Last Daily Traditional Latin Mass In Nyc Facing Extinction

[Lefebvre]

 

Down the street from the lights and sounds of Times Square stands the oldest building in the Garment District, the Church of the Holy Innocents. Over the decades the neighborhood has evolved into the tangle of chain stores and litter that it is today while the almost 150 year-old church has remained mostly the same since the day it was built. Step inside and the din is somehow lost, replaced by the last quiet, peaceful haven for New York’s traditional Catholics.

 

Yet what makes Holy Innocents truly unique is that it is the last Catholic church in the city to offer the mass in Latin. [...]

 

Nowadays, however, the very thing that makes this place so extraordinary is also the thing putting it in danger. Despite the artistic, cultural, and financial strengths of Holy Innocents the church was recommended for closure in April as part of New York’s â€œMaking All Things New” initiative (a title one parishioner called “Orwellian”) to consolidate superfluous church spaces.

 

http://observer.com/2014/08/the-last-daily-latin-mass-in-new-york-is-facing-extinction/

 

This angers me. If you don't mind, I'm going to go throw things.

 

 

Edited August 14, 2014 by Lefebvre

[Nihil Obstat]

Last I heard, Dolan implied Holy Innocents will not be closed because of its unique pastoral importance.

[KnightofChrist]

Last I heard, Dolan implied Holy Innocents will not be closed because of its unique pastoral importance.

I hope.

[Lefebvre]

Last I heard, Dolan implied Holy Innocents will not be closed because of its unique pastoral importance.

 

Let's hope so. One of the reasons I was so disappointed with this is that I'm very fond of Cardinal Dolan. He's kinda liberal, but personable. And occasionally personable is a nice thing.

[Nihil Obstat]

I do not think you are really a sede. :hehe:

[Ancilla Domini]

Last I heard, Holy Innocents was going to be merged with the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, a few blocks downtown. (Which frankly doesn't make sense to me, considering St. Francis is a monastery church administered to by Franciscan monks.) So, the church will not be shut down, but the Latin Mass will most definitely not be celebrated there any more.

One effect of this "prohibition" is that there will henceforth be no Latin Mass Triduum in the city. I live in New York City, and Holy Innocents is the only church at which I have attended the Triduum. I have no idea where I'm going to go now.

[Credo in Deum]

It would be a dark day in NYC if it is closed, especially since that Church should be protected by the Archdiocese because it's one of a kind. I mean we wouldn't look at the Vatican and say "tear it down, and make way for the 'All things New campaign'. Churches aren't suppose to be museums" blah blah blah. Heck if Churches shouldn't be anything, it's gymnasiums, key banks, or Protestant style auditoriums!

[CountrySteve21]

That is just sad.... Better that than teen life Mass's any day!

[Nihil Obstat]

Did anyone else here follow the story of the priest who preached to the Holy Innocents congregation about essentially standing up for themselves in the face of obstacles to their traditional Mass?

[Lefebvre]

I do not think you are really a sede. :hehe:

 

Oh hush you :p I can like people irrespective of their being heretics, just like I can be friends with an Orthodox or Calvinist.

[Ancilla Domini]

Did anyone else here follow the story of the priest who preached to the Holy Innocents congregation about essentially standing up for themselves in the face of obstacles to their traditional Mass?

 

Father Justin Wylie. He said mass for us every Sunday at St. Agnes Church on 43 street, where I go to mass. He was, last I heard, prohibited from saying public masses in the diocese of New York. We will miss him.

 

And in case you're at all interested:

 

Excerpts from homily.
 

As I said: during the dark days of prohibition, New York seemed to be a happy place to be for you because of the indult-masses at places like St. Agnes, but in the fresh juridical freedom Summorum Pontificum brings, New York has become, in my view, a less felicitous place for traditional Catholics: because nothing is structured, nothing acknowledged. Who takes responsibility for you pastorally?

