The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is on Monday, August 15. The following churches will offer the traditional Mass:

Sunday, August 14:

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT,  4:00 pm, Solemn Mass in the presence of a greater prelate. Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport will preside. Music will include the Missa Brevis in D by Mozart, motets by Charpentier and Palestrina as well as the Gregorian Chant propers for the Assumption.. At the conclusion of Mass, Bishop Caggiano will dedicate an antique Marian statue in honor of “Our Lady of Norwalk”, which then will be carried in procession through downtown Norwalk. A festive dinner with live music will follow. More Information

Monday, August 15:

St. Stanislaus Church, New Haven, CT, low mass, 5:30 pm

Holy Innocents Church, New York, NY, 8:00 am and 6:00 pm. (On the Feast of the Assumption, Holy Innocents will celebrate the Sixth Anniversary of the (resumed) uninterrupted daily celebration of the Traditional Mass)

Immaculate Conception Church, Sleepy Hollow, NY,  5:00 pm

St. Patrick’s Church, Newburgh, NY, 4:00 pm

The image of Our Lady by Tilman Riemenschneider is in the Herrgottskirche in Creglingen, Germany

St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk, CT will offer a solemn mass “in the presence of a greater prelate” on Sunday August 14 at 4 pm. Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport will preside. Music will include the Missa Brevis in D by Mozart, motets by Charpentier and Palestrina as well as the Gregorian Chant propers for the Assumption..   At the conclusion of Mass, Bishop Caggiano will dedicate an antique Marian statue in honor of “Our Lady of Norwalk”, which then will be carried in procession through downtown Norwalk.
A festive dinner with live music, reflecting the parish’s multi-ethnic membership will follow.  Tickets are required for the dinner. To purchase dinner tickets   call 203-866-5546.

Photograph of 1900 showing the noted Minnesota artist Nicholas Brewer working in his St. Paul studio on a portrait of Fr. Thomas J. Ducey of St.Leo’s. 1)

St. Leo (and the convent of Marie Reparatrice)

12 East 28th Street

For connoisseurs of New York of churches, St. Leo of East 28th St, founded in 1880 and completed in 1881, has been a tantalizing enigma. For, seemingly alone among the almost innumerable parishes established in that era, St. Leo’s seems to have “disappeared” not even 30 years after its foundation, despite its location in a originally well-to-do neighborhood. The conventional wisdom is that this was a minor initiative, a kind of chapel associated with one particular priest. After his death, so the story goes, the parish was transformed into a convent and disappeared from public view. Then this convent with the remaining parish buildings in turn vanished in the 1980s.

Additional research tells entirely different tale. The parish of St. Leo’s enjoyed a citywide and even national reputation around 1900. And, after its transformation into a convent in 1909, the public visibility of this church – at least in New York City itself – actually increased.

St. Leo’s from the beginning was closely associated with its founder: the charismatic Fr. Thomas J. Ducey – indeed, by his death it was known simply as “Fr. Ducey’s church.” He was one of the seemingly inexhaustible number of remarkable clergy and laity that distinguished the New York Archdiocese in its golden age between 1880 and 1930. He founded the parish in a part of the city that at the time was a distinguished residential district of the wealthy yet lacked a Catholic church. From then until his death Fr. Ducey and St. Leo’s where indistinguishable. It was one of the smaller “non-ethnic” parishes of the archdiocese, with a congregation of 2,000 at the time when many parishes (like the parish it had been carved out of, St. Stephen’s) had 20,000 or more parishioners. 2)

The founding pastor was indeed remarkable in a number of respects.

