Below is a listing of churches in the area that offer Traditional Masses on First Friday and First Saturday. Please let us know about other churches to add to this schedule.

First Friday, September 6

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT, 8 am and 12:10 pm; Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 9 am -11:15; 1-8 pm

Sacred Heart Oratory, Georgetown, CT, 8:30 am; Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 9 am to 9 pm.

Sts. Cyrl and Methodius Oratory, Bridgeport, CT, 7:45 am

St. Patrick Oratory, Waterbury, CT, 6 pm. Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament at 5pm, Benediction at 5:45pm.

St. Martha Church, Enfield, CT, 7 pm

Holy Innocents Church, New York, NY, 6 pm

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, New York, NY, 7 am, 7:45 am; Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament 9:30 am to 6 pm

St. Josaphat, Bayside, Queens, NY, 7 am.

Corpus Christi Church, South River, NJ, 7 pm low Mass at St. Mark’s location. At Corpus Christi Church location: Confession 6 pm, Benediction 6:45 pm.

Oratory of Saint Anthony of Padua, West Orange NJ. 9:00AM

St. John the Baptist, Allentown, NJ, 8 am, 9 pm followed by adoration of Blessed Sacrament and Confessions; at midnight a low Mass will be offered in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Mt Carmel, Lyndhurst, NJ, 1^st Friday Missa Cantata – Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart at 7pm.

First Saturday, September 7

St. Mary Church, Greenwich, CT, 8 am followed by the Holy Rosary, in downstairs chapel, entrance to left of the church.

Sacred Heart Oratory, Georgetown, CT, 8:30 am

Sts. Cyrl and Methodius Oratory, Bridgeport, CT, 8:30 am Votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart followed by Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Holy Rosary, 15 minutes of silent Adoration concluding with Benediction

St. Patrick Oratory, Waterbury, CT, 8 am. After Holy Mass, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Holy Rosary & Benediction

St. Martha Church, Enfield, CT, 9 am

Holy Innocents Church, New York, NY, 1 pm followed by First Saturday devotions.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, New York, NY, 7:45 AM and  9:00 AM Masses; 10:00 AM Adoration, Rosary and Confessions,  12 Noon Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament

St. Margaret of Cortona, Riverdale, Bronx, NY, 12 pm

St. Josaphat, Bayside, Queens, NY,, 6:45 am Benediction; 7 am Mass; followed by an hour of reparation.

St. Paul the Apostle, Yonkers, NY, 12 noon

Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, Raritan, NJ, 8:30 am Holy Rosary; 9 am Low Mass.

Oratory of Saint Anthony of  Padua, West Orange, NJ  8:00AM

Corpus Christi Church, South River, NJ, First Saturday devotions at 11 am; low Mass at 12 noon. Convivium following Mass.

St. John the Baptist, Allentown, NJ, 12 midnight (from Friday to Saturday) low Mass offered in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Parishioners at Most Precious Blood, a 120-year-old Church in Little Italy that is at the heart of the annual San Gennaro festival each September, were told they were going to be assigned a pastor that they will share with an East Village parish. The move comes after Cardinal Dolan rescinded its ten year merger with the Basilica of Old St. Patrick Cathedral on Jan. 1.

Parishioners of Most Precious Blood…. were told on Jan 14 that the church is not for sale presently and that a pastor from a church in the East Village will now jointly administer both parishes. ”The building is not for sale,” Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese said of the building on 113 Baxter St. which also has a door onto Mulberry St. 1)

Cardinal Dolan’s decree only mentions as supporting reasons an “evaluation” and the fact that Most Precious Blood and Old St. Patrick’s are “too different” to continue the merger. 2)

Most Precious Blood church is a veritable treasury of Italian statues and devotions. Indeed, recently new ones from other closed parishes have been added. The church has also been important to the New York Vietnamese community. The St. Hugh of Cluny Society has sponsored several masses there – in connection with the San Gennaro festival and otherwise. 3) We hope this historic church continues in existence and remains accessible – also outside festival times.

1. Kelly, Keith J., “Fate Still Up in Air: Historic Little Italy Church Will Share Pastor with E. Village Church,” Our Town Downtown(1/23/2024) (accessed 8/31/2024
2. “Decree rescinding the Decree of Merger of the Territorial Parish of Saint Patrick Old Cathedral and the Personal Parish of Most Precious Blood, New York” (1/1/2024) (accessed 8/31/2024)
3. E.g., The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny, “Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows at Most Precious Blood Church” ( 9/16/2018).

Here is the schedule for September 2024 TLMs at the Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. Flyers below.

