I updated my post below about the NYT series on "international priests" to link to the second and third installments (today's third and final article is here). I found all three articles fascinating -- it's a topic that can be considered from any number of angles, and it only gets more complicated as you go. Check out the multimedia components too -- some great photography and audio there. (I think you need to hear the Kenyan priest's voice to get the most out of his story!)

Today's Times also has a city-section article about a parish in Brooklyn that has closed, and some efforts being launched to save the building from destruction. It seems there are many people with justifiable emotional attachments to Our Lady of Loreto, but not many of them still live in the neighborhood or worship regularly at the church. I've never seen the church in person, but the pictures suggest a stately, beautiful building, one of those labor-of-love immigrant parishes that sprouted in the city in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (You can see some photos of the church and the neighborhood here.) The neighborhood has changed since then, and low-income housing -- the reported plan for the ground where the church stands -- would very likely be of greater service to its residents. But you can't blame people for feeling sentimental about this piece of their history.

By the way, New Yorkers, tomorrow is the final day of the "Catholics in New York" exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. Do treat yourself to a visit if you possibly can -- it's a wonderful way to gain an appreciation for the culture, the era and the people that parishes like Our Lady of Loreto represent.