The Churches of New York XCIII: “The Union of Catholicism and American Civilization” Part III

This is the final section of a three-part post. The article begins here

 

 

After 1920, St. Paul’s continued for decades on its established path. A massive pamphlet rack was maintained in the church. The Gregorian chant choir kept on its course. The Paulists set up and operated a radio station on the parish grounds. Inside, selected individual works of art were added, an altar here (of St. Theresa), a relief there. By 1939 – how fast do things change! – this church appeared  to be an admirable but old-fashioned memento of the “gilded age” and its artists.

(Above and below) The central window of the apse was by a noted English firm; the window to the right and its comapanion to the left (not visible in this photograph) are by the Mayer firm of Munich.  Note how the right hand window takes up the theme of the “Angel of the Sun” of a mural below (not visible in this photograph).

 

The post-World war II years were unkind both to the church and the neighborhood. As noted, in the 1950’s, the once colorful interior was overpainted in gray. A huge but crude blue and white relief was affixed to the facade of the church. The neighborhood took a sharp turn for the worse – part of the movie “ West Side Story” was filmed in 1960 ten blocks to the north.  Then came Vatican II. The school and the boys’ choir disappeared.

The Paulists actually decided to close the church in the 1974. But real estate values in the neighborhood had fallen so fast that no buyer could be found.  According to The New York Times: “One of the city’s most impressive architectural white elephants, St Paul the Apostle on Ninth Avenue, with its galaxy of ecclesiastical arts, had been kept out of the hands of developers only by the building recession.” 1) The church was landmarked in 2013 –  over the objections of the Paulists. 2.) Today, however, the parish website states: We could not be prouder that the city of New York has recognized our Church’s important history and significance in this great city. 3)

St  Paul’s barely had escaped demolition in the 1970’s  – but in the succeeding decades its adjoining properties and air rights were sold off. The church is now dwarfed by high-rise buildings.  On the other hand,  the interior received a major renovation in the early 1990’s that cleaned windows and paintings and restored much of the color – but unfortunately not all of the original decoration.  And, as noted, it also disfigured the magnificent sanctuary.

In general, since the Council the Paulists have followed the Jesuit lead in adhering to most advanced principles of “liberal” Catholicism.  St. Paul the Apostle has been among the most “progressive” Catholic parishes of New York, most prominently in outreach to the “LGBT” community. 4)

The result of these efforts for the Paulists has been the same as for the Jesuits: the ongoing retreat from apostolates everywhere as membership declines.  In certain recent cases, moreover,  local bishops have been active in reducing or terminating the Paulist presence. The Paulists have shrunk from 306 religious (261 priests) in 1967 to 120 religious ( 107 priests) in 2017. 5)

In respect of the arts this parish has attempted to preserve at least a tenuous connection with the past. There is a music program,  apparently of some substance,  which includes a professional chamber choir proving sacred choral music for “Feast Days, Christmas and Holy Week.” There is dance – the Rockettes rehearse in the basement of St Paul’s  each year;  photos show ballerinas  before the baptistery and in the sanctuary.6) And in keeping with its earlier patronage of painting and sculpture,  St Paul’s has served as a venue for “Openings NY”:  exhibitions of visual art dealing with vaguely “spiritual” themes. A glance at these, however,  reveals the chasm between the art of 1900 and that of secular society today. For the exhibited objects conform to no shared, accessible sacred tradition; they are the private caprices of the artists.  But their visions are the same as what is now produced and seen everywhere else in secular modernity. If St. Paul’s in the 1890’s was hosting the arts to reach outward, the recent exhibits have the outside world thrusting itself into a once sacred space.7)

(Abvoe) The altar of St Patrick (painting by Willam Laurel Harris); (below) The altar of St. Agnes (paintings by Harris)

(Below) A modern interepretation of St.Agnes displayed in the chapel of St. Agnes (above).

(Abvoe) “Islamic” art from a recent exhibition at St.Paul’s.

(Above) The Rockettes at St. Paul’s in 2019!

Now economically,  the neighborhood of St. Paul’s has drastically and steadily rebounded from the low point of the 1970’s.  All about St. Paul’s the social transformation of Hell’s Kitchen and the southern reaches of the West Side is so complete one can no longer speak of gentrification.  “Billionaire’s row” – the procession of monstrous residential skyscrapers along West 57th street – draws ever closer to the parish. Around Columbus Circle one can find some of the most expensive hotels and restaurants in the city. Perhaps reflecting the new demographics, recent media initiatives of the parish  – like a 2013 CBS Regis Philbin Christmas special – show St Paul’s trying to project a kind of East Side Jesuit/Anglican image, mixing bourgeois sentimentality, a highly selective display of Catholic “traditions,”  and mildly “arty” productions. 8) Have these developments and initiatives  had a positive impact on the (financial) health of this parish?  I don’t know but St. Paul’s is not yet St Ignatius Loyola’s on the Hudson.

“The union of Catholicism and American civilization – a future brighter than any past.” So is inscribed the immense funerary monument to Fr. Isaac Hecker in St. Paul’s – he is buried here. At this moment (2020), however, we can confidently say that his vision has emphatically not been realized. Honestly, what role is there today for a priestly society created to conduct a missionary apostolate to the non-Catholics of the United States when the Pope himself has explicitly and repeatedly condemned proselytism?   Both the “American Catholic Church” and the Paulist missionary society are in dreadful condition; the state of “American civilization” is even worse. But St. Paul the Apostle still stands for us as a grandly dimensioned, relatively intact, and in part, very beautiful monument – not to a radiant future but to the glorious but long-departed golden days of both the Paulists and the New York Archdiocese.

See Part I of this article.

 

 

1. Hunstable, Ada Louise, “Our ‘Expendable’ Churches are too Good to Expend,” The New York Times (Nov. 25, 1975)
2. Landmark Designation, New York Landmarks Commission, supra,  Part I Note 6  at 1(June 25, 2013)
3. “A New York Landmark” St Paul the Apostle Website.
4. “Out @St. Paul.”  St. Paul the Apostle Website.
5. Catholic-hierarchy.org – Paulist Fathers
6. Danceasart.photoshelter
7. E.g.,  “Frenzy into Folly” – our review of this 2013 exhibition
8. YouTube:  “A New York Christmas to Remember”. This show offers a view of parts of the church interior. Regis Philbin also states he was baptized in St. Paul’s baptistery (not the current version!).