(Above) Stained glass window from the original Maronite parish church of St. Joseph in the chapel of St Joseph.
We have previously covered the story of St. Joseph’s: a nondescript modern chapel but heir to a long Arab-American tradition in this neighborhood as well as being the Archdiocesan “Catholic Memorial at Ground Zero.”
We now learn from the New York Post that the chapel (part of the parish of St. Peter) is in fact required to pay substantial rent for the space it occupies – a cost apparently borne by the Archdiocese – and, after recent massive rent increases, may close.
In the New York Post article there is not one word about the chapel’s alleged status as the Archdiocesan 9/11 shrine. Rather, resistance seems to be coming mainly from Arab-American groups concerned about the fate of what many years ago had been a Maronite church. So as the Roman Catholic presence in this neighborhood totters on the brink of extinction, not too far away the splendid new Greek Orthodox church of St Nicholas inches towards completion…
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