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The story that will not go away…. I regret that technical, personal and health reasons have distracted us from the day to day coverage of the Holy Innocents story – but here is a collection of the most relevant articles.

First, from the August 10 bulletin of Holy Innocents Church:

“CHURCHES REALIGNMENT UPDATE
The Making All Things New (MATN) process continues. Last December, the Archdiocese assigned the Church of the Holy Innocents to a Cluster of parishes as part of MATN. This Cluster — Cluster No. 20 — included the Church of St. Francis of Assisi and the Church of St. John the Baptist. Each Cluster was required to submit Suggestions to the Archdiocesan Advisory Group (AAG) about the future of the parishes in the Cluster.
Cardinal Dolan allowed Clusters to make one of two suggestions: Collaboration or Consolidation. In late March, Cluster No. 20 suggested Collaboration among St. Francis, St. John the Baptist and Holy Innocents. In late April, the AAG recommended Consolidation: merging three parishes into St. Francis of Assisi, St. John the Baptist, Holy Innocents and St. Michael (introduced into the Cluster by the AAG). In early June, Cluster No. 20 submitted its Response to the AAG. Cluster No. 20 responded that (1) no parish should be merged into St. Francis, (2) St. John the Baptist should remain an independent parish, (3) St. Michael should remain an independent parish and (4) Holy Innocents should be merged into St. Michael.
In late June, the AAG was scheduled to release its Final Recommendations to Cardinal Dolan. Cardinal Dolan will then announce his final decisions in September.”

Then, this article from the New York Times:
“New York Parish Fears Losing Daily Dose of ‘Spiritus Sancti’ –
Church of the Holy Innocents, Home of the City’s Only Daily Latin Mass, Might Close”

And this from the New York Observer:
“The Last Daily Latin Mass in New York Is Facing Extinction”
Read more at http://observer.com/2014/08/the-last-daily-latin-mass-in-new-york-is-facing-extinction/#ixzz3APq1bAWy
Follow us: @newyorkobserver on Twitter | newyorkobserver on Facebook

Then, there is this fiery article from Fox News:

“The ‘Pope Francis Effect’: The War on Conservative Catholics in New York”

We are aware that the above three articles contain factual errors – but these does not detract from their force.

The TLM community of Jersey City has begun a newsletter “Extraordinary Community News.” Here is the first issue.

Photo from the website of St. Joseph’s Co-Cathedral

The New York Times reports on the creation of a second cathedral (or”co-cathedral”) for the Diocese of Brooklyn:

“Amid criticism, a Changing Brooklyn gets a Second Cathedral”

The first cathedral, St. James, is the first Catholic parish church in the diocese of Brooklyn. Despite its great population, the diocese of Brooklyn never erected a true cathedral; plans for a grand gothic edifice were abandoned in the wake of the consolidation of Brooklyn and Queens into the city of New York in the 1890’s. So St. James soldiered on as the “pro-cathedral” – more recently just “cathedral” – of the Brooklyn Diocese. Followers of this blog know that this Society has sponsored several masses there. If an event required more space than St. James offered, one of the grand parish churches of Brooklyn would serve as the venue – notably Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Now the church of St Joseph has been restored and converted to serve as the “co-cathedral” of the diocese. We intend to provide a report later; from the available photographs it is obvious that a great deal of thought and care has gone into this restoration. It’s a far cry from the “wreckovations” of the 1960’s and 70’s. But, although we have indeed come very far from those days, The New York Times article makes clear that the ideologies of those years are very much alive. And there’s one more lesson to be gained relevant to developments across the East River. According to the Brooklyn Diocese, St Joseph’s, which had lost most of its parishioners by the 1980’s, might well have been torn down. But that didn’t happen, and today this church has not only been restored but is a cathedral! One never knows what the future may bring….

Website of St. Joseph

It’s amazing! First Amy Welbrorn announces her satisfaction with a conservative Novus Ordo liturgy at a parish that – gasp! – has also celebrated the TLM for many years now. Then William Oddie proclaims his agreement with the view that the best way of showing loyalty to the papacy nowadays is silence. Now George Weigel himself, the apostle of blind obedience to the Pope, has had enough of the dishonesty emanating from the Vatican these days – at least on one limited historical question. He says, countering a presentation by Cardinal Sodano praising the 1970’s Vatican Ostpolitik:

“The Ostpolitik of Paul VI (who worried that he was not conducting a “policy of glory”) was based on the premise that the Cold War division of Europe would be a feature of the international landscape for decades, if not centuries; that the Church had to “save what could be saved” while making whatever deals it could with communist governments; and that Catholic criticism of the human rights violations of communist regimes should be muted. The results of this strategy included the effective destruction of the Church in Hungary, whose leadership became a subsidiary of the Hungarian communist party; the thorough penetration of the Vatican by Warsaw Pact intelligence agencies (to the benefit of communist negotiators); and the undercutting of Catholic leaders in Poland and in what was then Czechoslovakia.”

SOURCE

He does not mention that the Sodano party is reckoned to be among the constituent blocs that elected Bergoglio. Still – that George actually takes issue with a Vatican publicity initiative is news in itself.

