The Churches of New York LXI: Losses 6

A recent initiative of the Archdiocese of New York seems to have finally ended the existence of one the most mysterious parishes of New York City. In announcing the new “Fulton J Sheen Center for Art and Culture,” Archbishop Dolan mentions that the building housing it was “decades ago home to Our Lady of Loreto parish.” 1) Yet as recently as March 2010 an enterprising researcher attended Sunday mass there. It had the smallest congregation of any parish in the Archdiocese of New York (he counted 4 in attendance)! 2) (with photographs!)

I too had long been curious about the institutional building on the corner of Elizabeth and Bleecker Streets which bore an enigmatic plaque “Our Lady of Loretto” and had a door seemingly always locked. In fact, Our Lady of Loretto (to stick with that spelling) for decades had continued a shadowy existence in connection with the Holy Name Center for homeless men. Yet, in 1981 “Our Lady of Loreto Roman Catholic Church” received laudatory mention for its care of the homeless in an article written by Kenneth Briggs in the New York Times. 2A) And as recently as 2010 the parish still had an administrator, a schedule of Sunday and weekday masses, and was listed as a parish in directories. 3)

Our Lady of Loretto came into being in 1891 as a Jesuit mission to the then burgeoning Italian population of the vicinity. By 1890 the Yorkville neighborhood of the Jesuit parish of St Lawrence O’Toole and St Ignatius Loyola which had originally been the scene of Jesuit outreach to poor immigrants, prisoners, orphans and “fallen women” was well on its way to becoming the wealthiest district of the country. So the Jesuits opened a new charitable front far to the south of the City, in the once elegant surroundings of Old St. Patrick’s cathedral. Interestingly, the first Pastor was Fr. Russo SJ, who gave up an academic position to undertake this apostolate; the long-term pastor of the nearby St. Michael Russian Catholic chapel is Fr. Romanos Russo.

A church was created by combining two townhouses and a school was added. A ”Freemason” provided the funds for a structure connecting the two. A settlement house for girls completed the picture. The new parish, entirely Italian, was a picture of great poverty:

“The apartments occupied by the priests are as grimy and dingy and mean as can be found in the poorest tenement on the street, but the church has an air of elegance about it, and by dint of multiplying the masses a congregation of 3,500 is accommodated every Sunday.” 4)

The old buildings of church and school(since torn down) in 1914.

The parish had uncertain fortunes after that description was written. At some point it became Archdiocesan. In 1927 a fine new school(including an auditorium) and a rectory were built. 4A) But a letter from 1935 exists from the pastor to President Roosevelt, describing the dire condition of the parish – entirely dependent financially on the archdiocese since 1927 – and the difficulty of maintaining a school which still had 400 students:

“This is a very poor parish, in fact one of the poorest parishes in the Archdiocese of New York. Located as it is in the Bowery section, lives (sic) a sickly life because of so many families that, not having enough for them, cannot support their church as they did in times when conditions were a little better.” 5)

Undoubtedly the continuing downward spiral of the nearby Bowery with its flophouses and population of derelicts was a key factor here. For it seems that by 1945 the parish school was “repurposed” as the Holy Name Center for homeless men.5A) So matters continued for decades – and during this time at least two of the Center’s directors – Msgr Charles B. Brennan and Msgr John B. Ahern – were widely recognized for their care of the outcastes of the Bowery. It is reported the original church building was torn down in the 1980’s. But the parish of Our Lady of Loretto continued in the 1927 school – I suppose, primarily to serve the homeless men frequenting the shelter.

Now the times have come full circle. The Bowery is currently more associated with cafes and trendy hotels than with flophouses or shelters for alcoholics and bums. Sometime after the beginning of 2010 Our Lady of Loretto parish and the Holy Name Center were closed. in June 2011 Cardinal Dolan described “Our Lady of Loretto Center” as “vacant and underutilized.” But at the very same time the Cardinal announced a new use for the property – or some of it. 5B) In the building that had housed Our Lady of Loretto we would now have the “Fulton J. Sheen Center for Art and Culture.” (aka “The Fulton J. Sheen Center for Thought and Culture”).

