{"id":24149,"date":"2013-06-24T06:56:40","date_gmt":"2013-06-24T10:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=24149"},"modified":"2016-09-30T16:03:30","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T20:03:30","slug":"last-call-for-new-yorks-saloon-priest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/06\/last-call-for-new-yorks-saloon-priest\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Call for New York’s “Saloon Priest”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A great profile of a remarkable New York figure, from the New York Times:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Rev. Peter Colapietro was playing down the fuss \u2014 the goodbyes from the neighborhood people, the Mass scheduled for Sunday to celebrate his years at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church, in the shadow of Times Square. \u201cI\u2019m just moving to the East Side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For 18 years as pastor of Holy Cross \u2014 and three more as parish administrator \u2014 he has presided over one of the most varied congregations in the city. In the pews at Mass, he sees actors and stagehands from the nearby Broadway theaters. He sees workers from the post office across 42nd Street. He sees bus drivers and commuters from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. He sees young Wall Street types from the new apartment buildings that tower over the old Hell\u2019s Kitchen neighborhood. And then there are the worshipers of Times Square in the 21st century: the tourists.<\/p>\n

Father Colapietro is as distinctive as the congregation. \u201cA Damon Runyon character in robes,\u201d the writer Brian McDonald called him. Lili Fable, 73, a lifelong member of Holy Cross who runs the Poseidon Bakery a few blocks from the church, said he was \u201ca character and an old-fashioned priest, all at the same time.\u201d Newspaper writers called him \u201cthe saloon priest\u201d \u2014 he was a bartender before he became a priest, and for years he was\u00a0a regular at Elaine\u2019s<\/a>, the celebrity hangout on the Upper East Side that closed in 2011.<\/p>\n

In a crowded restaurant or a crowded sanctuary, he would be hard to miss. He stands 6 feet tall and says he weighs 325 pounds. \u201cI probably gained about 70 pounds here,\u201d he says, sipping bottled water in the kitchen of the rectory. \u201cI have nobody else to blame but myself because it\u2019s my own cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clueless bartenders used to mistake him for one of his many famous friends,\u00a0Jerry Nachman<\/a>, who ran The New York Post and MSNBC before his death in 2004.<\/p>\n

And now Father Colapietro is leaving Holy Cross. The rules of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York say that pastors are to serve for six years, with an option for another six. He was allowed to remain for still another six; in 2007, when his second term ended, Holy Cross was undergoing a $6 million renovation, a project he had championed. But now he is being transferred to the Church of St. Monica, on 79th Street near First Avenue.<\/p>\n

Thirty-seven blocks uptown, about three and a half miles: That is how far he is going, but he might as well be off to another planet. \u201cIf you\u2019re in Loyola,\u201d said Mrs. Fable, referring to the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola at Park Avenue and 84th Street, \u201cyou\u2019re dealing with Kennedys. When you\u2019re on 42nd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenue, it\u2019s a different sensibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stories from Holy Cross are grittier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0Mickey Rourke<\/a>\u00a0story,\u201d Father Colapietro says. \u201cYou can Google it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He tells it anyway. \u201cI see this guy walking toward me,\u201d he says. \u201cCowboy hat. Dog. I realize it\u2019s Mickey Rourke. He\u2019s going to kill somebody and commit suicide.\u201d This was in 1994, when Mr. Rourke\u2019s marriage to the actress and model\u00a0Carr\u00e9 Otis<\/a>\u00a0was disintegrating. Our Sunday Visitor, a Catholic publication, later said he was on his way to kill a man\u00a0he believed had raped Ms. Otis<\/a>\u00a0while she was high on drugs. Father Colapietro said Mr. Rourke had written a suicide note.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know this man, Father Peter,\u201d Mr. Rourke told the magazine. \u201cI just walked in his church\u201d that day \u2014 \u201cwalked in the right door and met the right priest.\u201d Father Colapietro, Mr. Rourke said, \u201ctook away my gun and had me leave the note with St. Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes.\u201d (Father Colapietro says he does not remember taking the gun. \u201cWe sat here and smoked cigarettes and drank wine and left as friends,\u201d he says.)<\/p>\n

Another time a man lobbed a beer bottle during Sunday morning Mass. It struck one of the steps leading to the altar. When the church was planning the renovation, Father Colapietro insisted on leaving the gash in the step untouched.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read it all.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A great profile of a remarkable New York figure, from the New York Times:\u00a0 The Rev. Peter Colapietro was playing down the fuss \u2014 the goodbyes from the neighborhood people, the Mass scheduled for Sunday to celebrate his years at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church, in the shadow of Times Square. \u201cI\u2019m just moving to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-priests"],"yoast_head":"\nLast Call for New York's "Saloon Priest"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A great profile of a remarkable New York figure, from the New York Times:\u00a0 The Rev. 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