(Above) The massive rectory of St Michael’s parish to the right of the church.

A curious development in the shuttered St. Michael’s parish complex. The charismatic group Chemin Neuf is now operating out of the St. Michael’s rectory building:

Thursday evening gatherings

We gather every Thursday evening for worship, prayer, silence, and formation. The content can vary from week to week – please see schedule below.

– Prayer Gathering: Sung worship, silent prayer, and formation in the charismatic and Ignatian traditions
– Formation and Dinner: spiritual formation around a shared meal
– Mass: weekday Eucharist with sung worship
– Testimony

6:30 pm Doors open
8:00 pm Social

Thursdays, 6:30pm-8:30pm
St. Michael’s Rectory
Entrance at 424 W 34th St

Chemin Neuf Young Adult Ministry, us-chemin-neuf.org (accessed 10/2/2026)

It is unclear to me whether they also enjoy use of St. Michael’s church.

(Above and below) The door to the rectory.

What is Chemin Neuf? It is an ecumenical French charismatic movement. Its account of its own history, with admirable candor, describes the protestant origins of the charismatic renewal. In France it enjoyed growth but also experienced some of the problems which afflicted virtually all the Catholic European charismatic movements.  “Communauté du Chemin Neuf,  fr.wikipedia.org(accessed 10/2/2026). Celine Hoyeau, although she doesn’t have much to say about Chemin Neuf as such, does mention that it was at one of their “youth festivals”  that she encountered the charismatic leader of another group that eventually led to no end of trouble for her. Hoyeau, Celine, La Trahison des Pères at 8 (Bayard, 2021).

In 2022 they came to New York, sponsored by the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (Episcopal). For the occasion Pope Francis himself provided a laudatory video! (Wells, Christopher, “Pope sends message for launch of ecumenical community in New York.” Vaticannews.va (9/9/2022) On January 24, 2024, the dean of St John the Divine spoke at an interfaith prayer service:

He said Community at the Crossing, a recently established intentional ecumenical community in New York, is evidence of the potential to bridge divides. The new community is an initiative of St. John the Divine in partnership with the Chemin Neuf Community, a 50-year-old French Catholic association with an ecumenical focus.

Further, at the same service:

Sister Hannah Spiers, an Anglican sister who is part of the Chemin Neuf Community, is a coordinator of the Community at the Crossing initiative. Community at the Crossing is open to Christians ages 21-33 who commit to spend a year in prayer, discernment, biblical and theological formation, intentional community, service and mission — and to do so with men and women who may be radically different from themselves. Griffin, Beth, “Homilist: New Ecumenical Community Offers Hope among Christians” thegoodnewsroom.org (1/24/2024)

Chemin Neuf includes all Christians. It claims to follow both charismatic and Ignatian spiritualities – things normally seen as opposites. Members use the Book of Common Prayer but also attend the Catholic Mass:

WEEKLY PRAYER

Daily Morning Prayer and weekly prayer gatherings during the academic year.

Morning Prayer

A sung and spoken liturgy based on the Book of Common Prayer, led by the Community at the Crossing.

Weekdays, 8am
Cathedral of St John the Divine

Prayer Gathering

Hosted by the Young Adult Ministry (18-30s).

7:15pm Doors open
7:30pm Sung worship, silent prayer, and formation in the charismatic and Ignatian traditions
8:30pm Social to follow at local bar / eatery

Thursdays, 7pm-8:30pm
Church of Notre Dame
Entrance at 405 W 114th St

Mass

Members of the Community worship at the French-speaking mass at the Church of Notre Dame.

Sundays, 10:30am

“Community in the US: Weekly Prayer,”  us.chemin-neuf.org (accessed 10/2/2026)

Although their first base in the city was at St John the Divine, they are present at the church of Notre Dame (= the chaplaincy of Columbia University) and now at St. Michael’s on West 34^thStreet.

Really, it is amazing to see the scale of the resources that the establishment Catholic Church devotes to true fringe groups like Chemin Neuf ( to the extent it can be considered Catholic at all). The same can be said for the massive annual meeting in the US of Communion and Liberation.  And not to forget the support the Catholic LGBT movement enjoys from the Archdiocese,  the Jesuits and the Franciscans. This, when traditionalists still have to worship on a semi-underground basis; they ask from the ecclesiastical powers that be mere tolerance, not active support!

ADDENDUM: Informed sources tell us that it is planned for Chemin Neuf to have use of the Church of St. Michael once that becomes feasible. Certainly Chemin Neuf is acting on that basis:

NYC- 2-Day Retreat

• Saturday, February 20, 20279:30 AM 
  Sunday, February 21, 20278:00 PM
• St Michael’s Church424 West 34th Street, New York, New York.

