In New York the New Cardinal Takes On an Old Cathedral

[Cardinal Timothy Dolan]…was asked to contrast the restoration of the great cathedral in mid-Manhattan with the archdiocesan policy of closing neighborhood churches ”” no matter how beloved or beautiful ”” whose membership has fallen significantly. These have included St. Thomas the Apostle in West Harlem, Our Lady Queen of Angels in East Harlem, and Our Lady of Vilnius in Lower Manhattan.

If we have a church that demographically is now ”” the people are gone ”” we have to make a decision. Are we going to utilize our money serving souls and serving people, and expanding the church in areas where the growth is? Or are we going to maintain buildings for ”” however laudably it might be ”” artistic and cultural and historic purposes? Sometimes we do. But most of the times we say: ”˜Sorry, we’re not in the business of solely museums. We’re a living, dynamic, growing, expanding church and we have to keep up with it.’ So the case can be made that St. Patrick’s is, indeed, living, dynamic and growing. It’s jammed. Every day it’s jammed.

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