Regina Coeli Church

Please join us for an Advent Evening of Recollection by author Ruth D. Nelson, who will discuss her book Our Lady of the World’s Fair: Bringing Michelangelo’s Pieta to Queens in 1964 (Cornell University Press, 2024).

Our Lady of the World’s Fair: Bringing Michelangelo’s Pieta to Queens in 1964 by Ruth D. Nelson
Thursday, December 11, 2025
7:00 pm

Ms. Nelson recounts the magnificent story of the unprecedented and risky transportation of the Pieta from Saint Peter’s Basilica to Flushing Meadows Park on the Italian liner Cristoforo Colombo. Spurred on by different motivations, the efforts of New York City’s master builder, Robert Moses and Cardinal Francis Spellman of the Archdiocese of New York to bring the Pieta to New York contributed to the huge success of the World’s Fair (1964-1965) and making the Vatican Pavilion the ultimate destination for fairgoers.

There is a spiritual dimension to Our Lady of the World’s Fair which connects this book in a very unique way to Regina Coeli Church.  For this reason, this is more than just a book presentation but also a time of prayer and reflection.  The evening will close with refreshments and an opportunity to meet Ms. Nelson.

Regina Coeli Church
4339 Albany Post Road (US Route 9)
Hyde Park, New York 12538