• SAT 9/7 – 9am – First Saturday
• MON 9/9 – 7pm – Pontifical Requiem, Purgatorial Society
• WED 9/11 – 7pm – Blessed Maria de Micheli
• SAT 9/14 – 9am – Exaltation of the Holy Cross
• THU 9/19 – 7pm – Feast of San Gennaro w/Procession
• TUE 9/24 – Our Lady of La Salette (Votive) 

Additionally, a Sung TLM is celebrated every Sunday at 10:30am.Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament50 W. Somerset Street, Raritan, NJ More info: BlessedSacramentShrine.com

Dimes Square is back in the news! This emerging outpost of bohemianism – yet with a traditionalist Catholic  flavor –  is the subject of a recent article in The Christian Science Monitor. 1) “Dimes Square” is a downtown area bordering Chinatown and the Lower East Side. The author of this piece, Leonardo Bevilacqua, describes this scene and some of its main personalities:

The Dimes Square scene began to include a number of artists with more conservative and religious visions. Writers, filmmakers, and fashion designers have been dabbling in pre-Vatican II Catholicism. They play the church organ rather than DJ at nightclubs. Instead of free love and polyamory, they espouse commitment and monogamy. And the flip phone is a favorite accessory – a statement against the herd and its iPhones. 2)

The nonconformists of Dimes Square are distancing themselves not just from the “establishment” but from the “official” counterculture, symbolized by “Brooklyn”: 

“I certainly don’t need to tell you that this place is also, emphatically, not in Brooklyn,” wrote the leftist Substack blogger Mike Crumplar in 2022, with a bit of snark. “You already know how Brooklyn is too political, too woke, too soft, too soy, too consumed by cancel culture…. 3)

And one focus of this movement is the traditional Mass:

“Leftists see greatness, and they see beauty, and they’re threatened by it, and they want to destroy it,” says Salomé, who says the Tridentine Mass is “the greatest work of art” for its superior musical composition. 4)

But is this link between “bohemianism” and Catholic tradition all that strange? Hadn’t Joris-Karl Huysmans established the connection as long ago as the 1880’s? A link that was maintained by a long succession of writers and thinkers in France and elsewhere.  

Inevitably, the renewed interest in Catholicism among the downtown bohemians is decidedly for traditional Catholicism. For is not the present Catholic Church establishment itself the incarnation of “bourgeois” conformism and philistinism? Didn’t Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose countercultural and anti-establishment credentials are impeccable, describe the mission of the Catholic Church, confronted (and subjugated)by the “modern world” and its ideology, in the following stark terms? 

Maybe the end of the Church has already been sealed by the “treason” of millions and millions of the faithful (particularly the peasants who have converted to secularism and consumerist hedonism). Maybe the end has been sealed by the “decision” of the rulers who are meanwhile certain of getting in their clutches the ex-believers – given the affluent conditions and an ideology that has been imposed on the masses. An ideology, moreover, that does not even feel it to be necessary any more to act as such. That may be. But one thing is sure: the Church has certainly committed many awful mistakes in the long history of its regime, but she would commit the worst of all if she passively stood by while she was liquidated by a power that mocks the Gospel. In the context of a radical, possibly utopian or – here one really has to say it- eschatological perspective, it’s clear what the Church has to do to avoid an inglorious end. She has to go into opposition. 5)

Now Salomé, quoted above in the Christian Science Monitor article, plays the organ at Most Holy Redeemer Church, the grand building that until 2019 was the center of the Redemptorist Order in New York City.  The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny was instrumental in returning Catholic tradition to Most Holy Redeemer after many decades. Such as by sponsoring Solemn vespers with Bishop Athanasius Schneider in 2013. Or subsequently,  Solemn Masses on St. Nicholas’s feast day (2019) (with a visit from Krampus!) and Epiphany (2020) 6)

I wrote the following in 2023 on the occasion of a splendid concert of the music of William Byrd:

Since 2011 we at St. Hugh of Cluny have often covered events at the grand Church of Most Holy Redeemer, formerly Redemptorist, formerly German. Indeed, this Society has sponsored some of them. Today a young priest of the archdiocese leads this parish in the midst of what some might consider one of the city’s more inhospitable surroundings – half party land, half “underprivileged” neighborhood. Yet, under Fr. Sean Connolly, the church looks better than ever before, and the parish is sponsoring an ambitious program of musical performances. 7)

For within the limits of Traditionis Custodes, Most Holy Redeemer parish after 2020 celebrated the TLM on a regular basis. A brief search of this site will demonstrate that.  And repairs were made on the building itself after decades of neglect – most recently the tower was restored. The tower now has a functioning clock, carillon and lights (the color of which can be changed for the liturgical season). 8) Thus, this parish had entered a period of restoration – in the liturgy, in the restored splendor of the building, in the attention paid to musical excellence. 

