When I am not Lithuanian or American, I am Slambovian. According to the Slambovian ministry of propaganda, the Circus of Dreams will be leaving their haunts up north to bring good vibes to Manhattan on this spookiest of evenings.
More about Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams
Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom you brighten the night.
He is beautiful and cheerful, and powerful and strong.
Be praised, my Lord, through those who forgive for love of you;
through those who endure sickness and trial.
Happy those who endure in peace,
for by you, Most High, they will be crowned.
Be praised, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death,
from whose embrace no living person can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those she finds doing your most holy will.
The second death can do no harm to them.
Praise and bless my Lord, and give thanks,
and serve him with great humility.
"Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it
Everything is yours; do with it what you will
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me."
St. Ignatius, pray for us!
A. Father William Wolkovich-Valkavicius.
Father William Wolkovich first entered my life after he left his. In 2006, when Our Lady of Vilnius fell under the shadow of impending closure, an interested Bostonian sent me an article from Boston.com titled A farewell with laughter, tears: Father Bill's retirement adds to sadness at church slated to close. The article uses reportage of Father Bill's last Mass at St. George's as a point of departure for a brief bio of Father Bill, a portrait of the parish and an exploration of church closures and their aftermath in the Archdiocese of Boston.
In reading the article, I was struck by similarites between St. George and Our Lady of Vilnius, the most striking being the strong and vital presence of the Portuguese in a parish founded by and for Lithuanians. The other impressive feature was Father Bill's commentary on the impending closure. Elderly, in ill-health and with nothing to lose, he stepped into the pulpit and likened the Church to an alcoholic mother, saying the following:
"The people in the 65 parishes designated for closing don't agree with the behavior of our alcoholic mother," he said. "At present we are living through the worst plague of all in US Catholic history."
"How do you respond to an alcoholic mother?" he asked during his sermon. "Do you abandon her? Do you so focus on her weakness that you forget all the good she has done for you since your infancy? I can only plead with you not to abandon your alcoholic mother. Keep trying to love her, despite the hurt she has caused us. She is unique in our lives."
After reading this article I was so impressed with Father Bill that I trolled the Internet for more information about him. The first thing that I found was an article by him in Lituanus titled THE LITHUANIAN ANGLE IN A HOLLYWOOD MOVIE: AN ANALYSIS OF 'ONCE AROUND'. In this article Father Bill chronicles his role as a technical advisor on the film and his cameo as a priest performing a baptism. He reflects on how the film was true and not true to Lithuanian culture. As I read this article I got a stronger sense of Father Bill as a person, a Lithuanian-American and a priest.
I don't know why, but I finally saw the movie on VHS this weekend. The film features Richard Dreyfuss as Sam Sharpe, a hard driving and free wheeling first generation Lithuanian-American who marries into a close-knit Italian-American family and inadvertently causes strife and havoc. Richard Dreyfuss sings a song in Lithuanian in his wife's hospital room. In a later scene, Father Bill sings "Marija, Marija" after baptizing the baby.
This is the first time I have seen any Lithuanian content in a major-studio American film release.
Bluebirds were rarely seen in Westchester, where I live. People became concerned about this, researched the birds' nesting needs and built houses according to precise specifications, placing them in carefully prescribed locations at a specific height. Bluebirds came and built nests. I have seen them.
I prevail upon our beloved "alcoholic mother" to unboard our habitats so that we can repopulate her home. Father Bill was a rare bird, as was Aldona Kepalaite and Dalia Bulgaris. As are all of us who love Our Lady of Vilnius. I am honored to consider myself a fledgeling in this spiritual lineage, and I will continue to resist extinction.
Post Script:
William Lawrence Wolkovich-Valkavicius died on January 12, 2005, of Parkinson's and Crohn's diseases at the age of seventy-five. On June 14, 2004, he had retired as pastor of St. George's Church in Norwood, Massachusetts, which was then closed. The son of Lithuanian immigrants, he was born in Hudson, Massachusetts, attended St. John's Seminary, Brighton, and was ordained on September 29, 1953. He held various parochial positions in the Archdiocese of Boston before being appointed pastor of St. George's in 1982. Meanwhile he studied the history of Lithuanians in the United States. Five of his books were reviewed in the Catholic Historical Review: Lithuanian Pioneer Priest of New England: The Life, Struggles and Tragic Death of Reverend Joseph Zebris, 1860–1915 (1980); Immigrants and Yankees in Nashoba Valley, Massachusetts. Interethnic and Interreligious Conflict and Accommodation of Irish, French-Canadians, Poles, Lithuanians and Italians (1981); Lithuanians of Norwood, Massachusetts. A Social Portrait in a Multiethnic Town (1988); Lithuanian Fraternalism: Seventy-Five Years of U.S. Knights of Lithuania (1988); and Lithuanian Religious Life in America: A Compendium of 150 Roman Catholic Parishes and Institutions (3 vols., 1991 ff.). Besides his books he wrote more than fifty articles. Father Wolkovich was also a talented musician and renowned violinist who played in many public performances. In 1997 in execution of a decree of the President of the Republic of Lithuania he was inducted into the Order of Gediminas at the Lithuanian Embassy in Washington, D.C., being cited "for his lifetime historical and musical activities." He had been a member of the American Catholic Historical Association since 1977.
I just learned from my AM scan of Whispers in the Loggia that Pope Benedict fell and injured his wrist, requiring a surgery that is now taking place.
Join me in prayer for his safety and rapid recovery. Let us ask Our Lady and Blessed George Matulaitis for their intercession.A group of spirited Lithuanians and Lithuanian-Americans gathered in Times Square to join Lithuanians all over the world in singing the national anthem in honor of the millenium of the first mention of Lithuania in history.
Many familiar faces from Our Lady of Vilnius were there and it was a pleasure to see them.
