Chiesa di Nostra Signora di Coromoto

It was built between 1976 and 1978 based on a design by architect Massimo Battaglini (born in Portici in 1924), and was inaugurated on September 17, 1978, by Cardinal Vicar Ugo Poletti.
The church is the seat of the parish of the same name, established on December 15, 1966, by decree of Cardinal Vicar Luigi Traglia, Sanctissimus Dominus noster, with the title of San Giovanni di Dio (St. John of God), later changed to its current name in 1978. The church is associated with the cardinal title of Our Lady of Coromoto in San Giovanni di Dio (St. John of God), instituted on May 25, 1985, by John Paul II, who had visited the parish on March 15, 1981.
The church's title refers to the Virgin of Coromoto, whose devotion is widespread in Venezuela and whose patron saint she is. The change in the parish's name was due to the contribution made by Italian-Venezuelans to the building's construction costs.
The place of worship is located in an elevated position, atop a large reinforced concrete terrace accessed by two flights of stairs. On the terrace stands a tall brown iron cross, which replaced the previous wooden one in 1988. The church entrance consists of a large portal, which until recently was surmounted by a photographic reproduction of an icon depicting Jesus Crucified with the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist between Saints Peter and Paul. This image has now been replaced by a mosaic with two angels holding a shield containing a Greek cross. From its horizontal arm hang the alpha and omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and therefore symbols of Christ, the beginning and the end. Below the cross is the inion "Lucis et pacis." The mosaic is the work of Brazilian Father Ruberval Monteiro da Silva, O.S.B., who also painted the crypt and the chapel of Eucharistic Adoration, in the basement below the church.
The building has an irregular plan, and consists, inside, of a hexagonal hall with a large polygonal apse opposite the entrance. On either side of it are two deep side chapels; The one on the right houses the polychrome wooden statue of Our Lady of Coromoto, accompanied by the mosaic coats of arms of the Republic of Venezuela and its member states; the one on the left is intended for the confessions of the faithful, whose meditation is aided by the presence of the neo-Gothic Pietà group, flanked by two angels. The apse and the nave are covered by a flat ceiling supported by prominent laminated wooden beams, while the wall facing is brick with the exception of the apse, which is covered in cream-colored plaster. The entrance to the church includes a silkscreened stained glass window depicting the Apparition of Mary to the Coromoto Indians (1988), while two polychrome stained glass windows with biblical scenes, the work of the artist Elisabetta Morelli, block out the slits of light on the side walls. On the left side, note the polychrome wooden statues of Saint John of God and Saint Michael the Archangel, the latter by artisans from Ortisei. Around the church are bronze panels depicting the Stations of the Cross, complemented by those depicting the Resurrection and the Baptism of Jesus, all by the master sculptor Vincenzo Ingletti.
The presbytery occupies almost the entire apse opposite the entrance. In the presbytery, raised three steps above the floor of the rest of the church, are the high altar, the ambo, the chair, and the tabernacle, decorated with marble bas-reliefs, as well as the baptismal font, surmounted by a marble group depicting the Baptism of Jesus, a work of the Roman school from the late 16th century. At the center of the apse, above the tabernacle, is a large glazed terracotta crucifix, the work of the sculptor Pio Fedi (Viterbo 1816 - Florence 1892), flanked by two Venetian-school chandeliers. In the ceiling, above the altar, is a square skylight, divided by a cross into four smaller squares, which provides the church's main source of natural light. The current layout of the presbytery, which replaced the previous one in 1994, designed by Msgr. Giuseppe Gulizia (parish priest until 1990), is the work of the former parish priest, Msgr. Romano Rossi, who served as Bishop of Civita Castellana from 2008 to 2022. The altar table (dedicated on September 27, 2008) and the tabernacle of the holy oils are the work of the current parish priest, Father Francesco Giuliani.
OrganThe Ferraresi church organ, Opus 43, consists of a Viscount Hymnus 350 electronic console with sampled stops and a pipe system controlled by it, located on the right wall of the liturgical hall, inside a wooden case. There are ten real stops, for a total of 854 pipes, distributed across the first and second keyboards of the electronic console, which has three 61-note keyboards and a 32-note concave-radial pedalboard.