Live in New York City or plan to visit? Set aside a couple of days to focus on your relationship in the good company of other couples.

This retreat will include dialogue as a couple, teaching, relaxation, prayer & worship, and in the good company of other couples.  

Children are welcome and will participate in their own programming, giving couples time and space together.

When: February 20-21, 2027
Where: St. Michael’s Church, 424 West 24th Street, New York

This is a commuter retreat. No overnight lodging included.

“Upcoming Events – NYC-2-Day Retreat,” canausa.org (accessed 10/3/2026)

The reader should be aware that, at least twice since 2020, negotiations for St. Michael’s between the Archdiocese and a well-known, well-established traditionalist community reached an advanced stage and fell through. Although, given the real estate values near the Hudson Yards, if I were in Chemin Neuf I might worry how long this arrangement will last

(Above) St. Jean Baptiste church (“Saint Gene’s”).

Thus the New York Post:

Fleming, Kirsten, “Have you heard the Higher Word? NYC grown Catholic orchestra going from strength to strength.” nypost.com (10/1/2026)

The orchestra will be performing tonight, October 2, at 7:15 PM at St. Jean Baptiste church, 184 E. 76th Street, New York. Tickets are required.

According to the above article:

(At their recent concert at Old St Patrick’s Cathedral)the audience was filled with stylish Catholics, young and old, many of whom gathered a few blocks away at Jack’s Wife Frieda for the afterparty. Higher Word claims responsibility for at least two marriages and a few Catholic conversions of musicians.

Well……

But we can certainly support these goals:

To stage such elaborate and elegant evenings, Higher Word relies on ticket sales, donations and the generosity of friends. Many of the musicians play, not for the money, but “for the mission.” They hope to become sustainable and offer a larger calendar of events, including lectures, liturgies and more concerts and eventually to be stitched into the mainstream cultural fabric of the Big Apple. “Anything that’s Catholic shouldn’t be siloed in a corridor, where things that are beautiful are reserved for the secular world,” said McIntosh.

(Above) The Higher Word concert at St Patrick’s Old Cathedral, April 2025.

The pope recently concluded a four-day apostolic visit to France. He left a number of contradictory impressions. First, I’d like to highlight the visual and aural aspects of the visit. Singing the Salve Regina with a multitude before the backdrop of the facade of Notre Dame,  walking past religious sisters, all in habits, the pope exhibited restrained dignity.  Inside Notre Dame,  he knelt before a “modernistic” tabernacle set up on the original medieval altar at the end of the choir and then reverenced the Crown of Thorns brought to France by St. Louis, while the choir sang music of Monteverdi. 

Then came the prayer vigil for “young people.”  What of the tableaux of saints presented there: St. Irenaeus, St. Blandina, St. Genevieve, St. Joan of Arc (riding in on a horse!), St. Francis de Sales, St. Jean Vianney,  a procession of Marian statues (commemorating,  among other apparitions, Lourdes,) and finally “mission saints” of more recent times, including St. Therese of Lisieux, and Charles de Foucauld (riding on bicycles or “classic” cars!). The music included chant, Duruflé’s Ubi Caritas et Amor, the Salve Regina (sung by the young people attending) and, accompanying the procession of Marian statues, Chez nous soyez Reine(just as one hears on the Chartres pilgrimage of Our Lady of Christendom!)

The pope visited the Catholic University of Paris:

“As he arrives at the Catholic University of Paris, Pope Leo XIV pauses to pray at the site of the brutal massacre at the Carmes monastery during the French Revolution, which is marked by the Latin expression “Hic ceciderunt” (Here they fell). On September 2, 1792, a revolutionary mob summarily executed around 115 Catholic priests and Bishops, many of whom refused to submit to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1926.”  Vatican News, X.com (9/26/2026)

Such gestures, images and music break radically with the style of more recent Vatican events, particularly those attempting to appeal to “youth.” One recalls, for example, under Pope Francis the disgraceful scenes from the 2013 World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. The images of Pope Leo’s visit are also hardly consistent with the Catholic progressive party line on evangelization!  For in the Church’s post-Vatican II culture, is it not an article of faith that modern man had to be approached in his own language – with images, art and liturgy of his own and radically different from those of the past? What we saw in Paris was a long litany of no-no’s for the likes of the National Catholic Reporter – or the mainstream Catholic media in France.

Some have taken these scenes and the multitudes in attendance at the papal masses as evidence of the health or at least of the resurrection of the Catholic Church in France.  Among these enthusiasts seems to be Pope Leo himself. A closer view, however, yields a far less rosy picture. First, the size of the throngs in attendance at papal masses is no sign of the health of the Church. Let us remember that in 1978 -1980 (and well beyond) Pope John Paul II was able to routinely mobilize immense crowds at his masses.  Over the last 48 years we have seen how little long-term effect those events actually had (for example, in Ireland). 

