Getting Sentimental Over You, Old Parishioner

On March 12, 2007 "Old Parishioner" submitted one of my favorite comments to this blog. Ironically, though he takes issue with the effort to save the church, his voice is very "Our Lady of Vilnius." He is clearly a person that I would have enjoyed arguing with in our basement hall. Here's to you, Old Parishioner. If there was a booze with your name to stand on the liquor store shelf next to "Old Crow" and "Old Grand Dad," I would raise a shot in honor of you!

Old parishioner said...

"Anonymous, are you for real? I understand that OLV has emotional, even ethnic and perhaps historical value to the Lithuanian community of the New York area (though I do not remember seeing the same reaction when St. George in Williamsburg Brooklyn was closed, but perhaps being in the geographical center of the then Puerto Rican ghetto detracted considerably from whatever value it had), but to speak of it as a structure worthy of landmark status is beyond the most kind stretches of credibility. OLV is a hideous ecclesiastical structure that should have long ago been demolished and replaced with something more fitting the dignity of God, the Sacrifice of the Mass, and the people of Lithuania. In simple English the place is a dump, its location is ludicrous, and its importance is arguable. It was a dump before the renovations under Father Palubinskas, and it became even more so after Father Vito “UP DATED” the interior. I tell you what see if you can get some of the folks at voice of the faithless to take the building off the hands of the Arch-diocese and turn it into a museum; you can display those hideous windows that Fr. Palubinskas rescued from St. George, at a great cost to the parish I might add, and display them for all of Soho to see—the artistic glory of the Lithuanian community in exile."