First, he was at ease hobnobbing with the rich and famous. By inheritance he had acquired some personal wealth of his own. It is claimed that the building of St. Leo’s was largely facilitated by Lorenzo Delmonico of the famous restaurateur family (Fr. Ducey was a boyhood friend of the family; the Delmonico family was active in the foundation of several other Catholic parishes over the course of many years) 3). Fr. Ducey was a regular at Delmonico’s – the premiere restaurant in New York – and has been described as the house chaplain of the Delmonico family. 4) Within his parish boundaries were numerous wealthy families: the Delmonicos of course, but also the Iselins, Clarence Mackay, John McCormack etc. Fr. Ducey officiated at society marriages and presided at the funerals of the rich and famous.

Second, he was a strong advocate of justice for the workingman. This earned him nationwide notoriety. In this he was following some of the views of the redoubtable Fr. Edward McGlynn, the pastor of neighboring St. Stephen further to the east on E. 28th St.

Third, what perhaps made him most famous among his non-Catholic contemporaries was his charity towards those who had fallen on hard fortune. Many of the parishioners were in fact not the proprietors of splendid mansions but those who worked in them or in the neighborhood’s growing number of hotels. For the immediate vicinity of St. Leo’s became more and more a district of hotels such as the luxurious hotel Seville next door and the old Waldorf Astoria up Fifth Avenue. Yet at the same time there were many impoverished transients. New York City at the time was filled with those in temporary quarters: immigrants, laborers and those hard up on their luck. That included the formerly wealthy in one difficulty or another. Fr. Ducey adapted to the changing surroundings of his parish and reached out to this population. For example, we learn that he helped out the famous photographer Matthew Brady who had fallen on hard times. Fr Ducey assisted penniless actors and  – unofficially – acted as chaplain to  Catholic actors at a time when that apostolate was frowned upon. But his most remarkable initiative was the creation of a room of repose, distinctly Catholic in appearance but open to those of all denominations (including Jewish), where those who had died abandoned in hotels or lodgings could receive a decent burial service. His motivation was ecumenical; the Catholic “stranger dead” already had been housed in the lower church of St. Leo’s – the house of repose was intended to deal with plight of the deceased of another or even of no church. Indeed the building was constructed in cooperation with members of protestant churches and the synagogue. 5)

When Fr. Ducey died on August 22, 1909, he left his not inconsiderable fortune to St. Leo’s parish. But, like so many other parishes at this time, St. Leo’s resident parishioners had largely disappeared. At this moment, however, Providence  intervened.

(Above) Fr. Thomas J. Ducey.(this photograph and the following 5 images come  from an 1899 article on St. Leo’s by Alice  Waring in Metropolitan Magazine.)

(Above) St Leo’s as it appeared in 1899. The large building to the east is typical of how the parish’s neighborhood was being transformed in that era; within a few years it too would be replaced.(Below) The interior of St. Leo’s in 1899.
I believe the stained glass depicts the encounter of Pope Leo the Great with Attila the Hun which, according to legend, saved Rome. The magnificent furnishings of this church – artistically similar to those of nearby St Stephen’s  – demonstrate that for Fr. Ducey too, the creation of a beautiful, unapologetically Catholic church was a necessary element of evangelization.

(Above) The lower church of St. Leo’s in 1899.

Two views of the “House of Repose” in 1899. (Above) The Robing Room; (Below) the Repose Room itself.

We have already covered the many initiatives of the indefatigable Countess Annie Leary. In 1907 she had facilitated the arrival in the United States of three sisters of the order of Marie Reparatrice (or “Mary Reparatrix”). It had been founded in France in the 19th century primarily to offer  adoration of the Eucharist. This order combined the contemplative life with certain active apostolates: giving Ignatian retreats to women, providing training to Spanish-speaking people etc. The sisters had a difficult time getting an acceptable permanent residence in New York – it was hard dealing with their domineering benefactress and an initially unenthusiastic Archbishop Farley.

