Bishop Dennis Sullivan's Reminiscences Relevant to OLV

Bishop recounts structural, spiritual work at Saint Teresa’s

Ten years have passed since Our Lady of Vilnius lost their legal case against the Archdiocese of New York, but the church, the parish and the parishioners live in my heart and imagination.  There are still many mysteries associated with the parish and the circumstances of its extinction that perplex me and which I would like to see solved.

This article in the Catholic Star Herald is the sixth in a series of Bishop Dennis Sullivan's retrospective on his 50 years in the priesthood.  

A Tale of Two Roofs

In this installment he looks back on the 1995 collapse of the roof of St. Teresa's on Henry Street.   This church was the first home of Our Lady of Vilnius Parish before the church at 570 Broome Street was built.   Bishop Sullivan recounts the factors considered in rebuilding St. Teresa's and the painstaking effort to restore it.

Salient quotes, er, clues:

"A series of meetings with archdiocesan officials took place to determine the future of the old church building.  It was decided that money would be loaned to the parish (how much and from whom?) to clear out the plaster and to fortify the ceiling in the lower church."

"The archdiocese began to study the need for 21 parishes on the east side of Manhattan below 14th Street. Most of those parishes had their roots in the different Catholic ethnic groups that immigrated to New York City in the 19th century. Each parish formed a committee to evaluate the need for the parish. Lots of emotion accompanied those discussions. Within blocks of Saint Teresa’s were four other parishes, and we had a church building with issues."

"After a few years of discussions and evaluations, the decision was reached that the parish was to remain and that the church building had to be restored for use. The monies to do this would come from the sale of valuable properties the parish owned. " (What properties and for how much?)

"Cardinal O’Connor permitted me to sell the property, which was contrary to archdiocesan policy. (A policy or a custom? If a policy, would love to read it) All of a sudden, we had money!"

"The necessary parish studies of the Lower East Side that the archdiocese had undertaken also required lots of attention. No one wants to see their parish church eliminated. I learned so much about the love of people for their parish, but also, I learned about the needs of the archdiocese." (Bishop Sullivan held meetings with all of the parishes identified for possible closure under Cardinal Egan's "Realignment.  He never met with a delegation from Our Lady of Vilnius because it was not included in the realignment.  It was summarily closed.)

In the early 2000's the roof of Our Lady of Vilnius was deemed unsafe and a scaffold was placed in the center of the sanctuary so that the roof could be monitored.  There was a concern that a heavy snowfall could cause the roof to collapse.  A heater was installed to melt snow and ice that might burden the flat roof.  Mass was moved to the basement.  Weddings and baptisms took place at other churches for reasons of aesthetics.  Funerals could not be held in the basement because it was impossible to carry a casket down the narrow staircase.

Communications from the parish trustees inquiring about the roof and its repair were stonewalled.  Insurance monies were never released and a generous offer by a parishioner to contribute significantly to the repair was not considered.

The condition of the roof was one of the reasons for closure cited by the Archdiocese, as was the paucity of weddings, baptisms and funerals resulting from the closed sanctuary.

After the church was closed and slated for demolition the roof heater was disconnected.  Despite record snowfalls the roof remained intact until it was demolished.