Today Mayor De Blasio unveiled his $41 billion ten year plan for affordable housing. (see Bloomberg "New York's De Blasio Unveils $41 Billion Plan for Affordable Housing" ) Just last week I learned that Our Lady of Vilnius is on a list of sites recommended by Community Boards for affordable housing.
This church is our body. The communion of sinners and saints that has gathered there since 1910 is its soul. Those among us who are living see this building as a visible symbol of the faith, fortitude and grit of our ancestors. It is the symbol of the merciful God in which we believe and of the purity and love of His mother Mary. A blow to this church is like a blow to my body, to our bodies.
Ironically, as Hudson Square is becoming residential and welcoming people who may need a spiritual center, its only church may be destroyed. The ultimate irony would be if affordable housing, the antidote to the gentrification that led to the church's end, would lead to the demise of this humble but inspiring structure.
We should pray that the Holy Spirit inform the hearts and minds of everyone involved with the future of our body, our pieta.
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