Friends of Nativity

Celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Altagracia with old and new friends at Most Holy Redeemer (East 3rd Street) or the Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral (Mulberry Street), on Thursday January 21 at 7:00 p.m. 

MHR: Thursday, 1/21 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, 1/24 at 10:30 a.m. Old St. Patrick's: Thurs. 1/21 at 7 p.m.

Most Holy Redeemer: 

173 East 3rd Street 

Thursday, 1/21 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, 1/24 at 10:30 a.m. 

Old St. Patrick's:

263 Mulberry Street 

Thurs. 1/21 at 7 p.m.

There's also a Spanish-language spiritual retreat taking place at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Mulberry Street from Jan. 18 - Jan. 20. More information on the flyer above. 

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We were overjoyed when Pope Francis named Dorothy Day a role model alongside Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and Thomas Merton. 

As you know, Dorothy was a parishioner of the Church of the Nativity when she lived and worked in the Lower East Side. She co-founded the The Catholic Worker Movement which hosts houses of hospitality for the poor across the world. In New York City, The Catholic Worker is on East First Street and Maryhouse is located on East 3rd Street- just around the corner from Nativity. 

In June 2015, Nativity Church held a mass in honor of Dorothy Day which was covered by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Huffington Post, and Al Jazeera. 

Proposal for 44 Second Ave Center named after Dorothy Day 

The Archdiocese of New York closed Nativity as part of its largest realignment in the city’s history. Some parishioners from Nativity and Most Holy Redeemer are now proposing that the archdiocese consider turning part of Nativity’s rectory at 44 Second Avenue into a chapel and retreat center with services for the homeless such as showers and mail drop.

We sent a proposal to the Cardinal in July and received a generic response in August. We are now working on sending a second proposal for the 44 Second Avenue Dorothy Day Center. 

While the neighborhood is far wealthier than it used to be, the homeless and the hungry remain. 

In 2011 the Archdiocese of New York also closed the Holy Name Shelter on Bleecker Street and replaced it with a theater.  Read about it in the New York Times.

Pope Francis highlights the work of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement in address to the U.S. Congress:

“In these times when social concerns are so important, I cannot fail to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause of the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints.

How much progress has been made in this area in so many parts of the world! How much has been done in these first years of the third millennium to raise people out of extreme poverty! I know that you share my conviction that much more still needs to be done, and that in times of crisis and economic hardship a spirit of global solidarity must not be lost. At the same time I would encourage you to keep in mind all those people around us who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. They too need to be given hope. The fight against poverty and hunger must be fought constantly and on many fronts, especially in its causes. I know that many Americans today, as in the past, are working to deal with this problem.

It goes without saying that part of this great effort is the creation and distribution of wealth. The right use of natural resources, the proper application of technology and the harnessing of the spirit of enterprise are essential elements of an economy which seeks to be modern, inclusive and sustainable. "Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the area in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good" (Laudato Si', 129). This common good also includes the earth, a central theme of the encyclical which I recently wrote in order to "enter into dialogue with all people about our common home" (ibid., 3). "We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all" (ibid., 14).”

Democracy Now spoke with Dorothy’s granddaughter, Martha Hennessy, and Robert Ellsberg, who has edited and published the writings of Dorothy Day:  A Look at the Life of One of Pope’s "4 Great Americans": Catholic Worker Founder Dorothy Day.

Talk about divine intervention: Parishioners are counting their blessings after winning the extremely rare tickets to Friday's Papal Mass at Madison Square Garden.

Watch interview on PIX 11 here. 

These two friends and winners are counting their blessings after a very difficult summer. They were parishioners at the Church of the Nativity on the Lower East Side which closed in August against the will of the parish.

Tickets to see the Pope were distributed to parishes within the Archdiocese of New York. One Nativity member won a ticket through Most Holy Redeemer, while two others (a father and his adult daughter) coincidentally won tickets from Old St. Patrick's Cathedral. Nativity closed its doors as part of the Archdiocese of New York's largest reorganization in the city's history. 

