Posted by David Pietrusza On 2:41 PM 05/26/2014
“A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and
great mourning…”
Those are the words of Jeremias the Prophet. St.
Matthew’s gospel tells us that they foreshadow King Herod’s murder of
Bethlehem’s infant males following the birth of Christ, who Herod feared might
usurp his ill-gotten earthly throne.
Holy innocents die for different reasons. In
every generation. In every place.
A church — a very special church — by that name
is scheduled to die in Manhattan’s Garment District.
Diocesan spokesmen, if they will tell you
anything, will tell you that nothing at all has been settled. All is merely
open for discussion.
Thus, it has been in every diocese, with every
parish whose head already lays firmly upon the chopping block.
All such closings are tragedies. But this slated
closure has already attracted city-wide and even national attention, from Capital
New York to National
Review Online to the famed Catholic blogger Father John Zuhlsdorf (blogging
about it from Venice).
Most observers have focused on the fact that
Holy Innocents — not only the frenetic Garment District’s oldest house of
worship, but its oldest structure — is the city’s only church hosting a daily
traditional Latin Mass, the Mass that defined Catholic worship for centuries,
if not millennia.
The traditional Mass has recorded a significant
comeback since Benedict XVI freed it via his 2007 apostolic letter, Summorum
Pontificum, with younger parishioners, clergy, and seminarians particularly
drawn to its grandeur, universality, and intense reverence. While two other
Manhattan parishes (St. Agnes on 43rd Street and Spanish Harlem’s Mount Carmel)
still host this “extraordinary form” of the Latin Rite, it is Holy Innocents
that has, in a remarkably short time emerged as its vibrant spiritual center.
“Holy Innocents is a place where the New
Evangelization is actually succeeding, and in its unique way!” says Fr.
Zuhlsdorf, “New Evangelization meets Summorum Pontificum. It is the
perfect combination, and it is working. Over the year Mass attendance has been
steadily climbing. There is constant traffic in and out of this church as
a spiritual oasis. Its location is ideal. Beautiful things occur at this
church.”
Indeed they do. And yet, visitors might not at
first find Holy Innocents beautiful at all. The oldest structure in the Fashion
District is old. It is not fashionable. It wears its age not at all like the
wardrobe of a grand dame of Fifth Avenue, but akin to a selection the shabby
thrift shop its basement hosts. But, perhaps, that is part of its beauty. The
wealthy do not particularly come here. Ordinary souls do. They climb its
granite steps for Mass, to pray, to silently kneel before the Precious Host, to
engulf themselves in magnificent Gregorian Chant, to remain overnight in prayer
and devotion each First Friday, to offer 2,000 — two thousand — Hail Marys
every Third Saturday, to confess their sins and to come away cleansed in a
sense that those who never have cannot comprehend.
They are old here. They are young. There are
poor and very poor, the wise and the addled. Many are Asian or Hispanic or
Black. Many are certainly newcomers to this land but not necessarily to this
faith. The meal served at 3 am following this Easter Vigil’s ceremonies and
Mass featured not finger sandwiches but empanadas. They are people of one
language on the altar but of many in the well-worn pews.
History lives here. Eugene O’Neill’s parents
brought him here for baptism. The poet Joyce Kilmer found his way to faith
here. The Crucifix found in Charles Bosseron Chambers’ famous painting
“The Return” still graces Holy Innocents. A massive, recently-restored fresco
of the Crucifixion by Constantino Brumidi (renowned for his work in the United
States Capitol) dominates its sanctuary.
Processions through Times Square and Bryant Park
are launched from here — the Word of Christ carried to the heart of The Beast,
a more amazing sight. Far more amazing than whatever Holy Innocents’ property
might fetch in Manhattan’s ongoing real estate bacchanal.
And there is also a shrine – to holy innocents.
Not to the Holy Innocents of Herod’s day, but to our own. Historical
scholarship indicates that Herod may have butchered as few as six. Abortion in
our day “terminates” thirty-seven percent of all New York City pregnancies.
Timothy Cardinal Dolan, who speaks of a “sacred responsibility” to “come to the
assistance” of “the innocent baby in the womb,” now stands upon the verge of
shuttering this shrine and this church.
“A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and
great mourning …”
Mourn not for The Church of Holy Innocents;
mourn for yourselves, New York.
