Saving St. Brigid
I have been meaning to write about the opening the other day of an excellent exhibit called “Catholics in New York: 1808-1946,” at the Museum of the City of New York. They had a very grand reception, and lots of people in very good form, including an expansive Cardinal Egan. (Though Ed Koch did not get a shot at the mike, to my dismay.) The exhibit marks the 200th anniversary of the diocese, and includes a book of essays looking at various aspects of the New York church.
My own contribution to that book was a profile of the life cycle of the first parish for the Irish, St. Brigid’s, in what is now known as the East Village. The essay was a fascinating exploration for me, as the parish exemplifies the changes and challenges facing many urban parishes–and it neatly, if poignantly, concluded with the parish’s apparent demise a few years ago. Although that closing was fiercely contested, it seemed inevitable–until today, when word came down that an anonymous benefactor has given $20 million to keep it open and help it flourish again, if possible. There is much work to do, as the archdiocese had been dismantling the building with all due haste. But perhaps the place can be salvaged, and perhaps a parish resurrected. A remarkble story. And go see the exhibit if you’re in town.
David, since you’re back there in NYC, why is all hell suddenly breaking loose with the estimable Cardinal transferring many pastors (apparently to the chagrin of many) now and are some of the still outstanding pasriahes there going to be affected??
Bob, the short 9and only) answer is that Egan is preparing to depart, and is getting ducks in a row for whoever his successor will be. He’s not making many fellows happy, from what I hear, but that will make things easier for his successor, perhaps.
What this will mean for parishes is uncertain. Everything is uncertain during these de facto interregnums.
It appears that both Bob Nunz and David Gibson are referring to a story in today’s N.Y. Times: “A Sudden Transfer of 40 Priests Brings Egan Unrest From Within,” by David Gonzalez
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/nyregion/21priests.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22A+Sudden+Transfer+of+40+Priests+Brings+Egan+Unrest+From%22&st=nyt&oref=slogin
Here are a few excerpts:
Cardinal Edward M. Egan has reassigned almost 10 percent of the active priests in the Archdiocese of New York without adequately consulting the personnel board that has traditionally advised him and his predecessors, according to members of the board and other clergy familiar with the developments.
While canon lawyers said the cardinal was not bound to consult with the six-member board, two of its members said that the number of transfers in the last three to six weeks was so unusual and damaging to morale that the board sent him a letter on Monday requesting a meeting to discuss how priests are being reassigned. Forty priests are involved, out of about 470 active Diocesan priests.
“This is 10 percent of the diocese, and that is monumental,” said one priest familiar with the transfers. “There is nothing like this before. I am a priest in one of the major dioceses of this country, and they cannot put together a fact sheet to tell us what is going on right now. I’m getting news of this through phone calls, rumors and e-mails. It is unprofessional.”
(…)
“There are some priests who are hurting right now and are devastated,” said one priest who has been fielding calls from colleagues. “And no one is officially reaching out to them. That I emphatically know. There is no outreach right now.”
(…)
In previous years, the board would review applicants for each job and send to the archbishop a list of three names with reasons favoring each one, said Msgr. Thomas P. Leonard, the pastor of Holy Trinity Church on the Upper West Side, who was involved in personnel decisions under Cardinal Terence Cooke. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, he chose one of the three.”
http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2008/05/ides-of-may.html
Here’s Rocco’s take on what is going on in New York. He and Gary Stern of The Journal News in Westchester seem to have some good sources, but it sounds as if most of the priests in New York are not saying anything for attribution.
Corporations can endow ballparks and get the stadium’s name changed to reflect their generosity.
I can see it now: St. Brigid’s becomes “St. 20 million dollar (wo)man”
A St Brigid was closed in San Francisco and in Cincinnati , both were met with a big uproar.. probably there are other St Brigids that have been closed..being that 1900s Irish named them in the inner cities and their grandchildren have all moved to the Burbs and re-registered Republican. any other Brigids out there?
I got 2 e-mails from NYC today: the first on the 20 million:
10million for rebuilding, 8million for schol and poor students and a 2million endowment for the parish,
The Cardinal’s spokesperson, Zwiling says they’re “ecited.”