Second,  the youth vigil was, after all, a show. It closely resembled the Olympic spectacles that ultimately date back to Leni Riefenstahl’s 1938 film Olympia. Admittedly, what we saw in Paris last week resembled much more the impressive, edifying ceremonies of the Athens and Beijing Olympics – each a celebration a nation’s history and accomplishments, rather than the travesties in Paris two years ago. Nevertheless, the logic of a show, however well done, is entirely different from reality – or from prayer.

Third, aside from the success of these events, the only factual support of this allegedly rediscovered health of the French Catholic Church is one number, taken out of context: the recent uptick in adult converts. It contrasts with almost every other statistic,  which are disastrous. 

The substance of what Leo said was much more ambiguous than what was seen.  The utterances of the Pope were often vague, nonspecific – even contradictory.  Pope Leo did condemn, strongly and directly, in words and accompanied by symbolic gestures, legal euthanasia, recently introduced in France. Yet at the same time he praised the principles of the Enlightenment and slogans associated with the French Revolution. But it is pursuant to those principles that abortion, same-sex marriage and now euthanasia have been legalized and even celebrated in France. And didn’t those principles incite the massacres whose victims the Pope later commemorated on this visit?  

Similarly, the Pope made visits to UNESCO in Paris and then to Metz (the latter representing symbolically the European Union), paying homage to the secular establishment in Europe.  Indeed, it seems the Catholic Church is seeking to “canonize” the EU by promoting the supposed sanctity of Robert Schuman. The Pope did speak out against the drift to war and arms races. But it is this very European Union which is currently funding the conflict in Ukraine and inciting in the West war hysteria against Russia. And by advocating simplistic pacifism and disarmament – apparently unilateral – as the basis for contesting the rhetoric of war, the Pope prevents his massage from being taken seriously.    

Catholic traditionalists, as such, received little or no no attention or consideration during this trip – despite the imaginative interpretations of some commentators. (The Pope did meet with some students of a private (traditionalist?) Catholic school in Metz.) The Pope seemed to deny that a “systemic”  problem of sexual abuse exists in the Catholic Church, calling abuse “first and foremost a human problem.”  After disclaiming any intent to act as a politician, the Pope entered squarely into secular politics by endorsing the view that a right-wing, non-establishment political party in Germany is “not an authentic expression of Christianity.” Does the Pope then believe that the mainstream political parties of Europe, such as those of France, which advocate and implement abortion, same-sex marriage and euthanasia are ”authentic expressions of Christianity?” 1)

And how does this visit square with the Pope’s own actions (or more often, lack of action)? For example, to avoid further scandal  Fr. Marko Rupnik’s mosaics had to be covered up on his visit to Lourdes  – but Leo has been stalling for a year and a half the trial of the same Rupnik. And the persecution of traditionalists throughout the world  – the violation of liberty of conscience – continues, at times with the direct participation of the Vatican. 

Thus,  this apostolic journey left us with some beautiful images and music – and at times encouraging words.  Even a successful papal visit, however, is not going to turn around decades of institutionalized problems. But does what we saw and heard just perhaps indicate that at least the French Catholic Church itself – which presumably was the main organizer of these events –  is seeking some accommodation with “conservatives” and even traditionalists?  As for Pope Leo, if what he saw only has convinced him that there are no structural and spiritual problems in the Catholic Church,  the results of this journey have been anything but positive. We would hope, however, that by participating in the events of this visit he has perceived the inspiring power of Catholic tradition.  A perception that may lead to the beginnings of a real, not a virtual restoration of the Faith.

1. This was especially apparent in Pope Leo’s in-flight news conference after the visit –  a technique copied from his predecessor. Silere non Possum has provided an extremely valuable account of the conference, showing how the Vatican manipulates communication. Six correspondents got to speak. Two represented semiofficial distributors of Vatican news: I. Media and Le Pelerin. Two were from mainstream secular media: ANSA (a kind of Italian AP) and El Pais of Spain (center-left). And finally, there were the reporters from the Catholic progressive establishment: the National Catholic Reporterand KNA ( the news agency of the Catholic Church in Germany). (“Leo XIV, ‘systemic’ abuse and the other issues he addressed on the flight from Metz.”Silere non Possum (9/28/2026)

. 

On the occasion of the feast of the Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel, Solemn Vespers in the traditional form were celebrated at the church of St. Margaret of Cortona in Riverdale, the Bronx, New York City. Cardinal Ernest Simoni assisted.