But then Thomas H. Kelly, a wealthy man whose wife had connections with the Marie Reparatrice order, wrote to the Archbishop after Fr. Ducey’s death and offered to finance the establishment of the order at St. Leo’s. On October 2, less than 2 months after Fr. Ducey’s death, Archbishop Farley agreed to cede the church to the sisters. But the archbishop declared himself pastor for a year and would administer the church through his vicars (at some point the clergy of St. Stephen’s took over spiritual affairs of St. Leo’s) Moreover, he retained the Sunday collections for himself to pay off the parish debt and finance repairs structural improvements. The deed was done and the sisters moved into the rectory of St. Leo’s. 6) A grille was soon added to the church.

The connections of this parish with high society were not broken; indeed they seem to have intensified. Early accounts speak admiringly of the alleged high social status of some of the nuns who are also commended for being able to communicate with the representatives of high society. Through the 1940s we hear of a seemingly endless series of fundraising events for the convent involving distinguished members of politics and society.

Now it is evident that St Leo’s continued to function as a public place of worship. Indeed, the convent attracted a large following for the public adoration of the sacrament – there were always people in the church. The nuns were present before the sacrament from 7 till 5, always in pairs (there was perpetual adoration Thursday through Friday). By 1912 there were 14 nuns and their contemplative life began to exercise a certain fascination on the minds of New Yorkers. 7)

Other aspects of the nuns’ apostolic work blossomed. In 1917  a grand prayer service for women was held at Saint Leo’s. In 1940 a special Novena held in contemplation of the worsening world situation attracted 30,000 to St. Leo’s. 8)

There are numerous references in the contemporary press to the presence of these nuns in New York with their distinctive blue and white habits. It didn’t hurt publicity that the convent was the next-door neighbor of the Seville hotel, prominent in its day. Perhaps most remarkable is a dramatic and romantic 1939 description in The New York Times by Meyer Berger.

“Thursday evening services were closing. Held by the gleaming white tapers, by banks of dancing votive candles and row upon row of novena lights that were steady flames in tall ruby lamps we fell thrall to the organ tones, to the clear voiced invisible choir.  The music came from somewhere behind us, deep in the church, as from someplace remote…Inside the golden choir enclosure knelt the sisters… the lights from the altar touched all their features with a faint, rosy color. Every one motionless.

The scene was one for the brush of some medieval master. Only the soft pealing notes of the organ, the hidden choir’s song after Benediction edged it with life….

Behind us and off to the right a young girl in mourning leaned on the pew rail, eyes steadfast on the altar, rosary beads in white fingers.

(After the benediction) We sat for a long time held by the spell. We knew the soft highlights in the altar frame. We stared upon the altar’s whiteness till it blurred; until the tapers’ gleam shifted or seemed to shift.  No sound intruded here. This might have been a dream.

People of all faiths come to witness the ceremony of the Adoration, and people from far places.” 9)

It seems incredible to our ears: Eucharistic Adoration as a citywide and ecumenical attraction. But so it seems to have been. Would the church in New York have prospered more if she had had more such places of silent contemplation? The seemingly thriving church of that time was rich in priests and laity of the active life. But there was only one contemplative order in Manhattan  – and even the sisters of Mary Reparatrix were really “semi-enclosed”. By 1939, Meyer Berger informs us, there were 36 sisters at St. Leo’s.

(Above ) A later view of the sanctuary  of St. Leo’s, now furnished with a grille for the sisters of Marie Reparatrice.  10)  (Below) This photograph, showing two nuns in adoration before the Eucharist, must have been widely disseminated – the version below is of a postcard recently auctioned off in France.  It also shows much more elaborate stenciling and painting of the altar compared to 1899.