Now the young pastor of Most Holy Redeemer has been transferred to bigger, if not better, things in the Bronx.  The pastor of Immaculate Conception parish has been appointed the administrator of Most Holy Redeemer and St. Brigid. He is also now the administrator of Most Precious Blood shrine/church in Little Italy. And this territory includes that of three other parishes that have been completely erased since 2010: St. Emeric, Nativity and Mary Help of Christians. That is a lot to cover! 9)

Will the renewed stirrings of the traditional faith at Most Holy Redeemer and ”Dimes Square” continue to develop? Some are wondering:

However, it’s unclear whether (the pastor of Immaculate Conception – SC)will continue traditional Latin Masses at Holy Redeemer…  10)

But I certainly hope and believe the religious and cultural momentum can be sustained. After all, shouldn’t an essential characteristic of tradition be its independence from the personalities of those who preserve and celebrate it?  In the recent past, moreover, the St. Hugh of Cluny Society has also repeatedly sponsored traditional masses at Immaculate Conception parish (and at Most Precious Blood as well). 11)  As in the past, the St. Hugh of Cluny Society is ready to offer whatever help we can give. 

(Above and below) the interior of Most Holy Redeemer church one recent afternoon. (Photo 8/22/2024). Surrounding the church are still, for the time being at least, the buildings of the former Redemptorist center.

1. Bevilacqua, Leonardo, “Rebels with a religious cause: Meet New York’s avant-garde conservatives,” The Christian Science Monitor ( 6/24/2024) (accessed 8/27/2024). I have to confess I had no idea The Christian Science Monitor was still in existence – if nowadays primarily online.
2. Id.
3. Id. 
4. Id.
5. Quoted in Lorenzer, Alfred, Das Konzil der Buchhalter at 180 (Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Frankfurt am Main, 1981). Lorenzer’s work is a vehement attack on the liturgy and culture of the Second Vatican Council from a non-religious perspective. See my review “The Council of the Bookkeepers”(1/26/2017)
6.  The Society of St. Hugh Of Cluny,   Vespers at the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, New York (1/13/2013); Solemn Mass of St Nicholas at Most Holy Redeemer Church,  (12/6/2019);  Epiphany Solemn Mass at Most Holy Redeemer Church (1/7/2020).
7.  The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny,  Byrd Fest,  (9/17/2023)
8.  Joy, Stacie, “Purple reign: Marking Holy Week at Most Holy Redeemer, ” East Village Grieve (3/24/2024) (accessed 8/29/2024) (with links to earlier posts describing and illustrating the restoration process)
9.  Joy, Stacie, “Father Seán is leaving the East Village,” East Village Grieve(6/17/2024) (accesssed 8/29/2024)
10. Reinholz, Mary, “Rev. Sean Connolly’s transfer from Most Holy Redeemer leaves ‘a void,’” The Village Sun (8/5/2024) ( This piece, while enthusiastic, contains a number of factual errors) (accessed 8/29/2024)
11. E.g., The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny,  “High Mass at the new Chapel of Immaculate Conception parish,”  (2/1/2015)

Here is a note from, Fr. Sean Connolly, the new pastor of St. Margaret of Cortona, Bronx:

The Low Latin Mass at St. Margaret’s on the first Sunday of each month at 3:00 p.m. is discontinued. We will be offering instead, a Sung Latin Mass at 12 noon in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary every First Saturday of the month. I hope many of you join us each month for this Mass, which is meant to help as many souls as possible fulfill the request of the Mother of God given at Fatima:

In reparation for the blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart, we are to do the following on the First Saturday of 5 consecutive months:

-Go to Confession
-Receive Holy Communion
-Recite 5 decades of the Rosary
-Meditate for 15 minutes on the mysteries of the Rosary

The first, First Saturday Mass in honor of the Immaculate Heart is this Saturday 7th September. Recitation of the Rosary at 11:30 a.m. The Sung Mass follows at 12 noon.

By Jill Chessman

If one is travelling in the Wisconsin area, it is worth it to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse. The shrine project was conceived by Raymond Cardinal Burke, while he was Bishop of La Crosse in the 1990s. Beginning with the ground breaking in 2001, Cardinal Burke oversaw its design and construction, which took place in the course of about a decade. Duncan Stroik is the architect.