Who says we don't need a Lithuanian Church? This would have been a pretty good turnout for Sunday Mass.
This evening I found myself on the couch watching TV out of sheer inertia. A few minutes into PBS' "Wide Angle", I began to get energized. The show featured Abigail Disney, producer of the documentary, "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" and her protagonist, Leymah Gbowee. It is a story of grass roots organization by Liberian women who wanted an end to war and the promise of a civilized life for their children.
This story illustrates the power of prayer, the working of the Holy Spirit and the true value of humanity. Ms. Gbowee is a radiant mixture of strength, humility, candor and intelligence.
While covering the celebration of the 200 year anniversary of Old St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street, Lincoln Anderson of The Villager addressed Archbishop Dolan regarding Our Lady of Vilnius:
"Asked later about the fate of another Downtown Catholic church, Our Lady of Vilna on Broome St. in Soho, Dolan told The Villager he was sure his predecessor, Cardinal Edward Egan, made the right decisions. More than two years ago, the archdiocese closed Our Lady of Vilna, citing its damaged roof and a dwindling congregation. But the church’s former members and its supporters in the city’s Lithuanian community contend it is repairable and that it still had a healthy-sized congregation. They filed a lawsuit against the archdiocese last year to reopen the church.
“After eight weeks, I’m hardly versed in all the particulars,” Dolan replied when asked about Our Lady of Vilna. “At a cursory glance, I would say that the decisions that Cardinal Egan reached were very sane.”
Told that Our Lady of Vilna’s supporters want to meet with him, hoping he’ll be more sympathetic than Egan, Dolan responded, “I’m always happy to meet with everybody, but if it’s to change the decision Cardinal Egan made, it might not be that productive.”
Read Mr. Anderson's article Dolan celebrates 200 years of love’at Old St. Pat’s in its entirety and add your comments to the forum."Cleanliness is next to godliness," so they say. There is a certain relief, perhaps even joy, in "coming clean," an item from the North Bronx lexicon of my childhood. The lie or deception between yourself and its recipient goes away. A wall falls. Intimacy is restored and there is a homecoming. The Roman Catholic Church ritualizes this process in its sacrament of Confession, more recently named "Reconciliation." Would that the Church would look us, its members, in the eye and come clean instead of being dragged to the bathtub by the courts and the press.
In addition to presenting Bishop DiMarzio's public statements on the topic, the article examines the role of Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who recently wrote a competing bill that would not lift the statute of limitiations on abuse lawsuits, and the forced resignation of Father James O'Shea from his post as executive director of Churches United.
dotCommonweal is already on this scene with Paul Moses' post "The Bishop, the priest and the pol".
Strike the harp and join the forum.
The closure of Our Lady of Vilnius has been a spiritual exercise of the highest order. All of this emotion and experience is crystallized in a concert that will take place at 7:00 PM on Saturday, June 5th at the New York Society for Ethical Culture at 64th Street and Central Park West.
We invite you to mourn and to rejoice.
Saturday's New York Times piece, Hopes and Habits Persevere at Churches Gone, but Not Destroyed by Paul Vitello and Christine Haughney, begins like a breath of fresh air stating a truth that we have observed, but which had not yet been uttered in a large public forum:
"During the peak of the real estate boom, one of New York’s largest landowners unloaded more than $100 million worth of property — and might have sold more if not for the parishioners who clung to their churches and blocked the bulldozers. "
The article provides a comprehensive view of church closures and real estate transactions in the interim between the much-vaunted "success" of the realignment and the present. The article is accompanied by an evocative slideshow which includes us, above, hanging tough in prayer as we always have.
The novelist Mary Gordon describes the loss of churches:
"...like pulling the heart out of these neighborhoods.” She said that “it destroys the conduit between the sacred and the ordinary.”
Our hearts are beating with this conduit that we pray and work to restore. May Our Lady give us strength.
Mindaugas' camera seems as much a part of him as a facial feature. Little did I know that when I gazed into his third eye and spoke my mind, I would end up on Lithuanian internet TV, Niujorkas-Lietuva TV. Follow this link for footage and interviews taken outside of the Apellate Division. See Mindaugas on the other side of the camera, for a change!
Thanks to Mindaugas for keeping all 3 eyes on the situation, for Niujorkas-Lietuva TV for keeping us in the public eye, to our attorney Harry Kresky for his adept presentation of our case, to the Save Our Lady of Vilnius Committee members and all of those who love Our Lady of Vilnius parish enough to offer themselves, their prayers and their financial support to help restore it.
Today our case was one of many on a lengthy calendar. Our attorney, Harry Kresky, fielded pointed questions from 4 judges (one had recused himself) who had studied the briefs. The attorney for the Archdiocese of New York, Peter Johnson, submitted his arguments to the same process. I could not even speculate about any outcome after witnessing the exchanges among the judges and the attorneys.
The Our Lady of Vilnius supporters sat in a row in the back; Aldona, Joe, Adele, Gediminas, Elaine and Mindaugas. I was honored to be among them, as I have always felt honored to be included in the life of Our Lady of Vilnius parish. I brought my miniature of the church icon with me; the same icon that had received a Papal blessing at Yankee Stadium last April. I held it in cupped hands and prayed.
Father Eugene had said that our church was Our Lady's house and would survive if it was God's will. My prayer was for the Holy Spirit to prevail in this process unfolding before me.
Throughout today's proceedings I was struck by the beauty of this courthouse, inside and out. The beauty of the statuary, stained glass, the murals, the ceiling and the bench itself both distracted and consoled.
Our Lady of Vilnius, the church and the parish, hang in the balance.
Tomorrow at 2:00 PM our case will be heard in the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court.
Directions to Court
27 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10010
212) 340-0400