(Above) This later view – also showing two nuns in adoration – comes from a 1956 postcard. It shows new artwork in a kind of “Beuron” style. 11)

The details of this church’s history after the Second World War are unclear to us. In the 1952 a large new convent was built. In 1966 we read “On East 29th street there’s a convent with 37 happy nuns, 15 of whom are in training as Girls Scout leaders.” It was, after all,  the era of the “Singing Nun,”the “Flying Nun” and “The Trouble with Angels.” At this date, however, the sisters still wore their habits and remained semi- enclosed.12) But in the wake of Vatican II the order of Mary Reparatrix suffered the same fate as almost all her sisters:

 

“Vatican II and its reforms soon touched the congregation…the Church suppressed the “semi-cloistered” character of the congregation and invited sisters to ongoing formation, to apostolates outside of the house…a difficult period that Sr. Mary (a provincial of the order) referred to positively in these words: “A marvelous time of chaos, of re-creation.” …Later, another step was taken in New York (by Sr. Mary) with the closure of the church of St. Leo and its ensuing demolition….13)

 

The buildings were razed in 1985. But a deal with a developer fell through and the property could  only be sold  in 1997 – for $15 million,. An enormous, 48 story apartment building and its courtyard now occupy the site of the St. Leo property. 12) Yet, is this not a further example how the Catholic Church leaves its mark on the City – but now in an entirely negative sense? For it was the order of sisters, focused like the developers purely on financial return, that made possible the building of an entirely out of scale apartment building, which completely dominates the neighborhood. So the Anglican “Little Church around the Corner” and Marble Collegiate Church (where Dr. Norman Vincent Peale sounded off  for decades) still remain; the Catholic member of this “Trinity” has disappeared. Decades of public Catholic witness had come to an inglorious end.

(Above) St Leo’s today: the grossly disproportionate building in the left background occupies the site of St. Leo’s church and the later convent.

(Above) To help New Yorkers get oriented: the nearby Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue and E. 29th Street. In the background to the north the Empire State Building towers; in Fr. Ducey’s day this was the site of the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria.

(Above) The courtyard is the site of St. Leo’s church.

(Above) Overlooking this courtyard to the east is an annex of the old Seville hotel built already in 1906 during Father Ducey’s time. 

(Above) The entrance to the apartment building on E. 29th street (Below) Directly across the street is the quaint Anglican parish of the Transfiguration (“the little church around the corner”)

I can’t resist this picture of an ancient notice in the church of the Transfiguration:  How many visitors today pay attention to the admonition in this church – or, for that matter,  in many Roman Catholic ones?

1. http://forgottenminnesota.com/2015/03/artist-nicholas-brewer/ (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society)

2. On the construction of St Leo’s see generally: The Lost St. Leo’s Church – No 12 East 28^th Street (July 24, 2014). http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-lost-st-leos-church-no-12-east-28th.html. The author includes other photographs and curious anecdotes of the history of the church.

3. Thomas, Lately; Delmonico’s: a Century of Splendor at 173 (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967).

4. Thomas, Op. Cit. at 219.

5. Waring, Alice E.; “A Repose for the Stranger Dead” in Metropolitan Magazine (December, 1899 at 588-592.)

6. Sisters of Marie Reparatrice, New York 100 Years: It’s beginning to Feel like Home (2012)

7. “Service of Perpetual Prayer in the Heart of New York,” The New York Times (October 6, 1912)

8. NOVENA FOR PEACE IS STARTED HERE; Nuns Begin Nine-Day Vigil With Solemn High Mass at St. Leo’s Church; The New York Times (June 23, 1940).

9. Berger, Meyer, “About New York,”  The New York Times, (November 6, 1939)

10. Collection of the Museum of the City of New York from “The Lost St. Leo’s Church” supra.

11. http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/MaryReparatrix.html

12. “15 Nuns training as Scout Leaders”  The New York Times (October 30, 1966)

13. “Mary Piancone, Mother Mary of the Blessed Sacrament 1930-1994,  at 160-161.