It’s clear that the great Catholic basilicas of Rome are the inspiration behind the architectural form of the shrine. It is in fact remarkable and gratifying to look upon so beautiful a Catholic church built entirely in the 21st century.

The shrine interior, above, could be modeled after any number of Roman churches of the baroque period, with its central dome, arched ceiling, and symmetrical architraves and pilasters. Compare it to Sant’ Andrea della Valle, below.

In this view of the shrine’s nave, we see the attention to detail in the plaster work, gilding, and beautiful golden color palette, with no expenses spared.

The shrine’s baldacchino, above, directly imitates the baldacchino of Santa Maria Maggiore, below.

The stark front facade of the shrine does not come off nearly so well as the interior. But perhaps a baroque inspired facade will be added at a later time. We can think of beautiful simple American examples that might show the way, like the facade of Visitation Convent in Brooklyn (below), whose story we covered a few weeks ago (it has just been closed!).

Many of the side altars of the shrine are devoted to the recently canonized and beatified, such as St. Gianna Molla (above) and Blessed Miguel Pro (below). One can spot references to the Guadalupe story in some of the original paintings that grace these altars. The Madonna who looks down upon St. Gianna, for example, is dressed as Our Lady of Guadalupe. Behind Blessed Miguel at his martyrdom, we see him celebrating Mass, with an image of the Guadalupe tilma on his back.

In this painting of the 13th century St. Peregrine, an anachronistic stained glass window shows Our Lady of Guadalupe curing Juan Diego’s uncle. The theme of healing ties the featured saint to the Guadalupe story. (These three paintings are by Neilson Carlin)

The lush grounds are meant to be an important part of the pilgrimage. One must park a half mile distance from the shrine and walk up a hill that is punctuated with wayside statues. (An alternative is to ride up in a golf cart driven by a shrine volunteer.)

This Holy Family group tells the story of the shrine’s founding. The donors of the land for the shrine, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Swing, are shown kneeling while Cardinal Burke stands behind them.

On the outdoor Rosary walk, one spies another reference to the shrine. Our Lady and the Apostles receive the gift of the Holy Spirit within the shrine itself.

A group of students from the University of Wisconsin prayed the Rosary at the memorial to the unborn. The memorial provides a resting place for babies lost in misacrriage (below).

A separate chapel houses this tall tower of votive candles.

A visit to the shrine is a rewarding experience. One’s spiritual needs are met by a group of dedicated Norbertine priests who say Mass and hear confessions. Priests from a nearby oratory of the Institute of Christ the King also serve at the shrine. While most Masses on the schedule are Novus Ordo, a Traditional Mass is offered every Sunday. All Masses are said ad orientem and pilgrims are asked to receive Communion kneeling and on the tongue. At the Mass I attended, an a capella choir sang Gregorian chant. A spirit of silence and prayer prevaded in the shrine church and on the grounds. I was told that there are plans to build a retreat center, which will include overnight accommodations and will be staffed by religious sisters.

That didn’t take long!

On 5/20/2024 the Archdiocese of New York published the decree of merger of the parish of St. John the Evangelist into the parish of Holy Family. On 8/6/20024 the archdiocese announced the “relegation” of the church of St. John the Evangelist to profane use in anticipation of the sale of the Archdiocesan headquarters within which it is located. In addition to the usual boilerplate and questionable assertions, some of the decree’s stated reasoning is ludicrous:

“whereas the desire to adopt a more modest lifestyle reflects the teaching of Pope Francis”

This appears to have been a prerequisite to start the sale of the Archdiocesan headquarters. Until the closing of that sale happens, or until the Archdiocese vacates 1011 First Avenue (whichever occurs last), St. John’s will remain a “sacred space” and be “open for public and private worship.”

“Decree on the Relegation of Saint John the Evangelist, Manhattan, New York”

Thus ends the existence of what had been one of the most historic parishes on New York City. The decree is one of a series issued by the Archdiocese starting in 2023. In contrast to the Making all Things New program in 2014/2015, these more recent mergers and closings are not held out as part of some grand over-arching strategy. It seems that Making All Things New has by no means solved the Archdiocesan problems, of which I would highlight, using Cardinal Dolan’s own language:

“Whereas the Archdiocese faces a decline in the number of priests, and whereas parishes are faced with a declining number of faithful attending Sunday Mass on a regular basis.”

“Decree on the Merger of the Territorial parishes of Holy Family and Saint John the Evangelist – Our Lady of Peace, South Manhattan 1), New York.”