The second was that the Cardinal has called a meeting today at the seminary with the priest’s council with “transfergate” added to the agenda.
In the past, such metings have been reported to be the cardinal speaking and everyone listening.
After years of struggle, of going to court, of trying to convince the public that the parish was not viable and the closure justified, of having a wrecking ball whack the structure for a while and of rebuffing lesser donors, Cardinal Egan will re-open Saint Brigid’s in response to a megagift from megabenefactor. Will this endowment eclipse what the archdiocese has spent in legal and other expenses related to their effort to suppress and demolish. What does this say about our Church and our Cardinal?
Christina–I am curious about that, because I seem to recall there was no real structural damage to repair until the archdiocese sent in the wrecking ball.
Partly in answer to Ed Gleason: About 1881, some Catholics left Avenue B and St Brigid’s parish, and some ended up on Lindenstrasse in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where St. Brigid’s parish was founded in a sea of Germans (St Barbara, St Leonard, financed by a brewer whose children had those names). It is now a low-income and vibrant parish, though not jam-packed, 400+ baptisms yearly. The congregation seems to come in large part from the green islands of the Carribean. But if you wish to talk of suburbs, I note that the large St Brigid parish in suburban Westbury, Long Island, was founded in 1850. Both these parishes did not remain severely Irish, but in this century welcome all. Westbury has Filipino, Black American, Haitian, Hispanic, Italian, a catholic everybody congregation.
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The long-term viability of St Brigid across from Tompkins Square Park will depend on the congregation, local demographics, and whatever other Catholic churches remain near zip 10009.
Joe McMahon
Well, David, this is quite a coincidence. Do you think it was your article that prodded the $20 million-dollar donor into action? Maybe you could write a stirring piece about Commonweal!
My paternal grandparents (immigrants from Italy) got married in St. Brigid’s, but I don’t know much about it as they did not stay in the neighborhood. Was there an Italian period after the Irish founding? Anybody know?
I’m not sure if we want to continue following the Cardinal Egan side of the story, but today SNAP wrote to the Vatican urging six bishops (including ex-New Yorkers Mansell and McDonell) not be appointed to succeed him, based on their handling of the sex abuse scandal.
The times that I have been in the greater East Village area, I was amazed by the huge number of parishes within a walking distance from each other. Given the general mass attendance rates, not to mention the demographics of the East Village – is it realistic that St. Brigid’s can remain a viable parish?
I know that one Jesuit parish was set for closure in that area (Nativity). Although I heard they had an active Hispanic ministry, the parish building itself was a 60s-70s eyesore – one that will be missed by few.
Trivia on St. Bridget’s in SF: it was bought by the woman who owns large numbers of properties masquerading as the California Academy of Art. I have a friend who works for CCA and he claims that it all is a real-estate scam. The church itself has allegedly had a lot of money put into it to restore it, i.e., repaint, repair stained-glass windows. It is used periodically for meetings and seminars.
The point of this is that the new owner may be shrewdly thinking that she can sell it off (possibly back to the Archdiocese of SF) as a church. I doubt that the Mormons, Duck River Baptists or Primer Iglesia de Cristo would want it, but you never know.
David- The church was closed due to a crack in the wall that, unrepaired, escalated to the point of instability. Mass was then held in the school cafeteria for a few years. As a Lithuanian-Irish-German American, I am happy to see that the life of St. Brigid’s has been restored and it’s a great day for my Irish. My Lithuanian, however, is dismayed to realize that a donor big enough to move mountains is unlikely to step forward from among the Lithuanians or Lithuanian Americans. Lithuania is a small country, the last country of Europe to be converted from paganism and it spent a long time under Soviet rule, wherein belief in God was disparaged and discouraged. We have been fighting, through canonical and civil means, to resurrect Our Lady of Vilnius. As they say, money talks. It is discouraging to withness the extent to which the archdiocese listens. The rest of this cynical saying is not very flattering to many of us. Jesus came to offer help to the “walkers” of the world. Why is the archdiocese so indifferent to us ?
Errata in my previous post. “Withness” is a typo and “help” may be a Freudian slip. I meant to say “hope.” The last two sentences should read: “It is discouraging to witness the extent to which the archdiocese listens. The rest of this cynical saying is not very flattering to many of us. Jesus came to offer hope to the “walkers” of the world. Why is the archdiocese so indifferent to us ?”
