I just discovered that they are tearing down the church where my parents..

[Princess Turandot]

got married and where my father's funeral mass was held in 1978. It had been used for years by the Armenian Catholic Church as their main church in NYC, who I gather got bumped to some church in Brooklyn. This was not a church with a parish per se, but the Armenian masses on Sunday were apparently well attended and they paid for its upkeep. It appears they decided to close it simply because of the potential value of the real estate. It's across the street from dorms for one of the colleges in East-Greenwich Village area, and NYU, which is also in the Village is constantly building new dorms. Yesterday I walked by it, and noticed that the old rectory building was demolished,and there was scaffolding around the church, then took a look at what the construction company's posted sign was and it said they were doing a demolition.

At one time it had been the National Shrine to St Anne and according to a website I read, had one of a few 'Privileged Altar' in the United States: a Requiem Mass said upon it grants a plenary indulgence to a soul in Purgatory.This website has photos of it, although the writer of the webpage is not complimentary of the decision to close it down.

http://www.anti-abomination.com/nationalshrineofsaintann.htm

The interior had not been restored at the time my father was buried from there. The building also did a stint as a Baptist Church and as a synagogue before becoming a Catholic church.

[UrbScotty]

1. The Archdiocese of Detroit is closing my dad's old high school.

He is proobably going through the same emotions as you.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Americans tear down buildings considered old -- which can mean

as little as twenty years after they're built! It's most infuriating, especially when the nuildings are churches with beautiful interiors and many memories. Our government doesn't put the money into preservation that European countries (especially Italy and England) do. I'm not sure if that's because most Americans don't care about hiatoric preservation or because business, with its insistence on profit and the bottom line, has too much control over government here. Maybe both.

But people abroad also seem to be willing to preserve old properties. I've got a cousin in Devon who lives in a farmhouse that was built in the 1600s, farming land that's been farmed by his family all that time, and Italian friends who live in apartments built in, respectively, a villa built by the Medici, a former cloister, and a former grain mill, all dating back to the 1500s or earlier. Perhaps their daily reality, living in and among buildings that are several centuries old, makes them more willing to have their governments use their tax monies to subsidize public buildings like churches.

[regnaD kciN]

3. When I lived in Geneva...

...I attended a couple of public schools that were built in the early 1800s. It was considered quite normal. Is there even a single public school from that era still in use in the entire United States?

We really live in a disposable society. I think it's an inherent part of our culture -- if you don't like something, knock it down and replace it or just leave it and go elsewhere (i.e. "Go west, young man!"). In other words, reinvent yourself or your surroundings. An important part of the American mythos is the limitless frontier, so that people feel they don't have to accept any limitations. Whereas, in Europe, where are you going to go? You can't totally recreate your surroundings to suit yourself, so you have little choice to make the best of what you've got.

This particular case, though, borders on cultural vandalism. Living here on the west coast, at the limit of the limitless frontier, it's depressing to see how many Roman churches, particularly in the suburbs, are little more than brick or cinderblock gymnasia fitted with pews and an altar at one end. Purely utilitarian, and purely boring. Finding a place like St. Anne's, which brings to mind the many churches I visited during my days in Europe, is a relief. To realize that it is being sacrificed to the gods of "commercial development" is maddening...and that's not even taking into account any emotional ties one might have to the parish.

:-(