14. Gabarin, Rachel, “Residential Real Estate; a 48 Story Tower for a Low-rise Neighborhood,” The New York Times (September 18, 1998)

 

 

 

	2015	2014	2013	2012
Baptisms (Total)	21438	20993	23646	24864
Adult	839	954	1208	1309
Children	20599	20039	22438	23555
Confirmations (Total)	17037	16583	17522	18204
Adult	1833	1960	2328	2273
Children	15204	14623	15194	15931
Anointing of Sick	29090	35805	43639	46432
Home	7305	8090	11273	8541
Institutional	21785	27715	32366	37891
Marriages	3487	3509	3946	4150
Funerals	11485	10705	12573	12568
Total Priests	995	1238	1222	1202
Total Active Priests	909	1141	1135	1120
Archdiocesan Priests	564	597	595	614
Active	394	403	385	401
Retired & Inactive	170	194	210	213
Seminarians	86	97	87	82
Religious Priests	225	225	200	200
International Priests	120	319	340	306
Deacons	319	297	314	296
Religious (non-ordained)	811	922	951	805
Brothers	n/a	163	184	180
Sisters	n/a	759	767	625
Education
Colleges	9	9	9
College Students	41565	33840	44412

 

(A friend of the blog provides a comparison of the recently released 2015 statistics with the three prior years.)

 

 

Image of St. John Vianney, in St. Mary’s Norwalk

Thursday, August 4, Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, New York, Missa Cantata in the Dominican Rite for the Feast of St. Dominic, 7 pm

Friday, August 5, Holy Innocents Church, New York, the monthly  all-night vigil starting with a 6PM Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart and concluding with a 5AM Mass on Aug. 6 for the Feast of Transfiguration.

Friday, August 5, St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT, Requiem Mass for Margarita Maria Barreiro, sister of Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro, 6 pm

Friday, August 5, St. Stanislaus Church, New Haven, First Friday low mass, 8 am

Monday, August 8, St. Mary Church, Greenwich, CT, Solemn Mass to celebrate the Feast of St. John Vianney, 7:30 pm

Church of the Guardian Angel
193 Tenth Avenue
(Now “Guardian Angel Worship Site” of the “Parish of Guardian Angel/St. Coloumba”)

(Above) One of Chelsea’s “preserved” streets with many townhouses of the mid-nineteenth century. (Below) The 19th century bulk of the Anglican General Theological Seminary, across the street from Guardian Angel and so closely associated with the origin of Chelsea. It has been slowly but steadily losing ground to the “world” – here the “Highline Hotel.”

Few areas of the city have seen such twists and turns of fortune as Chelsea. It began as an upper income area, with rows of stately townhouses erected in the 1840’s and 50’s. But almost from this neighborhood’s beginnings, industry, shipping and commercial development took off as well. West Chelsea became a center of the maritime industry. Up to 1935 the main piers for luxury passenger ships were located here. Yet, unlike most of Hell’s Kitchen to the north, Chelsea was never depopulated or reduced to a purely commercial landscape. The 1939 WPA guide to New York City spoke of its “preserved” character.

The spiritual needs of the longshoremen and other workers in the maritime trades led to the founding of Guardian Angel parish in 1888. In this respect, the parish is similar to several others on the far West Side: St Veronica in the Village and the original church of St. Cyril and Methodius also originated as “waterfront churches,” while several other parishes on this side of town acquired that character as well. And, years later, didn’t Fr. John M. Corridan SJ, the model of the priest in On the Waterfront, work out of the nearby Xavier Labor School? 1). Like most (but not all) of these churches, the congregation of Guardian Angel was overwhelmingly Irish. The original church was replaced in 1910. And in 1911 a parochial school was opened.

Then came this parish’s first encounter with what later became known as the “High Line”: the New York Central Railroad wanted to relocate its tracks leading to the factories and warehouses of West Chelsea to a new, elevated line. Old Guardian Angel parish, at 511 West 23rd Street west of Tenth Avenue, was squarely in the way. In exchange for this property, the railroad transferred land and cash to the parish to enable a brand new church and school to be built; they both opened in 1931. So Guardian Angel, like St Michael’s in Hell’s Kitchen or Our Lady of Pompeii, obtained a grand new building due to the relentless development of the city’s transportation system.

