St. Joseph’s Church
371 Sixth Avenue
The Catholic Center at New York University
238 Thompson Street
It’s a strange sight: the shining white and yellow façade of an elegant if modest Greek temple on an otherwise formless, deteriorating stretch of Sixth Avenue near New York University. Obviously we have before us a neoclassical monument from an earlier era of New York. And it’s a Catholic church: St. Joseph’s (in Greenwich Village), one of the oldest Catholic parishes in New York. The building from 1834 is indeed antique, although it is not, contrary to what a plaque on the façade asserts, the oldest existing church specifically built for Catholic worship in Manhattan (St. Mary’s and Old St. Patrick’s are older).
Although it may seem surprising to associate “Greenwich Village” with “Catholicism” in fact there was a strong Catholic presence here from the establishment of the parish until relatively recent days. Indeed, the Catholic population endured here far longer than in some better known “ethnic” neighborhoods of the city. After all, wasn’t Carmine DeSapio, from this neighborhood, the last gasp of old Tammany Hall – well into the 1960’s?
What we currently see is not, however, totally original but reflects the impact of the ages. In old photographs St. Joseph’s sports a short tower over the pediment – perhaps it fell victim to one of a pair of devastating fires in the 19th century. The stark white interior is bright and well maintained – a remnant of ancient elegance. It too, however, is not totally original, – among other reasons, it regrettably suffered an extreme post-conciliar makeover.
Nevertheless, intriguing survivals of the past are scattered about the interior. Several of the windows are among the oldest in a Catholic church in New York. A pale rendition of the Transfiguration – dating to the early days of the church – adorns the rear wall of the church above the altar. Such murals – often, as here, copies of Renaissance works – formed the main decoration of many early Catholic churches. Finally, the Stations of the Cross are small but very fine.
St. Joseph’s was founded to serve the growing Catholic population of the Village. It was a population that continued to expand – both in numbers and nationalities – resulting in the creation of parish after parish out of the old territory of St. Joseph’s: St. Alphonsus Liguori, St Columba, St. Veronica, St. Bernard’s, St. Benedict the Moor, St. Francis Xavier, Our Lady of Pompeii…yet the congregation of this parish continued to grow. In 1878:
The congregation is still a very large one, and the church can barely, by numerous services on Sundays and holidays, enable the faithful to hear mass. The catholic population of the parish is estimated at fifteen thousand, while the church can at most hold two thousand. 1)
St. Joseph’s acquired a school (since 1834/1855) and eventually a lavish Victorian interior decoration. One of the early pastors was the future Cardinal McCloskey of New York.
An outstanding figure of St. Joseph’s history was Fr. Thomas Farrell, Rector between 1857-1880. He has been presented as some kind of precursor of 20th century Catholic progressivism. The truth is more sober and ecclesiastical opposition seems to have focused more to Fr. Farrell’s political opinions. He did make very public statements about the universal value of American democracy that are not a little reminiscent of what much later was termed “Americanism.” It seems, however that his main clashes with authority related to his indifference to preserving the Temporal Power of the Pope. Although Fr. Farrell’s views on this subject seem to me to be eminently sensible position, he was forced to retract. Among his other accomplishments, Fr. Farrell founded the first parish for blacks in New York, St Benedict the Moor. Originally located near St. Joseph’s on Bleecker Street, that parish later moved uptown. It was shut by the Archdiocese just within the last year. 2)
The “bohemians” with which the Village is forever associated came and went in the early twentieth century. Of more permanent effect was the increasing number of very non–Catholic types who began to settle in the parish territory the 1920’s and 30’s, hoping to bask in the glory of their unconventional predecessors. Slowly the Village lost its middleclass Catholic character.
From a post-1946 war memorial: note that the nationality of most of the men (and their Pastor) is still Irish; by this time the Italians – perhaps the predominant Catholic national group in the Village – had their own church of Our Lady of Pompeii.
Now we are fortunate in possessing a full parish history of St. Joseph’s: (Father) Thomas J. Shelley’s Greenwich Village Catholics: St. Joseph’s Church and the Evolution of an Urban Faith community 1829-2002. It is particularly remarkable for its extensive coverage of the very last decades of this parish’s long history. For the other sources of information on the Archdiocese – parish and Archdiocesan histories – tend to dry up in the early years of Cardinal Cooke’s administration. The recent exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York on “New York Catholics” ends its survey around 1970. Even Thomas Shelley’s own coffee table book, the Bicentennial History of the New York Archdiocese (1808-2008), tends to grow summary and sketchy after Cardinal Spellman departs the scene. There are good reasons for the growing disengagement from New York Catholic history. From the perspective of the secular historian, there is little of interest in an institution and a people that steadily lose their distinctive identity and cultural (as well as political) significance. From the clerical point of view, the mandatory adulation of the establishment would stand in ever-greater contrast with the reality of the decline of Catholicism in New York. Fr. Shelley’s parish history, taking us up to 2002, is thus all the more valuable. But St. Joseph’s in 1967 – 2002 was no ordinary Manhattan parish. It had become a bastion of progressive Catholicism in New York.
