A Church in Danger of Closing

We read in the Brooklyn Tablet that another Catholic parish in the New York area is in danger of closing. 1) Transfiguration church (by now in a combined parish with St. Stanislaus Kostka) was a Lithuanian national parish in Maspeth, Queens. Time has not been kind to the Lithuanian presence in New York – remember the old parish of Our Lady of Vilna in Manhattan. We read that nowadays only one mass a month is offered in Lithuanian at Transfiguration. In 2024 a congregation of, on the average, five people attended this mass. Total attendance for the three “weekend”  masses is around 150. Massive repairs to the church and rectory are also needed. 

This parish was of some interest to us because in the not too distant past a traditional mass was regularly celebrated there. 2) I do not read any more about that in the current discussions within the parish on how to rescue the church. Quite the contrary! –  ideas suggested to keep the church open include “seeking landmark status, applying for grants to pay for repairs and reaching out to underserved communities.” Adds one parishioner: “one of those underserved groups is working people.”

We cannot say that Transfiguration church is a masterpiece of architecture. The current parish church from 1962 reflects the uneasy transition, typical of that time, from traditional architecture to modernity (or at least what passed for modernity in the Catholic Church)

The diocese of Brooklyn has not yet made a final decision whether to keep Transfiguration church open.

1. Katinas, Paula, “Transfiguration Church in Danger of Closing: Pastor,” The Tablet at 10 (March 29,2025).
2. The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny, “New Sunday Traditional Mass in Queens,” (September 23, 2019); “Traditionalism in Brooklyn and Queens,” (February 21, 2021)