Guardian Angel testifies to the high standards of Catholic Church architecture around 1930. The exterior gives a convincing impression of a southern Italian Romanesque church. The parish claims specific inspiration in the cathedral of Bitonto in Apulia. 2) Most interesting are the extensive carvings and reliefs surrounding the main entrance and the lengthy frieze extending around the church. In fact, the exterior is more elaborately decorated than the interior.

The interior is a simple space, modest in scale, yet seemingly spacious and of great harmony. In contrast to the extravagant decor of van Pelt’s earlier Slovak ethnic church of Saint John Nepomucene, decoration is reduced to a minimum. While some of this is undoubtedly due to a post conciliar clearing out of the sanctuary and to the lack of financial resources at this parish, do we not also detect a hint of modern ideas of simplification and stylization? Except for a window that undoubtedly came from the predecessor church, the stained glass is all non-figurative or illustrates symbols of various kinds. Sculpture is mostly limited to the expressive capitals of the columns. The stained glass windows allow a clear but subdued illumination.

Today, the inside of this church is a quiet refuge from the nearby summer touristic frenzy – I don’t know if this was the case long ago when the trains were rumbling by on the active railroad viaduct. All in all both the interior and exterior of this church are amazingly successful aesthetically; much more so then some more celebrated buildings of that era like the church of Corpus Christi parish.

(above) The architect, John van Pelt, created here in 1931 a smaller version of his earlier Manhattan church of St. John Nepomucene in Yorkville. As in that church, the irregular surface of the facade in brick and stone is intended to suggest the weathering of the ages. The style is the Southern Italian romanesque – the parish claims specific inspiration by the cathedral of Bitonto near Bari in Apulia.

(Above) The church and, to the right, the still functioning parochial school – built in the same style.

Most impressive is the abundance of carved details on the facade and on the capitals inside. Scenes from the bible, monsters, angels, rows of heads all executed in a convincing neo-romanesque style – do we not even detect hints of then – contemporary art deco at places like Rockefeller Center? As in the case of van Pelt’s St John Nepomucene, the care lavished on a relatively minor parish church testifies to the extraordinarily high standard of Catholic church architecture and art in the 1920’s and 30’s.

(Above and below) The form of the interior is simple, yet spacious and harmonious. In the sanctuary is a unique art deco baldacchino. Regrettably, the sanctuary also exhibits the scars of a thorough post-conciliar “renovation.”

Angels! (Above) From an altar in the pre-1930 church? (Below) Older New York churches often feature one or two statues of angels bearing holy water fonts; this church has four.

More Angels: (Above) On the facade of the school. (Below) On the Art Deco baldacchino.

(Above) The central roundel of the rose window of the facade is about the only reminder of this parish’s once prominent role in the maritime community. (Below) This window in the sanctuary, in an older figurative style, appears to have been inherited from the church that preceded the present building. The glass in the 1931 church is otherwise non-figurative or symbolic.

Now Guardian Angel, although a parish of relatively modest size (for that era!), was not merely one more local territorial parish for longshoremen. It was the “Shrine Church of the Sea,” the headquarters of the Archdiocesan chaplain to the Port of New York and, under Cardinal Spellman, it was proclaimed the “Seaman’s Church.” Guardian Angel exercised a highly visible citywide mission in the decades after the completion of the new church.
In 1946, for example, 2500 representatives of the maritime and transportation industries of the port of New York attended the annual benefit and reception for the Guardian Angel Shrine Church of the Sea. 3) In 1950, 1200 waterfront workers received Holy Communion at a mass celebrated by the pastor of Guardian Angel at Pier 61 of the United States Lines on West 21st St. This event, originally scheduled for Guardian Angel church, had to be moved because of the great number of participants. After the mass, the longshoreman and other workers marched north to the Waldorf Astoria for a communion breakfast. This event seems in part to have been prompted by the desire of the port chaplain to show a picture of life on the waterfront other than that of labor conflict, economic exploitation and crime.4)