For starters, in the early 1970’s far reaching liturgical changes were introduced at St. Joseph’s, culminating in 1972 a radical “renovation” of the entire church. Artwork and furnishings that had been accumulated over generations were summarily removed and an antiseptic space created. Shelley applauds this as a return to the “original design” of the church. You did not realize, perhaps, that circa 1830 Catholic neoclassical churches anticipated post–conciliar renovations? That notion does seem to conflict with written and pictorial evidence of the period, e.g.:
[T}he altar was something wonderful for its time and described as a “costly and superb specimien of Italian workmanship.”
(John Gilmary Shea in 1878 citing a contemporary report in his description of the dedication ceremony of St. Joseph’s in 1834).
And this policy of following the alleged “original artistic intent” has not prevented, in the 1970’s and now, the damage or destruction of many other sanctuaries, which clearly had been created as a unified work of art (e.g., at St. Vincent Ferrer). There was resistance among the laity at St. Joseph’s. Shelley describes the conflict that erupted as the clash of an enlightened clergy pushing through an “esthetically justified” renovation against the resistance of a minority of ignorant parishioners attached to the “religious sensibilities” of another age – and perhaps adhering to “paranoid” right-wing political notions as well. Rarely has the revolutionary, would–be elitist and clerical nature of the conciliar liturgical “reforms” been laid out with greater clarity. And, of course, after the clergy had their way, the whole had to be redone at additional great expense in 1991-92. 3)
These “renovations” of the 1970’s, by the way, helped create a heavy debt burden for the parish; the pastor at the time involved soon left the priesthood and married. 4) And under two subsequent pastors the parish remained characterized by ideological and personal conflicts between the laity and the clergy and among the clergy themselves. All this in the context of declining numbers in the pews and in the school and ever increasing financial difficulties.
(Above) The interior: one of the last monuments of the late 18the century Neoclassical revival – but heavily restored.
One of the most radically purged sanctuaries in New York.
(Above) The original mural of the Transfiguration.
(Above and below) These early windows date from the 1879. The window of the Sacred Heart was the gift of the famous Fr. Farrell.
One of the Stations of the Cross.
Two other features of the post-conciliar progressive era at St. Joseph’s merit our attention. Over the years, a series of speakers were brought to the parish, consisting mostly of the guiding lights of Catholic progressivism in the church, academia and media. One of them was none other than Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan, the international patron saint of the institutional Catholic left, described as a friend of the pastor, Fr. Aldo J. Tos. Cardinal Martini praised St Joseph’s as “a parish for the new Millennium.” Other speakers of note included Edward K. Braxton (who was for a time in residence at St. Joseph’s), Cardinal Godfried Daneels, Elizabeth Johnston, Thomas J. Gumbleton – and the author of Greenwich Village Catholics, Thomas Shelley. Names like Richard Neuhaus, Avery Dulles and Michael Novak provide a welcome break in this parade of greats. 5)
St Joseph’s also took a early and leading role in offering “a welcome to gay and lesbian persons” as Thomas Shelley puts it. For example, the same Fr. Tos instituted an annual mass and candlelight service for gay and lesbian Catholics. The actions taken and public statements made in furtherance of this “ministry” brought the pastor into conflict now and then with the Archdiocese. The relations of the pastor of St. Joseph’s with Cardinal O’Connor seem to have been cool. Yet on no occasion did O’Connor take action to “rein in” the team at St. Joseph’s; indeed, the Cardinal is described as repeatedly evading direct encounters with the pastor. It is all eerily similar to the relationship between Archbishop Rembert Weakland and John Paul II as described in the Archbishop’s memoirs. 6)
We have the feeling that by 2003 (the last year Fr. Tos held the office of pastor), St. Joseph’s had come to resemble more an old-style Catholic “campus ministry” with an avant-garde clergy and their lay groupies, rather than a functioning Catholic parish. And that indeed was to be the fate of St. Joseph’s parish – or what remained of it – after four decades of liberal experimentation. In December 2003 the Campus Ministry of New York University was relocated here – effectively converting the parish into the campus chaplaincy. 7) Moreover, the combined parish and NYU Catholic Center – which together make up the Catholic Campus Ministry of NYU – were now put under the direction of the Dominican order. The parochial school of St. Joseph’s – whose students towards the end seemed largely to come from outside the parish – was closed and converted to the “Academy of St. Joseph” – a new kind of private “Catholic” academy. The “Core Beliefs” of this institution state that its teachers ”integrate the tenets of Christianity into their teaching” but do not otherwise refer to God or religion. The school sponsors liturgies every month or so but does not commemorate Christian holidays (or holy days) in its academic calendar. And of course it is a nut-aware environment. 8)
Strangely, the parish itself took an entirely different direction in its new role as the head of the Campus Ministry of New York University. In the last 15 years or so Catholic bishops have been taking a new look at Catholic campus ministry. Hitherto just a dumping ground for progressive clerics and those unsuited to function as hospital chaplains, campus ministries were now at last perceived as the critical institutions for the formation of young Catholics that they are. St Joseph’s and the chaplaincy are now under the care of the Dominican order. The result is an entirely different atmosphere in which the Catholic faith obviously is given serious attention. To give just one example, the NYU Catholic Center and the Catholic Artists Society recently sponsored a series of lectures on the Art of the Beautiful forming the greatest possible contrast with the prior rosters of speakers at old St. Joseph’s parish.
