Sunday, January 25, 2015

Book: New York Catholics

With enthusiasm, I recommend a new book by Patrick McNamara, "New York Catholics: Faith, attitude & the works!"  It is a paperback of more than 200 pages, published by Orbis Books and also available on Amazon.  Historian and archivist McNamara has presented short biographies of seventy-six Catholics who have lived in the five boroughs.  Each presentation is sharp, clear and right on target in describing these outstanding people.
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Among Brooklynites he describes:
Peter Turner, petitioner for a Brooklyn church in 1822 and a principal founder of St. James, Jay Street.
Fr. Johann Stephan Raffeiner, who in 1841 used his own money to buy the Meserole farm for the new parish of the Most Holy Trinity.  In 1853, he invited the Dominican Sisters from Regensburg, to live and work in his parish.
Fr. Sylvester Malone, in the 1850's a Republican and Unionist when the Democrats were generally pro-slavery.  For fifty years he was pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul, Williamsburg. He got along admirably with the non-Catholic neighbors, and he promoted harmony.
Bishop John Loughlin, first bishop of the diocese of Brooklyn 1853-1891.
Thomas Francis Meehan, newspaperman, historian, and assistant editor of the 1914 Catholic Encyclopedia.  He and his family resided on Greene Avenue.
Patrick Scanlan, editor of the Brooklyn Tablet from 1917 to 1968.
Msgr. Bernard Quinn, in 1922 the founding pastor of the parish of St. Peter Claver.
Bishop Francis Xavier Ford, 1892-1952, martyr.
Msgr. Bryan Karvelis, priest and activist at Transfiguration parish 1956-2005.
Bishop Guy Sansaricq, who has ministered to Haitian immigrants for more than five decades.
Ed Wilkinson, editor of the Brooklyn Tablet since 1985.
Paul Moses, newspaperman and scholar.
Sr. Ann Marie Young, of Visitation Monastery, Bay Ridge.
Rudy Vargas IV, helper of Hispanic Catholcs.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

St. Augustine, Sixth Avenue


Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.





The above 2015 view looks north on Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, with roof repairs just begun. The towers were renovated in 2009. The rectory address is 116 Sixth Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11217, between Sterling Place and Park Place. The telephone is 718-783-3132, and the website is linked here.  
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The church was built in 1888, under the design of the Profitt brothers.



The above view shows the Sterling Place (south) end of the former parish school buildings, which run through to Park Place.  Sisters of St. Joseph taught elementary grades at this end of the building.  
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Tragically, on December 16, 1960, teachers and students saw an airliner descend along Stirling Place (left to right in this photo) before it crashed near Seventh Avenue. 
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From the 1930's until the 1970's, De La Salle Christian Brothers lived in the building where the bay window indicates their chapel.  They taught at St. Augustine's Diocesan High School, now housing a public middle school.  Both the Brothers and the high school used the address 64 Park Place.  A link to that school's alumni organization is here.  One alumnus of the school was Governor Hugh Carey.
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Before the Brothers moved here from St. James Cathedral School in the 1930's, the house was the Sisters' convent.  They moved across the street to the corner of Park Place and Sixth Avenue.


In August of 2016, an alumnus of both the elementary school and high school gave me two links that explain further development of the property.  It seems that part of the property will see 62 condos built within the existing buildings.
The links are HERE and Brooklyn Eagle 4.12.2016.