Last Daily Traditional Latin Mass In Nyc Facing Extinction

[Vincent Vega]

Protestant style auditoriums!

Ayyy, come on. That appears to be an Episcopal church by the books in the seat backs, but -- at least in my part of the world -- RC's and Evangelicals are the ones with the market cornered on awful church architecture. Most mainline protestant church buildings here look much more like churches than most of the RC parishes I've been in.

[Ancilla Domini]

Most mainline protestant church buildings here look much more like churches than most of the RC parishes I've been in.

 

Example: St. James Episcopal church in NYC

 

 

[John Ryan]

I know St. Agnes in NYC still offers the Tridentine Mass, but I do not believe it is daily.

[Ancilla Domini]

I know St. Agnes in NYC still offers the Tridentine Mass, but I do not believe it is daily.

 

It has a Latin Mass on Sundays at 11:00 am, (that's where my family goes) but the pastor...well, let's just say that the pastor isn't all that friendly towards our crowd - he's been asked on a few occasions to allow the Latin Mass to be said daily, (someone even offered to cover all the expenses of having a daily TLM) but he always refused. :unsure:

[blazeingstar]

I've thought long and hard about this because both the friars, and the church of the Holy Innocents mean a great deal to me.

 

First, most of the churches that are being closed are in the Bronx, not Manhattan.  Like the article stated many of these parishes have problems; dwindling attendance, crumbling infrastructure and polarization between migrants and English-speakers.  The heating bills are in the 10's of thousands each year and the structural maintenance needed tops millions of dollars.

 

Yet we want to have these placed of beauty carved out for us.  Why can't we be like Europe with their century-old cathedrals.  People in the 1800's built things to last.  They built them with the materials from the ground, and the city build up around it.

 

 

I think much of this is because American focus has never truly been for the grand.  Immigrants brought us that desire.  The German churches with cared stone, Polish churches with impossible sounding saint names, the Italian with their lauds to Rome, the Irish with simplicity in art.  Those desires were transferred to us from our forebears, but perhaps they were never truly transmitted.

 

Yes, the odd protestant church can afford to keep up one old building or two for beauty.  But we have several hundred of these masterpieces.  Is it really needed?

 

I will admit, that if I came across money I would rather give money to the Franciscans who run a homeless shelter than give to the endless battle of the heating oil fund.  I will admit that the peeling plaster and structural cracks in the older churches do make me a tad nervous that something will end up on my head.

 

We need to develop our own sense of beauty.  We don't need to succumb to the whitewashed protestant gyms, nor do we need the vaulted ceilings and fresco's of our fore-bearers.

 

No one should be stopping the Latin Mass, but it cannot afford the church any special protections, either, unless people show up and put their money where their mouth is.

 

Why is it until Parishes are threatened with closure no one cares?