The “Francis Effect” – we often hear assertions that, in contrast to the oppressive regime of his benighted predecessor, under Francis the Catholic Church has moved into a new era of light and life. On closer inspection, much of ballyhoo emanates from the expectations of the secular media – and the non-practicing Catholic laity – that Francis will abandon elements of Church doctrine and practice unacceptable to the secular establishment. But there are also factual assertions that people are “praying more,” attending church more, etc.

Now I understand Cardinals of Western Europe – with the conspicuous exception of some from Italy – were a key component of the coalition that put Bergoglio into the Papacy. No national hierarchy should have been more overjoyed at his election than Germany’s. Under Pope Benedict, the “German Church” had been resolute in its opposition to the Traditional Mass, correct translation of the Novus Ordo and to a reconciliation with the FSSPX. More recently, it has supported Francis’s initiative to explore changing the Catholic practice(and, really, doctrine)regarding second marriages through a questionnaire demonstrating that the Church “prohibitions” on divorce, contraception, premarital sex, etc., are disregarded by almost everyone in Germany. Voices calling for relaxing the Church’s positions on abortion, homosexualtiy and clerical celibacy are given prominent place in ecclesiastical venues. But this Church does keep detailed statistics. And here is the first report for 2013:

There are 24,170,754 “registered” Catholics in Germany; in 2012 there were 24,340,028
Parishes decreased to 11,085 from 11,222 in 2012
178,805 officially left the Catholic Church (2012: 118,335).
2.6 Million Catholics attend mass as opposed to 2.9 million in 2012 and 3 million in 2011
(10.3 % of registered Catholics attend mass)
Baptisms: 164,664 (2012: 167,505)
First communion: 191,169 (2012: 202,088)
Confirmations: 167,255 (2012: 175,967)
(Church)Weddings: 43,728 (2012: 47,161)
Burials: 252,344 (2012: 247,502)
Official (adult)entry into the Catholic church: 3,062 (2012: 3,091)
Official Return to the Catholic Church: 6,980 (2012: 7,185)
Number of priests: 14.490 (2012: 14,636)(of these only 9,222 are in “active pastoral service.”)

According to Cardinal Marx of Munich, “obviously the second half of 2013 had led to a loss of trust and credibility for the Church.” But there is no need to worry! The culprits for the “painful statistics” are Bishop Tebartz-van Elst and “continuing radical change in society.” One thing is sure both in Germany and the US: the Roman Catholic hierarchy and its (conciliar) policies are never at fault.

Katholisch.de

KATH.NET

(From the website of St. Mary’s Church of Piscataway, Clinton, Maryland (1))

Henry Wingate is an artist dedicated to traditional art and specializing in oil paintings – many of Catholic religious subjects. He describes in a letter his recent work illustrated above:

“I received a great commission last summer to do a painting for a church in Southern Maryland of an historical event in the early history of the colony of Maryland. The subject was the baptism of the Tayac, or chief, of the Piscataway Indians by the Jesuit, Father Andrew White. This took place on July 5th, 1640. It is well documented because the Jesuits were required to send a yearly report on their efforts here in the New World to their superiors in Rome, and those documents are available to read.

The church that asked me to do the painting is Saint Mary’s of Piscataway. The baptism took place in the Piscataway Indian village which was someplace near where this church stands today, possibly even on the land owned by the church. The painting is in the entrance way to the church, and above the new baptismal font. I finished the painting after about seven months of work, in time for an Easter unveiling. At the Easter Mass their were three baptisms using the new font. Two of those baptized were descendants of Piscataway Native Americans. One of the most interesting things I learned while doing this project is that most of the Piscataways, to this day, are practicing Catholics. Father Andrew White’s efforts, and those of his fellow Maryland Jesuits, were very effective.

The painting is 16 feet across and nearly 13 feet high. It is on canvas that is glued to panels. I had to cut a slot in my studio wall just to get the painting out and into a truck to get it to Maryland.”

Henry Wingate’s website.

1)http://st-marys-church-of-piscataway.e-zekielcms.com

We call your attention to an article that appears in today’s New York Times concerning the Church of the Holy Innocents:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/28/nyregion/church-of-the-holy-innocents-home-of-the-citys-only-daily-latin-mass-might-close.html?_r=1&assetType=nyt_now

UPDATE:

A strong article from, of all places, the National Catholic Register!

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/traditional-catholics-perplexed-over-n.y.-parishs-rumored-closing/

Now Holy Innocents has already made it into this article on the status of deals for churches and schools (including Catholic churches) in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

And there is further information on the final fate of Our Lady of Vilna – dear to the hearts of fans of the “Latin Mass” of an earlier era….

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/06/21/developer-nabs-hudson-square-site-for-31m/

Thanks to:http://ausrosvartunyc.blogspot.com

This summer St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, CT will hosting a Chant Camp for children directed by David Hughes and Charles Weaver from July 28 to August 1. The program runs everyday from 10 am to 3 pm, with classes in ear training, sight singing, and repertoire plus daily Mass and recreation.

For those who haven’t yet read this  article published a while ago in the NY Post – an attempt to survey the results so far of the current and past “reconfigurations.”  The list, at least as it regards Roman Catholic churches, is by no means complete. I was horrified though, to see that St. James church is on the “hit list” again – although given the criteria of the Archdiocese that is not surprising. St James is one of the most historically and artistically important churches of the Archdiocese. Will the same Irish-American organizations that saved and restored it once before intervene again?