He established the Asian Social Service Center to offer English-language classes and social services to the Filipinos, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians and Chinese in the parish. Later, when Indonesians, African Americans and Mexicans moved into the neighborhood, he offered services to them and included their rituals in church liturgies and brought their religious statues and symbols into the church.
Where once there were Masses in Italian and English, there are now Masses every weekend in English, Vietnamese, Spanish and Indonesian, parish business manager Joanne Matthews said.
A Mass last night for parishioners honored Father Taraborelli with special readings and music from several cultures.
In 1994, "Father Tab," as parishioners called him, hired a new principal for the parish school - his twin brother, Armand, who had finished a 30-year teaching career in New Jersey public schools. Since then, school enrollment has grown from 273 to 570. The school offers GED courses to adults and latchkey programs to children.
St. Thomas Aquinas was established by Irish immigrants in the early 1920s.
Father Taraborelli told a reporter in 1994 that he had found a letter written in the late 1920s by the Irish pastor urging his parishioners to be tolerant of newly arrived Italians.
Each wave of immigrants, Father Taraborelli said, "have the same values: respect for the family, the value of education, the need for security and safety, and for faith in our religious expression."
"My mission," he told The Inquirer, "is to reach out to everyone."
To succeed, said niece Rita McGlone, he occasionally stretched the rules.
To raise money, she said, he applied for every grant available, held raffles, and sponsored fund-raising ethnic festivals. He would reach out to other religious communities.
