Church of the Holy Innocents, Home of NYC's Only Daily Latin Mass, Might Close

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Sharon Otterman

Holy Innocents, on West 37th Street, dates to 1869.
Credit Christopher Gregory for The New York Times

NEW YORK---As the Rev. Justin Wylie took the pulpit at the Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan last month, anger and anxiety emanated from the pews. The church is the only one in New York City to offer a daily traditional Latin Mass, but an archdiocesan panel had recommended that it be closed. Nationally, about 440 churches celebrate the Latin Mass at least once a week, double the number that did so in 2007, according to Coalition Ecclesia Dei, an organization that promotes the Mass. Faced with a shortage of priests and a declining number of parishioners, the New York Archdiocese — which includes the Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island and seven counties north of New York City — has been determining which of its 368 parishes it will shutter through a planning process called Making All Things New. [link]