PRAY TO SAN GENNARO – MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD CHURCH IS CLOSING

Little Italy, Manhattan, December 2014 -  All the prayers of the faithful may not help this time as the church of the patron saint of the annual San Gennaro feast in Manhattan ’s Little Italy is closing its doors and will be merged with the original St Patrick’s Old Cathedral at 263 Mulberry Street, several blocks to the north. The move is a byproduct of the regional consolidation being done by the Catholic Church to conserve resources in part by low attendance in churches and low priest availability. The absorption plan was disclosed by the New York Diocese on November 2nd by Cardinal Dolan but only now are the details emerging.

 

Of the 80 parishes in Manhattan , 29 of them are south of 14^th Street – a veritable glut of empty churches on Sundays considering the old constituency just isn’t there anymore. At the turn of the 20th Century, a little less than 2 million lived in this part of Manhattan – a great number were immigrants. The churches were crowded then and the focal point of religious life.

However, the old crowd returns for events but the pews remain empty at other times. This is a church where generations of parishioners were baptized, received first communion and got married. Now all that remains to be had is a funeral mass, this time for the closure of the church.

As you could imagine, the San Gennaro congregation isn’t happy with this development.

The church opened its doors in the 1880s and was a focal point of Italian immigrants taking up residence in the area.

This development is further evidence of the shrinking of Manhattan ’s Little Italy in recent years.