On Monday, Jan 21 at 7:30 pm, Fr. Cyprian La Pastina will offer a traditional Mass for the Feast of Saint Agnes at St. Mary’s Church, Greenwich, CT.

Father Walter Kedjierski of the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception will be giving a lecture on the symbolism in the Traditional Latin Mass on Tuesday, February 5th at Cure of Ars Church in Merrick, New York at 7 pm. Cure of Ars Church is located at 2323 Merrick Avenue, right off of Sunrise Highway. There is a parking lot to the right of the Church.

A Solemn Mass will be celebrated at St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport, CT on Tuesday 22 at 7 pm.

The will be a Missa Cantata for the Feast of St. Cyril
of Alexandria at St. Francis Church in New Britain on February 9th,
11:30 am.

Our upcoming Lepanto Conference and Solemn Pontifical Mass is shaping up to be a major event, at St. Vincent Ferrer in New York City.  The conference will begin at noon with a Solemn Pontifical Mass with the Most Rev’d James Massa, Bishop of Brooklyn, as celebrant.  Our three speakers will follow in the church hall downstairs, with time for refreshments.  There is no pre-registration.  We are suggesting a $10 donation to defray the cost of the conference.

A Solemn Mass was celebrated yesterday evening at Most Holy Trinity Chapel at West Point Military Academy. 
Fr. Donald Kloster was the celebrant; Fr. Michael Novajosky, deacon; and Fr. Timothy Iannacone, sub-deacon. William Riccio was MC, with a host of acolytes from St. Mary’s Norwalk plus the Viri Galiaei of St. Mary’s singing under the direction of David Hughes. The Mass was organized by Captain Randy Shed, Jr.

The Traditional Requiem Missa Cantata on January 7, 2019 at St. Vincent Ferrer Church, New York. Fr. Leo Camurati, O.P. was the Celebrant.

This monthly Requiem Mass is sponsored by the New York Purgatorial Society.
Photo by Diana Calvario.

How do the arts in the New York Archdiocese stand? We have before us two recent examples connected with church closures and renovations.

We have described how the chapel of St Joseph in Battery Park City had been closed. Now this chapel – unknown to almost everyone in the City – also had been converted by the Archdiocese to a 9/11 memorial. That didn’t save St. Joseph’s from closing.

The “artworks” connected from St Joseph’s have been moved over to St. Peter’s church. Now the grand, 180-year old facade must serve as an exhibition stand for dubious, inexplicable statues. At least they are set back from the columns. Other items from St Joseph’s are housed inside St Peter’s.

We had covered in 2013 the restoration of St. Brigid’s (earlier, St. Bridget’s) church – and the closing of nearby St. Emeric’s parish. Within a year, however, frescos were added to the wall behind the the sanctuary to impart some color to the barren, almost Calvinistic interior (the Archdiocese had previously stripped out all the interior decoration under its original plan to permanently close the church) and the modernistic furnishings of the altar space.

So, as early as the rebuilding of St Agnes church in 1998, a more popular, figurative art was felt necessary at least as a decorative component. It was clear that outright, exclusive modernism had outlived its usefulness. Whether the results so far rise above the level of kitsch is another question.