Posted on 11/10/2011 6:46:29 AM PST by NYer
In few other places does the Church remain so prominent a force of charity, so public a teacher, so steady a font of grace and so vulnerable a target. In New York City, the churches are dressings on wounds of loneliness. In a city jammed with humanity, millions live as strangers, locked away behind headphones and dark sunglasses. The culture can be stiflingly secular, distractingly materialist, deafeningly loud, and restlessly in motion. Silence, and contemplation are not often valued unless you are willing to exchange Adoration for yoga class. Despair is the city’s greatest struggle and Kierkegaard was right. "The specific character of despair is precisely this: it is unaware of being despair." The soul receives little attention as citizens pace themselves through endless days, especially the twinkling young graduates who arrive to work in the tall towers. The danger is that it is hollow, all feasting and no wedding.
St. Patrick's Cathedral is a fine landmark, a flag planted on behalf of the Catholic Church in America. St. Vincent Ferrer is otherworldly, if the other world is Ars or Ambricourt. St. Jean Baptiste is a luscious feast for the eye. Holy Innocents has Brumidi's Calvary. St. Paul the Apostle is a hulking barricade. But if you seek, as I sought, the parish and pastor of New York City, you would do well to walk to the Church of Our Saviour on Park Avenue.
The proximity to Grand Central Terminal and a busy Sunday Mass schedule ensures that many members of the congregation are in transit, on their way in or out of the city. The words above the sanctuary welcome them: "LORD IT IS GOOD FOR US TO BE HERE." The structure only dates back to 1957. At completion, it was celebrated in the New York Times primarily for its air conditioning, the first in a Manhattan parish. While modern church builders often seem embarrassed by the ecclesiastical nature of their projects, the Church of Our Saviour was built with pre-conciliar confidence. Few features are more triumphalist than the two six-ton marble columns that stand guard inside the sanctuary, each seventeen feet high and more than two feet in diameter.
Enriching the interior of a church does not require catalog shopping, or inuring to cultural demolitionists more inspired by an Apple Store than Bernini and Borromini. Recent collaboration between Fr. George W. Rutler, and artist Ken Woo proves the aesthetic achievement that is still possible, perhaps only possible, at the parish level. Woo's icons link parishioners with the communion of saints providing the justification for the Church of Our Saviour, not Your Saviour or My Saviour. As a devoted Anglophile (and Francophile), Fr. Rutler directs worshippers of the goddess Diversity to consider the host of peoples that thrived under Pax Brittanica. Yet, his parish reminds everyone that if the word diversity retains any meaning, it is found on their icon filled walls. Only under Pax Catholica do you find Peter the fisherman and Theresa of Calcutta alongside Kings Edward the Confessor and Louis IX. Only the Church is universal enough to hold both Archangels and Joan of Arc. The iconography is a bridge between East and West, between the mysterious and the explicit. This bridge is extended as St. John Chrysostom provides the General Intercessions for Sunday Mass. We approach in icon, Scripture, Sacrament and Sacrifice the "Lord, our God, whose power is beyond compare, and glory is beyond understanding; whose mercy is boundless, and love for us is ineffable."
On liturgy, I should let the pastor have the first word: "Liturgy should be chantable, reverent, and expressive of the highest culture we know, without self-consciousness." But it is Blessed John Henry Newman behind those words and his description of a gentlemen is an excellent lesson for hyperactive liturgists: "He never speaks of himself except when compelled...[h]e respects piety and devotion... [he] seems to be receiving when he is conferring." On the left transverse of the church, a handsome marble bust completes a shrine to Newman, the first in North America. To make room, the pastor replaced a reconciliation room, which looked "more like an occasion of sin than a shrine for its absolution."
The gifts he receives from talented and generous parishioners are plentiful. Thomas Vaniotis and Samuel Howard are MCs of the highest quality. Every Sunday they lead a crew of veteran and novice altar boys and men with patience and reverence. They might not have all of the GIRM memorized but their retention rate must be above 95%. The remainder is supplied by their mastery of Fortescue. As Director of Music, Robert A. Prior achieves weekly excellence that rivals the maestros at the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.
The parish attracts many devoted worshippers and even lukewarm Mass-goers quickly find new appreciation for their weekly obligation. I briefly served Mass and during Communion, I noticed how most of the communicants receive on the tongue. My simplest explanation is that basic human decency does not permit one to approach the step of the altar, to pass through a wisp of smokey incense, to meet the Pantocrator's knowing eyes and then casually receive the Blessed Sacrament.
It would be impossible to praise the Church of Our Saviour without recognition of the unique gifts of the pastor. For those who know Fr. Rutler only by reputation, your first encounter might be surprising. Allusions are often made to John Henry Newman, but Paul of Tarsus might be the better athletic match. A regular boxer, the pastor supplements his study of the Queen of the Sciences with the Sweet Science. His boxing and his preaching rely more on cutting jabs, swift footwork, and inexhaustible preparation than bulky blows and wild swings. I do not envy Fr. Rutler's eventual biographer. Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, Oxford, and the Angelicum. New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rome. Convert, priest, pastor, and chaplain. Boxer, painter, firefighter, and writer. He is the hub at the center of an infinity of personal spokes. I owe my fianceé and many friends to acquaintances made through the Matchmaker of Manhattan credited with over 400 weddings.
