The Churches of New York LXV: Ethnic Finds I

St. Lucy (from the original high altar?

St. Lucy

344 East 104th Street

Four smaller, lesser-known parishes, each originally founded as a mission to a specific nationality. Four parishes that from their beginnings to the present day have more or less retained the status of an ethnic parish (but not necessarily of the same ethnicity!). And four parishes slated for elimination by August 2015 under “Making all Things New. “ Let’s undertake a tour of these more obscure churches of New York – and discover for ourselves the terrible cost of the current downsizing even where it occurs out of the limelight, off the beaten track….

St. Lucy’s parish is situated in one of the most forbidding streetscapes of any Catholic parish in New York. Round about are the monuments of decades of unsuccessful state beneficence: housing complexes, schools etc. We regret to inform you that the Archdiocese and local parishes played a role in the creation of some of these structures. Only an old neo-Gothic public school building strikes a friendlier note. In the midst of these ruins is the pathetic little parish of St. Lucy. Its austere, unadorned and somewhat  crude façade dates to a time where the neighborhood may have been poor yet the architecture still retained a human scale.

St. Lucy’s parish was founded in 1899 to serve both Italian and English-speaking Catholics. In 1901, when the first basement church was completed, the parish population was 5000-6000 of which half were Italian. By 1914 the population had grown to 15,000-16,000 of whom all but 500 were Italian speaking. So although this parish originally had a dual mission, within 15 years it had become almost exclusively Italian. 1)

In 1914 the new parish complex was begun. Both church and school opened the following year. Like a number of other parishes built in Manhattan between 1900 and 1940 – Corpus Christi is the most famous example – the new St. Lucy’s is a combined church and school. Decoration in the form of a rose window, a small bell-tower and Gothic gables over the entrance doors enhances the plain institutional structure. After entering the building, one has to ascend a flight of stairs to reach the church itself. 2) For some reason, Cardinal Spellman dedicated the “new” school only in 1942. Is recorded that he was the only participant in the ceremony who did not speak in Italian. 3)

Since then little was heard from St. Lucy’s outside its immediate neighborhood. The once exclusively Italian parish became “Hispanic “ – probably Puerto Rican. Its school merged with that of St. Francis de Sales in 1993 – and then was closed in 2004. (St. Francis de Sales school also closed in 2007 after a series of tumultuous clashes over its direction and a 50% drop in attendance between 2004 and 2007.) In 1998 St. Lucy’s was also put under the administration of St. Francis de Sales parish. 4)  In 2001, when Cardinal Egan celebrated a renovation of the church in a service conducted in English and Spanish, St. Lucy’s had only 300 parishioners. Yet at that time Cardinal Egan  praised the beauty of the windows statues and altars of St. Lucy’s, the alleged success of its newly combined school was widely acknowledged… 5)

The interior of the church of St. Lucy’s presents a sorrowful appearance of neglect. Like all such combined church/schools it is really just a glorified auditorium to which an apse, side aisles and skylights have been added and to which statues, windows and paintings have been applied. Truly the quality of most of the decoration shows that this parish never was wealthy!

All about us today are the signs of neglect. The rear and side aisles of the church are used as storage space for all kinds of things: musical instruments, chairs and just plain junk. Battered, unused stands for votive lights are spread about. What looks like the original tabernacle is attached to the back wall and serves as a repository for holy oils. The sanctuary underwent a drastic conciliar “restoration” creating a space of much more than usual ugliness. Catholic New York records that the 2001 “renovation” was intended to correct that to the extent possible. The image of St Lucy – once on the main altar of the church – was brought to the front of the church again – I assume this is the statue on one of the two very fine side altars.6)

And yet – all about there are small groups of parishioners devotedly setting up elaborate floral displays here and there throughout the church. This ministry of flowers appears to be uniquely Hispanic – one sees the same at other parishes like St. Veronica. Like all Hispanic parishes – and Italian one as well – the number of statues and devotions seems unlimited. And some of the individual statues and stained glass are quite lovely.

St. Lucy’s was indeed never  well-off from the very beginning. And the problems of this parish, aside from those ever-present financial constraints, obviously started decades ago.The high crime rate in the immediate vicinity, the ravages of the Vatican Council and the vicissitudes of the parochial school system left terrible scars. Yet the fall-off since 2001 has been precipitous and appalling. Will we ever honestly inquire what has happened to New York Catholicism in that time?

(Above, an unusual, unidentified saint. Below, a unique “presider’s chair” in the conciliar sanctuary)

 

1) The Catholic Church in the United States of America, Volume 3 at 344(Catholic Editing Company, New York 1914)

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Lucy’s_Church_(Manhattan) (with many pictures)

3) Martin, Julia, St. Lucy’s at 100 (Catholic New York, 1/18/2001)
4) Gonzalez, David, In East Harlem School Closing, Talk of a Class Divide (The New York Times, 4/10/2007)
5) Martin, op. cit.
6) Martin, op. cit.