The church of St. Joseph with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background.
St. Joseph’s (St. James and St. Joseph)
5 Monroe Street
The high façade of St Joseph’s – San Giuseppe – enjoys a rare unobstructed site overlooking the Lower East Side. Not too far away stands the Brooklyn Bridge, surrounded by its entrance ramps. This is a changing area indeed: in part being absorbed into Chinatown, in part experiencing transformation into entertainment and even upscale residential areas.
Built in 1924 as an Italian national parish, St. Joseph’s has been directed from its beginnings by the Missionary fathers of St. Charles Borromeo (the Scalabrini Fathers). The school opened shortly thereafter – in 1926. Like other smaller parishes in New York, St. Joseph’s building houses a combined church and school.
In 1967 St. Joseph’s absorbed the activities of the Parish of St. Joachim, another Italian national parish directed by the Scalabrinians, when that church had been demolished for a housing project. In recent years the congregation of this parish has become increasingly Chinese. A few years ago the St. Joseph’s merged with (really, took over) the ancient parish of St. James located to the south. 1) The parish school merged with that of St. James parish in 2010; in 2013 the combined school closed. So rapid is the decline! (Transfiguration parish school has taken over the building of St. James)
“San Giuseppe” – when this picture was taken still with its school.
I do not know much about the parish of St. Joseph, located as it is in an out-of-the-way corner of the city. With its two towers and elaborate classical details, St. Joseph’s appearance is much more church-like than that most of its sister parishes sharing a similar, institutional layout. Its façade even bears a certain resemblance to that of Our Lady of Pompeii – built at the same time and also directed by the Scalabrini Fathers. The interior is simple, and, although colorful, is decorated in an infinitely less lavish style than that of its sister in the Village. The quality of the murals, statues and other decoration is very variable: while some statues are very fine, other elements verge on folk art. As might be expected of an Italian parish, we encounter a seemingly limitless number of statues – here, rather unusually, situated in niches along the walls. Their gold background picks up the theme of the vaguely Byzantine apse.
Now, despite having a claimed Sunday mass attendance of 600-700, San Giuseppe is scheduled for closure. The congregation is to be merged with nearby Transfiguration parish – also predominantly Chinese but rather small. 2) We will see how that works out in practice.
The real catastrophe, however, would be the loss of St. James church – one of the most historic Catholic churches in Manhattan and alsoone of the most aesthetically pleasing. The Order of Hibernians intervened once before to prevent the closure of this church and to finance a beautiful restoration. Will the same occur now? After all, St. James – the parish of Al Smith – is of infinitely stronger importance to the Irish experience in America than St. Brigid’s over which such a struggle was recently waged. For St. James parish, see “Faith of Our Fathers.”
1) http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/StJosephRCLES.html
2) Arino, Lisha, Catholic Church’s Closure Stuns Lower East Side Parishioners (DNA Info/ East Village and Lower East Side 11/04/2014)
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