The link below has a post on the article/video that Voice of American did on the closing of churches in the Archdiocese of New York with a special focus on the Church of the Holy Innocents.
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2014/07/voice-of-america-on-holy-innocents-in-manhattan-a-vibrant-catholic-community/
The blogger's comments are:
1) The closing of Holy Innocents is not official yet.
2) Priests could be found to say the Masses at Holy Innocents (this is already done daily and for Sunday Vespers)
3) Holy Innocents currently satisfies the spiritual needs of the people (Holy Mass, Confession, novenas, processions, prayers, Vespers, a monthly all-night vigil, etc.)
4) Holy Innocents has no debts and pays its bills without having to have recourse to the Archdiocese for money
5) Holy Innocents is indeed a very vibrant community of faith.
In addition to that, I would add the following:
1) While it is not official that Holy Innocents will be closed, it is very factual to say that the Archdiocesan Advisory Group that recommended merging or closing churches to Cardinal Dolan thinks that Holy Innocents is not "an active, vibrant community of faith."
This we gather from a letter that Cardinal Dolan sent on July 3rd, 2014 to a concerned parishioner from Holy Innocents who had written him a letter to express her concern and surprise that a church like Holy Innocents would be considered for closure.
2) The Archdiocesan Advisory Group and the Reid Group (consultant group that led the Making All Things New process) had been provided with a Supplement of all the activities and the appropriate financial situation and the historical value and connections of Holy Innocents. For them and the Cardinal to claim that Holy Innocents is not "active" enough or not a "vibrant community of faith" is a little dishonest. One only has to type "Holy Innocents NYC" on Google and hundreds of posts, articles, videos, and photos of events at Holy Innocents will pop up.
3) Mr. Zwilling's comments are intentionally general and vague. While the Archdiocese may feel it does not have enough Priests and it helps many parishes financially, that is not the case with Holy Innocents and many of the churches in midtown Manhattan. The Churches of St, John the Baptist and St. Michael do not get financial help either. So, why are these churches being recommended for closure if the Archdiocese does not give them any money? Would it not make more sense to leave the churches that are financially solvent alone, and try to do something only with those parishes that are a financial burden to the Archdiocese?
At Holy Innocents, there are many Priests who willingly say the traditional Mass and some of them do not even want to take the stipend offered. Moreover, many of the younger Priests do want to say the traditional Mass in order to help the traditional Mass community because they see how neglected they are by the Archdiocese, but they are always afraid of being too open about it because the Archdiocese is always ready to pounce if a Priest expressed too much care and concern for the traditional Mass. So much so that the Archdiocese insists that the first Mass of the newly ordained Priests be a New Order Mass and that the newly ordained Priests kind of "must" have Concelebrants (this to make sure that it will not be a traditional Mass because there is basically no con-celebration in the traditional form of the Mass).
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