ministries including a Rosary Altar Society and St. Vincent de Paul Society. Since 2004, parishioners have sold Fair Trade Coffee approximately once a month after Mass. This “coffee with a conscience” is certified to guarantee that more of the selling price ends up going back to the men and women who grew the coffee. Catholic Relief Services also receives a donation from every bag sold.

+++