Displaced faithful pray for parishes to reopen, Cardinal Dolan sees chance to pack pews

By MELANIE GRAYCE WESTSept. 21, 2015 8:46 p.m. ET

1 COMMENTS

It is on the steps of Our Lady of Peace where the sadness of a parish closure meets the anticipation of this week’s visit by Pope Francis.

In front of the Roman Catholic church’s locked doors, parishioners of this now-closed Upper East Side parish have met regularly to say the rosary, light candles and pose beside a cardboard cutout of a smiling Pope Francis.

The scene has drawn as many questions as selfies. That is the point, said Tami Ellen McLaughlin, who bought the paper pope for about $150. She thought the cardboard likeness would be a smart way to raise awareness of her parish, which held its last Mass on July 31.

Our Lady of Peace was one of the parishes swept up in the recent and largest-everrealignment of parishes in the Archdiocese of New York. Parishioners have appealed the decision on closure to a Vatican office, and parishioners elsewhere are doing the same for their spiritual homes.

The appeals process may take years, but one quick solution would be an intervention from Pope Francis. Since the closure, said Ms. McLaughlin, parishioners have directed letters to the Vatican and prayers to the pontiff. The hope in those prayers, said Ms. McLaughlin, is that Pope Francis “will save our church.”

Pope Francis arrives in New York amid a time of change for the country’s second-largest diocese—after the one in Los Angeles—with some 2.8 million Catholics. The recent reorganization, which condensed 368 parishes to 296, is the result of a decades-in-the-making shift in both resources and reach of the archdiocese.

Gone are many of the city’s European immigrant neighborhoods filled with Catholics. Instead, there are new areas filled with Spanish-speaking Catholics and even more Catholics living in nearby suburbs. With fewer Catholics residing in New York City, parishes faltered amid empty pews.

At the same time and for the parishes that remain, there is a staffing issue. The archdiocese, like many others, sees fewer men entering the priesthood, while more priests are reaching retirement age.

Catholic schools, too, face challenges. In 2011, the archdiocese closed dozens of Catholic schools in a major reorganization that trimmed costs and brought nearly all of them under local boards that include pastors, educators and business leaders.

That change freed most schools from dependence on a local parish and its coffers, officials say. But the realignment didn’t solve one important issue: The archdiocese’s 218 Catholic schools, which charge a modest tuition and offer significant financial aid, are often less attractive to parents who see free charter schools as an equal, similar education.

Despite the challenges, officials hope the papal visit will create new momentum for the archdiocese. In a recent interview, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said he planned to “lasso some of the enthusiasm” coming off Pope Francis’ trip.

His hope, he said, is to channel the excitement into programs for adult faith formation and evangelization to fill the pews back up.

“Pretty much when all is said and done, the reason we had to make tough decisions about merging and shuttering sites is because a good chunk of our people don’t come anymore,” said Cardinal Dolan. “The people are out there, we’ve got to get them back.”

The visit itself costs the archdiocese around $2.8 million, said Cardinal Dolan, an amount he described as “worth every penny.” At least $1 million has been donated to cover expenses, he said, and the space at Madison Square Garden, which will host Mass with the pope on Friday, came at “no cost.”

The pope’s visit has prompted generosity elsewhere, said Cardinal Dolan. On Monday, Christine and Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman and chief executive of private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP, donated $40 million to the Inner-City Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships for the archdiocese’s Catholic schools. Almost 70,000 students attend Catholic schools in the archdiocese.

Pope Francis 

The papal buzz and coming-together of the city’s Catholic community sounds good to Mercedes Sanchez, who fought to keep her East Village parish, Church of the Nativity from closing. The process of trying to keep it alive left her and others discouraged, she said, but she is still hoping to persuade the archdiocese to repurpose Nativity’s buildings into a shrine for the late Dorothy Day, a parishioner and activist who is now a candidate for Catholic sainthood.

The pope’s visit might not serve as an opportunity to further that discussion, Ms. Sanchez said, but it could be a kind of restart for Catholics who don’t regularly attend Mass.