These talks were given on the premises of new NYU Catholic Center. We have covered elsewhere the fate of the old unlamented chapel on Washington Square. It was razed because, among other reasons, the costs of repairing the air conditioning and the stained glass windows were considered too high. The property was sold to NYU in May 2009 which erected in its place a small office building which, it was stated, would accommodate various “spiritual” ministries. Right now it houses the “Of Many Institute for Multifaith Leadership”(Chelsea Clinton, co-founder), the Islamic Center – and the Catholic Center. 9)
The Catholic Center (lecture halls, offices, exhibition space and a chapel) occupies the ground floor of the new building. Following the recent Archdiocesan pattern, the Catholic presence on the square is now anonymous, architecturally speaking; large windows do, however, open up the corner chapel to the public gaze. The chapel itself is an unprepossessing affair with some items of Catholic Traditional art embellishing what is otherwise just a lecture hall.
(Above) The new “Catholic Center” at NYU. The chapel is on the corner. (Below) The chapel is a simple hall with ecclesiastical furnishings.
What will be the future of St. Josephs’ – now linked to the NYU Catholic Center? The chapel of the Catholic Center, unlike its predecessor, no longer has its holy water font filled with cigarette butts. Yet on several recent visits it was entirely empty – after a while somebody will stick his head in to check on what the solitary visitor is up to. To that extent there is continuity with past. At St. Joseph’s church itself, noonday mass was very sparsely attended. One senses that a laudable effort at renewal is underway but that the legacy of the past will be difficult to overcome. Perhaps if the Traditional mass could be added to the scene…. let us hope for the future!
But the old progressive St. Joseph’s remains more than just a presence in the Village and at NYU. Fr. Robert J. Robbins, the pastor of Our Saviour’s, was in residence at St. Joseph’s 1986-89. He has justified his wrecking of his parish’s sanctuary in terms very similar to what was asserted at St Joseph’s in 1972 – the return to an alleged “original vision.” The appearance of the new Catholic Center Chapel or of the restored St. Bridget’s church is more in line with that of the sanctuary of St. Joseph’s than any of the “reform of the reform” experiments of the last 20 years. Our chronicler of St Joseph’s parish, (Fr.) Thomas J. Shelley, later was commissioned to write the bicentennial history of the entire Archdiocese, into which work he imported the liberal political and ecclesiastical agenda already prominently on display in Greenwich Village Catholics. 10) Finally, in a draft of “Making all Things New” for Chelsea, the Jesuit parish of St, Francis Xavier was specifically commended by the Archdiocese for its activity regarding the “LGBT community” – policies very similar to those which created a strained relationship between St. Joseph’s and the Archdiocese some 20 years earlier. The battle for the soul of the Church will continue for many decades still…..
See the parish website at: http://washingtonsquarecatholic.org
See the Catholic Center Website at: http://www.catholiccenternyu.org
(Above and below) More recent stained glass at St. Joseph’s.
1) Shea, John Gilmary, The Catholic Churches of New York City at 449 (Lawrence G. Goulding & Co., New York 1878); Shelley, Thomas J, Greenwich Village Catholics: St Joseph’s Church and the Evolution of an Urban Faith Community, 1829-2002 at 122 – 23(The Catholic University of America Press, Washington DC 2003) (Afterwards “Greenwich Village Catholics”)
2) Greenwich Village Catholics at 84-85, 93.
3) Greenwich Village Catholics at 190-93, 216-2-18.
4) Greenwich Village Catholics at 194-5.
5) Greenwich Village Catholics at 213, 249, 254, 279-81.
6) Greenwich Village Catholics at 240-42, 247-51.
7) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/18/nyregion/catholic-center-of-nyu-may-move-to-nearby-parish.html; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St._Joseph_in_Greenwich_Village. For a description of the relationship between St. Joseph’s and the Catholic Center: http://washingtonsquarecatholic.org/nyu-catholic-center. For our post on the old chapel see: https://sthughofcluny.org/2010/09/the-churches-of-new-york-iii-losses.html
8) http://www.academyofsaintjoseph.org/index.cfm
9) http://www.nyu.edu/life/student-life/student-diversity/spiritual-life/of-many-institute-for-multifaith-leadership/about-the-institute.html; http://www.nyu.edu/content/nyu/en/life/student-life/student-diversity/spiritual-life/religious-and-spiritual-life-on-campus/religious-centers-and-chaplains.html; http://thevillager.com/villager_318/nyurevealsplan.html
10) Shelley, Thomas J., The Archdiocese of New York: the Bicentennial History 1808-2008 (Editions du Signe, Strasbourg 2007).
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