Pastores dabo vobis, the Lord promises Jeremiah: I will give you shepherds!Fundamentally – and this is something about which I urge you to think well and pray much about – as a priest, I have to say: I worry about the situation of traditional Catholics in the Archdiocese. Yes, the archdiocese ‘permits’ a traditional mass here or there — but responsibility for the matter continues to rest upon the initiative and resourcefulness of the laity, who with enormous difficulty have to source priests hither and thither as though we were seemingly still living in Reformation England or Cromwellian Ireland. Isn’t it high time for the Church to take pastoral responsibility also for these sheep? Do they not deserve a shepherd? a parish? or at least some sense of juridical security? What happens to you when the parish you are harbouring in closes its doors?  

What will become of the priestly vocations aplenty I see in these numerous young men of such quality as we have in abundance serving here at Holy Innocents, St. Agnes and elsewhere – remaining as they do at the mercy (and sometimes, caprice) of ‘landlords’ who, for one reason or another, ‘permit’ their presence in their parishes? Doors everywere seem closing to them. Our Saviour has closed its doors to them. St. Agnes, for its part, guards its doors vigilantly to make sure they don’t enter the building 5 minutes too early or don’t overstay their welcome by 5 minutes more. Now, it seems, the doors of Holy Innocents will be closed to them, too. Taken together, this is, in my view, a clear instance of exclusion: an injustice which you should bring to the attention of your shepherd, I think. You are fully-fledged members of the baptised Faithful, for heaven’s sake: why are you scurrying about like ecclesiastical scavengers, hoping for a scrap or two to fall from the table for your very existence? The precariousness of your community cannot hinge on a church building being available to you as though you were a mere sodality or guild. The days of renting space in hotels and the like must surely be over. You are not schismatics! Are you schismatics? 

Whatever happens to Holy Innocents – and this will be the decision of your chief-shepherd here, who will base his decision on more information than any of us has at his or her disposal – you need to assert that you belong to the Church as fully as any other community. You have found a home here, largely through your own hard work and perseverence: no good shepherd could dispossess you of your home without providing safety and good pasture elsewhere. Parishioners of a Novus ordo parish closure might easily find another ‘home’ nearby; but what of you? You have a right to find the Mass (and not only on Sundays); and not only the Mass, but the other sacraments and rites of the Church. Closing this parish is more akin to closing a linguistic parish or a Oriental rite parish. What becomes of you?

No longer, I say, should you think of yourselves as squatters in the mighty edifice of Holy Church, nor should you find yourselves turned out like squatters. Shepherds must needs make difficult decisions, such as the erection or suppression of parishes – that is their onerous duty and in this they must have our obedience, charity and prayer: but never should they throw open the sheep-fold and allow the uncertain dispersion of their sheep into a world full of wolves. Charity, of course, is a two-way street.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Ancilla Domini

[puellapaschalis]

The whole thing made my blood boil when I first read about it. I had to go offline for the rest of the day.

[ChristianGirlForever]

Last I heard, Holy Innocents was going to be merged with the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, a few blocks downtown. (Which frankly doesn't make sense to me, considering St. Francis is a monastery church administered to by Franciscan monks.) So, the church will not be shut down, but the Latin Mass will most definitely not be celebrated there any more.
One effect of this "prohibition" is that there will henceforth be no Latin Mass Triduum in the city. I live in New York City, and Holy Innocents is the only church at which I have attended the Triduum. I have no idea where I'm going to go now.

If you don't mind coming into the country, there is a parish in Norwalk, CT that offers the TLM. People travel out of state to get there. It's 45 minutes by car (without traffic) if you're coming from Manhattan. You can also take the train. Here is a link to their website. www.stmarynorwalk.net I really hope they don't close your parish, but I believe this is the closest parish that you were looking for.

I really hope this doesn't happen. I prayed when I read about it in the Times. I'll pray about it again.

[dUSt]

Last I heard, Holy Innocents was going to be merged with the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, a few blocks downtown. (Which frankly doesn't make sense to me, considering St. Francis is a monastery church administered to by Franciscan monks.) So, the church will not be shut down, but the Latin Mass will most definitely not be celebrated there any more.
One effect of this "prohibition" is that there will henceforth be no Latin Mass Triduum in the city. I live in New York City, and Holy Innocents is the only church at which I have attended the Triduum. I have no idea where I'm going to go now.

According to the latest Holy Innocents bulletin the latest proposal was for Holy Innocents to merge into St Michael's.

[franciscanheart]

what's the word?