The children of God are demanding. We want our priests to be tireless and generous, inspiring preachers and reverent at the altar. We forget them during good times yet seek miracles during disaster. We don't expect them to have any relevance outside the sacristy. We prefer to reinforce our stubborn beliefs in secular echo chambers. We worry about stock market gyrations and electoral posturing. The priest on Park Avenue offers another view. When he counsels, he does so with a wisdom and long view of history, leaning on the Church of Rome, not the Club of Rome. It is a Crisis of Saints. When Macauley's traveler from New Zealand begins to sketch among the ruins, it is likely that he will do so with a Rutler Tenth Edition in his backpack.
If you are ever in NYC, make it a point to visit this church.
I lived for years on East 44th. St. Agnes was my church and it was PACKED every day at lunch hour. It was a terrible day when the fire broke out but they built it back.
Thank you!!! Perfect timing - I and two other daughters are going to NYC tomorrow to visit a third daughter who goes to Pace in Manhattan. She has been seeking a parish, and does like St. Joseph’s near NYU. She has a sensitive soul and feels the daily emptiness mentioned, and realizes and is grateful that mass is the antidote. She does love living in NYC - she just needs that spiritual nourishment to counteract the material emptiness that prevails from the sheer number of atheists about.
Anyway, we will stop by the Church of Our Savior tomorrow in our travels - Thank you again!!
It's covered here in detail. Warning! Not suitable for all audiences.
Thank you, NYer, for this wonderful article. This sounds like a great parish.
I used to work in the office at this church in the glory days of Monsignor Fleming (one m or 2? the Irish one, anyway). And the musical direction of Johannes Somary. Charles Quinn was there too, a sophisticated presence always—wonder where he is now. I did the newsletter, ran church suppers, etc., too. A great parish in those days (1970s).
I attended a concert he did with a quartet of singers. It was very beautiful music.
Actually yes - she sings and does musical theater. She has had professional voice training since high school (attended Walnut Hill High School for the Arts) and sings classical as well as MT. Right now she is in an Off Broadway Production at the Gene Frankel theater at 24 Bond Street.
The play is called “Czestokowa Musical Chairs” and is about a Catholic and Jewish family who are best friends in Poland during the Holocaust and how the Catholic family tried to help the Jewish family - she plays Agata (Agatha) the Catholic family’s daughter.
I am going into such detail because this is something Catholics on this forum mught like - different from the usual anti catholicism coming out of NYC. The show will play in mid December.
The concerts at Our Saviour were free—donations only. People would drop a few bucks in the basket as it went around. The good old days . . . He was a very talented man.
If you are ever in NYC, make it a point to visit this church. >>
I will... I see his shows on EWTN and like them, it seems that every time he does a show, I can hear sirens in the background, so I guess park avenue has a lot of action going on. Well, you know midtown manhattan, you hear horns and sirens all the time.
According to the Mass Schedule posted on the parish web site, the 11 am mass on Sunday is with the choir. It might be worth a visit at that time.
My daughter also has a beautiful voice. She made select chorus in Jr. HS, and competed with choral students from neighboring schools for a prized position on the Suburban Council concert. She was one of only 4 students chosen to perform. It was a first and a last. Due to an LD, she had to drop chorus the following year.
The play is called “Czestokowa Musical Chairs” and is about a Catholic and Jewish family who are best friends in Poland during the Holocaust
I saw extracts from this musical a few years ago. It's a beautiful story. Glad to know it is still in production. Kudos to your daughter and to you, her mom, for your support and encouragement!
I am pretty certain that the 9:00a.m. Mass is also a sung Mass.
Monsignor John Michael Fleming (one m) was my second cousin. His brother, Bernard, was a priest too. When Fr. Bernard Fleming passed away, a Fr. Charles P. Quinn replaced him as pastor in the 1980s at St. Mary’s… provided this is the same Charles Quinn. I sent x-mas cards to Fr. Fleming, until he passed in the mid 1990s. If you would please tell me where I could obtain a biography of his life in the churches he served, I would be most appreciative. Also, any memories you have of him, would be of great interest to me.
If he pronounced his name “Carl” and his outgoing message was in French first and then English in the third person, that’s him. He was one of my mileposts on the way back to relative health and I love him dearly.
Johannes has died now after causing chaos at Horace Mann.
Some people still swear by this church. I need something with more FI-UH!!!
I see I didn’t answer all of your questions. Msgr. Fleming was a joy to work with. His previous office person had left and together we tried to figure out little notes on her calendar pages, like “Don’t forget the whatits for the widgits.” His sermons were a rarity—so simple and heartfelt and full of truth. Rutler was always too high-falutin for me. I think I actually walked out on one of them it was so boring.
Things Fleming said that I remember:
About all the volunteers: “They do it because they love God.”
About the holidays and all the fluff and fuss: “We all have so many obligations and so many things to do around Christmastime, but go where you are invited.” That is so important—to receive invitations lovingly and graciously amd to show up and contribute yourself to the gathering that someone has created for you. (Quotes might not be exactly accurate.)
He wrote personal letters to the parishioners who gave in the special collections, like the Catholic education collection.
He was an all-around great man. Wish I could remember more.
I can’t help with the biography. Sorry. I know people who still go there (Our Saviour). I went to Maryknoll, a few blocks north, right after I left there. I could write a book about that place!
Fr. Rutler is now the administrator of Holy Innocents. Please (continue to) pray that Holy Innocents will not be closed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.