Rita–I hope you check back in on this thread, because I was fascinated to hear of your connection to St. Brigid’s. I actually did have some good material on the so-characteristic culture clash of Italians moving into the Irish turf–hilarious stories. Some is included in the published essay, but much I had to cut out. The clash of Italians and Irish in NYC (and elsewhere) always surprises me. The stories of “mixed marriages,” and my own Brooklyn parish, very Italian, was built a block away from an Irish parish where Italians weren’t allowed in. Indeed, Bishop Hughes and his successors weren’t so welcoming to Italians, which is why Brooklyn is know for its ITalian parishes (and Mother Cabrini) more than Manhattan is. But this is a long saga.
When I was growing up in New York, it was unthinkable not to have an Irish Archbishop(Cardinal.)
We also had a token Italian auxilaiary. Then we had to add more tokens as the city became more multi-cultural and many of the Irish fled north of the City line.
I also remember many ethnic parishes, including the German national St. Joseph’s the Pope visited on his trip here.
Among non-Irish then, there was often a sense that they were treated as lesser Catholics by their Irish brethren.
It was remarkable then that in the 60′s, Cardinal Spellman devoted manpower and delegated expertise in the Spanish apostolate and some real attention was given to the black comunity as well.
In the current regime, money seems to be what matters, as the Cardinal is proud he’s gotten the diocese out of debt.
As to poor St, Vilnius, obviously the Cardinal is not a big man for listening, not only to his laity but to his priests as well -also part of this story.
And the Cardinal himself is part of the hypoclericalism that surrounds our episcopacy; unless there’s a major scandal, they can do no wrong (that is, be held accountable) and sometimes not even then.
David:
You referred to “the clash of Italians and Irish” and of their “mixed marriages.” One of those marriages (in Brooklyn, in 1938) involved my parents: Louise Kelly Butler and Humphrey John Palumbo. Worked out very well, too, as evidenced by something my dad said to a friend who tried to console him after my mom’s death.
“I’m sorry, John,” said the friend. “But really, you should be grateful, too. After all, how many couples have 58 good years together?”
“No!” said my dad. “I wanted 58 more!”
Gene, I surely meant those marriages were and are wonderful. But I also know that some of those couples had to deal with incredible oppositon from their respective families. Your parents seem lucky enough to have been from enlightened tribes!
FYI: today’s Journal in Westchester which broke the transfergate story reports that the priest’s council backs the Cardinal and supports him against the “unfair” anonymous sources. The article also cites several “outraged” laity.
I can’t help thinking that the Cardinal might listen to them if they came up with a few more million bucks, but otherwise, forgetaboutit.
David, yes, I’m glad I checked back in. Thanks for your comment above. Any chance you are going to publish or share some of that other wonderful material? If so, let me know. I’d be interested to read it, and so would my family.
Here is what I received today from some cousins who researched our connection to St. Brigid’s. (Yes, heaven forfend that the Irish priest would have presided at an Italian wedding! But at least he allowed them to celebrate the sacraments there, eh?)
“That is the Church where your grandparents were married in Feb. 1900. We had visited the Church and the priest gave us a tour, the rectory was attached to the Church. They were building an Italian Church in the area (not sure of the name ) and it wasn’t finished but the Italian Priest came over to St. Bridgid’s to marry them. The marriage certificate is in Italian but I believe according to the marriage license they were first married at City Hall when they took out the license which was very common in that era. The Church is across the street from Tompkins Square Park and you can just picture the scene in 1900. This is what makes people write books.”
Gene, thank you for that beautiful story about your parents!
Congratulations to the Committee to Save St. Brigid’s. We rejoice with you that St. Brigid’s has been saved because of the $20 million donation. Now, if we could only find another millionaire to save St. Thomas Church in Central Harlem and Our Lady Queen of Angels in East Harlem.
Rita. that is a lovely anecdote. (I am also intrigued that they did the marriage in the European fashion, first civil, then religious–a way out of today’s gay marriage dilemma?) The stuff I dug up tended to be a bit more conflictual, though not in any lasting way. I’ll try to post some here at another point–or come see the exhibit!