On 24 December 1963, (Ernest Simoni) was imprisoned by the Communist authorities after offering a Mass for the repose of assassinated US President John F. Kennedy. Simoni was tortured and even offered marriage to leave his faith.^[3] He was sentenced to death by firing squad, but ultimately spent 28 years at penal labour after his sentence was converted into a prison term: 18 years working in various mines, followed by a decade in Shkodër‘s sewage canals. ( “Ernest Simoni,” wikipedia.org (accessed 9/29/2026))

St. Margaret of Cortona church, circa 1965, is a time capsule of late “Cardinal Spellman-style.” (note the presence of a modernistic altar rail). Fr. Sean Connolly, the pastor of St. Margaret’s, assures us the parish is now engaged on a thorough restoration of this church.

(Above) Fr. Sean Connolly, pastor of St Margaret of Cortona, served as assistant priest.

(Above) Charles Weaver led the schola.

(Above and below) Fr. Joseph Falciano, FSSP, was the celebrant. Kai Breskin was the Master of Ceremonies.

Afterwards, Cardinal Simoni met a large and enthusiastic gathering of the faithful in the parish hall. Many were his fellow countrymen.

Congratulations are due to the parish of St. Margaret of Cortona and Fr. Sean Connolly for making possible such a splendid liturgy!

PS: From the printed program: “The Church of St. Margaret of Cortona is also exceptionally grateful to the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny for sponsoring this event and assisting with the planning and preparation required.”

Yesterday was the final day of the 31st annual Pilgrimage for the Restoration at the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, New York. It was a very wet weekend, yet the pilgrims persevered. Perhaps this was emblematic for the history of this pilgrimage as well. Who could have foreseen 31 years ago the many twists and turns this pilgrimage has had to live through? 

When I first encountered it, the pilgrimage was an exuberant, spontaneous gathering of enthusiasts for restoring the traditional mass and the culture of “Christendom” – however that could be achieved. Later, it became a more organized, multi-day event. At several points in the course of its existence, it seemed that the Pilgrimage for the Restoration might be on its last legs. By 2013 it had declined in numbers to some 250 participants. The relationship with ecclesiastical authorities  (up to 2015, the Jesuit order) had its ups and downs; by 2013 the concluding Mass of the pilgrimage had been excluded from the great shrine of the North American martyrs. In 2020 and 2021 COVID restrictions meant the pilgrimage could not take place in New York State at all and a replacement pilgrimage had to be organized in Pennsylvania. There were changes in the administration and ownership of the shrine itself, which at one point looked like it might close. Yet through it all, the pilgrimage survived and even seems to have regained momentum the last few years. Does it not resemble in this regard its role model, the Chartres Pilgrimage of Our Lady of Christendom?

I am pleased to report that the Pilgrimage for the Restoration appears to be in excellent health. The pilgrims themselves, of course. had braved the elements to testify to their beliefs by their presence. It was overwhelmingly a younger crowd. I would guess that there may have been 1000 or more pilgrims  – a number I have not seen since before 2003. Logistics seemed very well organized. The Mass itself was beautiful; in particular the schola of the pilgrimage has achieved a high level of proficiency. Its singing established a consistently reverent and serene ambiance throughout the Mass.  And a bishop was sitting in choir….

(Above) Preaching fom the “stockade” surrounding the high altar – and above the altar at which this Mass was celebrated.

(Above) The schola.

From the Parish Bulletin ( 9/20/2026) :

So that is the end of the matter for now – as usual, with no explanation. I anticipated that actions of this kind were likely in the wake of Pope Leo’s refusal to permit a Traditional Mass in St Peter’s in connection with the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage. The Archdiocese of Toronto led the way (and it is now reported that the restrictions imposed on the Traditional Mass there directly involved the Vatican).

From a reader:

Fr. John Perricone, who has been serving this Mass the last few months, this Sunday will be serving the 11 AM Mass in West Orange at St. Anthony of Padua Church (Institute of Christ the King).

At St. Michael Church, 211 Harbor Road, Staten Island

An important update to our post of August 27: The Fate of the Churches around Penn Station (and the Port Authority Bus Terminal) III. St. John the Baptist church has now been closed.

St. John the Baptist will remain temporarily closed “until further notice” as your safety is considered by the Diocese. Further Details to come.

Bulletin of Holy Cross/St. John the Baptist, christinthecity.nyc (9/20/2026)

See also:

IMPORTANT! St. John the Baptist church will be temorarily closed this week for a comprehensive architectural inspection.

Bulletin of Holy Cross/St. John the Baptist, christinthecity.nyc(9/6/2026)

The church has remained closed since then.

My thanks to a perceptive reader!