Certainly the Archdiocesan handling of the Covid crisis only exacerbated these underlying issues.

But the fate of St. John’s is not merely a crisis of recent pastoral planning in New York but of the Conciliar culture itself. For, built in 1970, the church of St. John the Evangelist was the examplar of the new Conciliar style: tucked away anonymously in an impersonal high rise, adorned in large part with non-figurative art, with the tabernacle relegated to a side corner, and all attention focussed on an altar occupying the center of the space – St. John’s had everything! Yet it appears that this jewel of modernity never gained traction, prompting subsequent efforts to soften the initial radicalism by adding stained glass, statues and devotions. It seems the laity did not respond to the grand renewal and its new aesthetic – or to the bureaucracy that was supposed to implement them.

The same fate had been experienced earlier by another “Conciliar” church, Nativity parish – built in 1969, closed by 2011, sold in 2020 and razed shortly therafter. The parishes of St. John’s and Nativity at first could not appear more different. While St. John resided in the Archdiocesan headquarters, located adjacent to the very elegant neighborhood of Sutton Place, Nativity was, at the time of its construction, in one of the least attractive parts of New York – just a short stroll from the Bowery! And the dire economic situation of the surroundings was reflected in the obvious poverty of the resources allocated to its construction. Yet this church of the poor displayed ideas very similar to those governing the construction and decoration of its comtemporary, wealthy uptown sister parish. Both were post-Conciliar creations – replacements for grander, historic parish churches. Both had the same layout: a central altar set in a simple rectangular space, with tabernacle, baptismal font, statues and confessionals arrayed around it. And both parishes never “went anywhere.” It is the end of the Conciliar dream – that radical liturgical changes, combined with the wholesale adoption of a version of the style of European modernity, would “revitalize” an allegedly moribund Church.

Of course today the economic situation of the neighborhood of Nativity parish is a far cry from what it was 55 years ago! A developer bought the church of the Nativity in March 2020 for $40M. The church was demolished shortly therafter. 2)

1. The anomalous term “South Manhattan,” as applied to a church located on East 55th Street, stems from a 2021 Archdiocesan reorganization which divided Manhattan into two “deaneries”: South Manhattan includes everything below 96th Street, East and West.
2. Joy, Stacie (photos by Cohen, Idan), “A look inside the soon-to-be demolished Church of the Nativity on 2nd Avenue,” East Village Grieve (3/24/2022) (with photographs of the interior as it was demolished!); Here’s the first look at the new residential building coming to 2nd Avenue and 2nd Street,” East Village Grieve, (8/22/2022) (Both accessed 8/23/2024)

On 6/17/12017 Cardinal Dolan decreed that the parish of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, already closed in 2014, would be “relegated to secular use” (in other words, sold). Now Ephemeral New York reports that the parish property has been sold for $11.8M. The church has been stripped of all its stained glass, bell and decorations and is facing imminent demolition.1) The New York Post has reported on the process of destruction – which it describes as hellish- and provides ghastly and tragic images of the exterior and interior of St. Elizabeth’s. 2) A dedicated group is still continuing the struggle to prevent the final elimination of the church. The Ephemeral New York article provides contact information for these groups.

These developments and these images are truly nightmarish for those of us who over the years have gotten to know and love this small but beautiful church. We have reported several times on this parish and its demise. 3) A couple of years ago, while walking by St. Elizabeth of Hungary on East 83rd Street, I noticed a gentlemen stop and make the sign of the cross in front of the now shuttered church. I asked him about his thoughts on the situation. I forget if he had been a former parishioner or was just a neighbor – but he expressed his profound sadness at what had taken place.

(Above) The interior in 2015. (Below) A noteworthy feature of the church was the stained glass windows by the Rambusch company. All the glass has been ripped out by now.

UPDATE:

1. “A boarded-up Gothic church hangs on in what was once Manhattan’s Hungarian immigrant enclave,” Ephemeral New York (8/19/2024) (Accessed 8/19/2024). The article included valuable references and photographs. However, the author seems to mistakenly believe St. Elizabeth was an ethnic Hungarian parish (it was Slovakian).
2. Schram, Lauren Elkes, and Harris, Chris, “Hellish NYC church demolition breaks noise rules, works overnight without permit,” The New York Post (6/15/2024) (Accessed 8/19/2024)
3. E.g., The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny, “The Churches of New York LXXIII; “For when a Church dies…” (7/19/2015); “The Churches of New York V: Yorkville Jewel” (11/26/2010). For this parish’s original church on East 4th Street see: “The Churches of New York:Losses III” (5/27/2013)