Regina Pacis and the Case of the Missing Crowns
In the midst of World War II, the parishioners of St. Rosalia's Church in Borough Park made a pledge: if the war came to an end, they would construct "a lasting memorial to the ideal of peace." By 1948 ground was broken for one the greatest churches in Brooklyn, a $1,000,000 devotion to the Queen of Peace - Regina Pacis. Regina Pacis Votive Shrine, at 65th Street and 12th Avenue, was (and still is) a model of Italian Renaissance design. It was a two-story building with 1,500 seats on the main floor and 1,200 more in the basement chapel. It was the second…