Its objectives are grandiose: ”The Sheen center is a forum to highlight the true, the good and the beautiful as they have ben expressed through the ages.” It will have 5 (full time?, paid?) staff including Cardinal Egan’s former secretary. It will include 2 theaters, rehearsal rooms and an art gallery. It will include in the former rectory housing for 8 young members of the FOCUS university apostolate. It will be Catholic and non-Catholic. 6) And there well may be bumps in the road:

“Additionally, the center will rent space to outside organizations for events. Some of these will likely have religious overtones and some will not… An outside event, although pre-screened, may at times surprise us and cause us some difficulty.” 7)

Supervising the whole was Msgr. Michael F. Hull, who advertised himself as a card-carrying member of MoMA. 8)

From these descriptions and the initial offerings of the center it is hard to discern any specifically Catholic or even Christian direction. 9) Certainly this opening of the Archdiocese to the arts is a startling departure from the recent practice of the Archdiocese. Those aspects of the arts over which the Archdiocese actually has direct possession and control, like its great legacy of architecturally significant churches or the classical repertoire of religious music of the Church, have, with rare exceptions, been treated with complete contempt. And I have hardly met a priest in New York – outside of the clergy at St. Paul the Apostle – who would appear to be an aficionado of any aspect of the contemporary art scene. We fear (given Msgr. Hull’s MoMA enthusiasm) that this may be one more Cardinal Ravasi-type initiative intended to show the clergy are “with it.” And at least one perceptive if curmudgeonly commentator wonders at launching such an initiative when so many parishioners are being asked to say farewell to their spiritual homes because of lack of resources… 10)

But let us not be too critical in advance. Certainly this new facility may indeed be beneficial in unforeseen ways – we look forward to exploring the Sheen Center as a venue for our future conferences on Catholic Art and Tradition!

UPDATE: We are informed that Msgr Hull, who had played a leading role in this project since its initial announcement in 2011, is no longer involved with it.

Indeed, the Sheen Center is such a marked break with Archdiocesan practice that one wonders if the initiative for it is be found outside the Archdiocese – perhaps with Cardinal Ravasi himself? The Center to be established was the subject of a lengthy description in the bulletin of the Church of the Guardian Angel (Msgr Hull’s parish) of September 9, 2012. The focus is on the “New Evangelization” initiative of Pope Benedict. The language and the extravagance of the means does remind one of Ravasi (like his Vatican Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennnale). The bulletin mentions that “John Paul II once referred to New York City as “the capital of the world.” This bulletin also gives us the surprising information that “NoHo is one of the most intellectually vibrant and culturally rich areas in the City.” Could Cardinal Ravasi have dropped a hint that the Archdiocese should be more involved in this scene – perhaps in view of an upcoming “Courtyard of the Gentiles” to take place right here? Am I right in thinking that the Sheen Center relates to the policies of the prior pontificate – policies for which the the current Bishop of Rome has little or no interest? For Ravasi’s most recent “Courtyard” show created almost no resonance in the press – undoubtedly a severe trial for a prelate who was the former darling both of the Catholic progressives and of Pope Benedict. 11)

UPDATE #2: We have added some additional details and clarified to some extent the sequence of dates.

(Above) The old and the new.

1) Cardinal Timothy Dolan, “The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Center for Art and Culture,” Catholic New York, 6/26/14

2) http://catholicmanhattan.blogspot.com/2010/03/91-our-lady-of-loreto.html

2A) Briggs, Kenneth A., Churches’ Gifts to City: Faith, Hope and Charity. The New York Times, December 24, 1981.

3) Ibid. See, e.g., http://www.thecatholicdirectory.com/directory.cfm?fuseaction=display_site_info&siteid=52571

4) The Catholic Church in the United States of America, Vol. 1 at 261-62 (Catholic Editing Company, New York 1912); Vol. 3 at 357-58(Catholic Editing Company, New York 1914).

4A) NOHO East Historic District Designation Report; http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/nohoeast.pdf

5) http://newdeal.feri.org/clergy/cl004.htm

5A) NOHO East Historic District Designation Report, Op.Cit.

5B) Cardinal Timothy Dolan, “Pentecost Continues”, www.archny.org, 7/10.2011

6) “The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Center for Art and Culture,” Op. Cit., Catholic New York, 6/26/14

7) ibid.

8) Catton, Pia “A Marriage of Church and Stage” the Wall Street Journal 03/16/14

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304017604579443520504964090

9) http://sheencenter.org

10) http://bovinabloviator.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-suggestion-to-his-eminence-cardinal.html.
It was originally announced that the construction of the Sheen Center would be financed from the sale of part of the “huge building” of Our Lady of Loretto; more recently Cardinal Dolan has indicated the sale of properties of closed parishes may finance the Sheen Center initiative. (See “Pentecost Continues,” Op.cit.)

“When properties are sold, any monies from the sales will be put into endowments created “to support important initiatives of the archdiocese that you have told us we need,” Cardinal Dolan wrote in a pastoral letter published in CNY last October.

“For instance, we will establish an endowment for Catholic schools, an endowment for religious education, and an endowment for new projects, like the Sheen Center, the Gianna Center for Women’s Health, and FOCUS, a university-based apostolate,” (My emphasis; see http://cny.org/stories/Recommendations-for-Making-All-Things-New-Due-Soon,11205)

11) Bulletin of the Church of the Guardian Angel, 09/09/2012