Tuesday, July 1, 2014

For the NYT, when it comes to beating the Catholic church, any club will do


"Crucifixion," (recently restored) Constantino Brumidi
Holy Innocents Church
Brumidi also executed many frescoes in the US Capitol Building, 
including "Apotheosis of George Washington" on the Rotunda

New York Times takes the side of Holy Innocents Church against the NY Archdiocese.  Holy Innocents, the only parish in the Archdiocese where the Latin Mass is offered daily, is about to be closed by the Archdiocese, and no provision has been made for continuing the daily Latin Mass.   Fr. Justin Wylie, a South African priest who served as a visitor at Holy Innocents, recently urged the parishioners of Holy Innocents to stand up to the Archdiocese rather than be "turned out like squatters."   The Archdiocese saw to it that Fr. Wylie was dismissed from his position at the Vatican's Mission to the UN, and he was sent packing within days.   "[W]e need priests who don’t criticize . . .  the local diocese,"  explained a spokesman for the Archdiocese.  No references to saints, tradition or scripture were supplied in support of that view.

Holy Innocents is the oldest building on a non-residential block on the fringe of the garment district, and the parish was in steep decline until they began to offer the Latin Mass.  Since then, Sunday Mass attendance has tripled, and the parish runs a surplus.   No reason to close it, except for an inexplicable (to me) animus against the Latin Mass.  

2 comments:

  1. I think the headline of this post is unfair. Ms. Ottermann did an excellent job with this story and I don't think she was motivated by anything other than putting forward a true news story of general concern in the city and making known the interests and concerns of both the parishoners and the response of the Archdiocese.

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  2. The NYT is not noted for reporting on the interests and concerns of parishioners in the Archdiocese, nor has it ever shown much interest or support for the traditional Latin Mass, so one naturally wonders what it was about this story that led the NYT to consider it newsworthy.
    Thank you for the comment.

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