Even as late as 1966, the New York Times took special note of a mass for the feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrated in a baggage room on Pier 40 at W. Houston St. The 400 worshipers included “husky longshoreman, truck drivers in leather windbreakers, customs officials in neat uniforms and office workers in spike heels and miniskirts.” Organizing these masses were three priests from Guardian Angel church, including the port chaplain. “For nearly an hour yesterday, beginning at noon, work at Pier 40 came to a standstill. The only sound was an “Irish baritone” voice singing a hymn at the offertory. The celebrant (from Guardian Angel) lamented certain “literary Catholic magazines” that tended to play down the role of the Virgin Mary in the church of today.5)

The following year Cardinal Spellman died. Those years, actually so recent, now seem like a far off dream. The rows of piers on the Hudson, which in the early 1960’s still formed such a grand sight from the elevated West Side highway, had started to disappear by the end of that decade. The death of  passenger liner travel, the development of container transportation and the general decline of New York City industrial life all brought an end to the saga of the Manhattan waterfront. By the 1980s, except for a few piers for cruise ships, the maritime life virtually synonymous with New York City since its beginnings in the 17th century had entirely disappeared. Simultaneously in Chelsea the factories and warehouses near the docks largely closed, the elevated train line ceased operation and gradually fell into ruin. The streets on the far west side of Chelsea near Guardian Angel became at night one of the spookiest parts of Manhattan. By the middle of the 1980’s the only relic of the glorious past that remained was the metal plaque on the façade of the church still proclaiming it to be the home of the chaplain of the port of New York. A post World War II influx of immigrants from Puerto Rico was in large part responsible for maintaining the congregations of the Chelsea parishes.

But already the rest of Chelsea had started an economic turnaround; it was one of the first areas of the city to experience gentrification – a process continuing to the present day. Many were attracted by its old-fashioned townhouses and low rise streetscapes. Then, Chelsea succeeded Greenwich Village as the center of New York homosexual life. Remaining piers were converted into sports and leisure facilities. The meatpacking district at the southern end of Chelsea was similarly transformed from an industrial and commercial area to a region of boutiques and restaurants. Finally the long ruined and abandoned viaduct of the railroad was transformed into the High Line: an elevated park. Guardian Angel parish now found itself in a center of international tourism. Where once poor longshoreman had lived and struggled to make a living, there were now multi-million dollar condos and townhouses. Chelsea was now one of the areas of New York City most representative of the contemporary hedonism of tourists and locals alike.

How has the parish fared in this startlingly new environment? Like many others, Guardian Angel had difficulty recovering from the loss of its original mission and of most of its original congregation. Indeed, it was considered for closure under Cardinal Egan. Then, under “Making All Things New,” it was first scheduled to become an adjunct church of the much older Chelsea parish of Saint Columba (originally also connected with maritime trades). But in fact it was Guardian Angel that became the senior surviving parish in the merger with Saint Columba that occurred in 2015. Other recent news from this parish was the high-visibility pastorate of Monsignor Michael F. Hull between 2009 and 2014. It is reported that the parish owes to Msgr. Hull a lavishly restored rectory. He is currently living with his wife in Europe as an ordained minister of the Anglican church of Scotland. 6)

Will this parish be able to recover and represent Catholicism in the midst of these utterly changed and indeed hostile surroundings? Realistically, one should be pessimistic given recent experience elsewhere in the City and more specifically at Guardian Angel. Moreover, after the merger Guardian Angel is called not a parish, a church or a chapel but a “worship site.” Such a demoralizing, un-Catholic appellation reveals all too well the mentality of those behind “Making All Things New.”

Yet we see signs of hope – of attempts to establish contact both with the visitors and the residents of this neighborhood. The parish has had the foresight to hoist a banner near the roof so those milling on the High Line can see it; it has also made colorful pamphlets available in the church of both Guardian Angel and Saint Columba. The combined parish website is very fine. And of course what is now a rarity in Manhattan parishes: the parochial school of Guardian Angel continues to function. So we would hope that what once was a mission church to the gritty waterfront will develop an entirely different mission: reaching out to the unchurched who find themselves, either as inhabitants or tourists, in a contemporary neighborhood of leisure and luxury.

