Parish hopes to save priceless art in New York church slated for merger—UPDATED

An interesting sidebar to the church merger story in the Archdiocese of New York, via The New York Post: 

A Midtown church slated to close as part of a massive shakeup by the Archdiocese of New York is a veritable art museum filled with dozens of stunning murals painted by a world-renowned artist — and parishioners fear the treasured works could be lost forever.

Our Lady of the Scapular and St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church in Kips Bay is adorned with 45 works by Constantino Brumidi, who spent years working to capture the essence of Christ in the more-than-150-year-old church.

“They are absolutely wonderful,” said the church’s pastor, the Rev. Robert Robbins. “It’s really sad.”

The Italian-born painter is most famed for his murals painted in the dome of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC.

St. Stephen’s collection includes the largest Brumidi painting in the world, said Robbins — a towering mural above the altar that depicts Christ’s crucifixion.

And Christ’s final hours are depicted in in the Stations of the Cross a series of detailed Brumidi paintings that surround worshippers along the church’s walls.

…Robbins said he will be taking over three parishes that will merge into a nearby church next year after St. Stephen’s closes along with 30 others throughout the archdiocese, which spans three boroughs and several upstate counties.

“The history of that church goes back to 1848,” he said, adding the church had the largest parish in the United States just before the turn of the 20th century.

“On a Sunday, there would be 20,000 people at the church,” he said, referring to the church’s glory days. “To go from 20,000 down to a couple of hundred breaks your heart.”

Read more. 

UPDATE: A reader writes:

One of the parishes scheduled to close, St. Joseph’s on Monroe St., is home to the statue carried in the street festival in the Godfather Part II. The St. Rocco statue, now over 100 years old, was insured for over $1million at the time. In addition, the pastor at the time (Rev. Joseph Moffo, CS – now deceased) portrayed the priest in the street festival. A number of parishioners (including the altar boys) participated in the two weeks of filming.

The classic scene is below.