(Above and below) The church abuts directly on the High Line – the building of which was the cause of its present location.

The view from the High Line:(Above) Haha – you are likely to be disappointed! But, seriously, wasn’t the opportunity to peep into nearby hotels and apartments one of the original attractions of the High Line? (Below) Guardian Angel fights back by hoisting this banner, level with the footpath of the High Line.

(Above) Seen from the High Line, much of Guardian Angel is obscured by foliage – no peeping into the apse windows is possible!

Under a prior management, traditional masses at Guardian Angel: (Above) January 8, 2008, showing Christmas decorations; (Below) Later in 2008 – Msgr Gilles Wach, ICRSS, celebrant.

1) See, e.g., “The Waterfront Priest” http://www.regis.org/2014/multimedia/corridan.cfm
2) https://guardianangelstcolumba.org/About_Guardian_Angel.html
3) The New York Times,February 8, 1946 page 3.
4) “Mass for Dockmen Offered on Pier: a unique Setting for a Communion Mass” The New York Times, May 8, 1950. It has been described as a kind of counterdemonstration by the pastor of Guardian Angel to the “black legend “ of the waterfront (seen in “On the Waterfront”) allegedly propagated by the Jesuits. See Fisher, James T., On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York (Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2009) at 139-42.
5) Dugan, George, “Catholics Hold Service at Pier to open Program for Workers,” The New York Times, December 9, 1966
6) See http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/abb/abb_94trainofscandal.html ; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-anne-hendershott/another-catholic-scandal_b_8837572.html (the original article by Maureen Mullarkey at First Things appears to have been deleted)

 

Now available:  Liturgy in the Twentieth Century,  edited by Alcuin Reid, which publishes the papers presented at last year’s Sacra Liturgia conference in New York.

To order online, go to www.bloomsbury.com.  You will get a 20% discount if you quote the offer code LITURGY20 at checkout. This offer will expire 31 October 2016.

http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/liturgy-in-the-twenty-first-century-9780567668097/

The Fifth Annual Traditional Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on East 116th Street, New York on Saturday, July 23. Over the last five years the number of pilgrims has steadily grown  – the ceremonies and music have also become much more elaborate.   The pilgrimage takes place a week after this parish’s patronal feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel –  a legendary festa which nowadays also prominently features the celebration of the Traditional mass. The pilgrimage involves individuals and Traditionalist organizations from all over the New York area.  The celebrant was Canon Matthew Talarico ICRSS.  The deacon was Fr Christopher Salvatore SAC and the subdeacon was Fr. Richard Cipolla, pastor of St. Mary Church, Norwalk.

(Above) The recently restored Image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, over the altar

Statue of Our Lady used in outdoor processions

(Above) Greetings from the pastor; (below) Bill Riccio at the organ!

(Above) The congregation gathers around sanctuary for presentation of flowers.

(Above and Below) The procession of pilgrims into the church on their knees.

(Above) The entrance procession.

(Above) Representatives of the Constantinian Order of St. George

(Above) Canon Matthew Talarico ICRSS was the celebrant.

The procession after the mass followed by benediction.

(Above and below) The celebrant and subdeacon with the members of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George before the image of S. Elena di Laurino.

(Above) S. Elena di Laurino. Our Lady of Mount Carmel church posseses an extraordinary variety of devotional images. (Below) In the baptistry note between two paintings of angels the framed image of the Madonna Incoronata, a devotion originating in Foggia in Apulia.

(Above and below). Sometimes the faithful grow too enthusiastic. A warning sign next to a statue of St. Ann – her book is the ideal place to write petitions to the Virgin in a place she can very easily read them.