Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parishioners Don’t Want to Merge
Faced with the prospect of the imminent merging of their historic Roman Catholic parish with two others located within a few mile radius, members of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church have taken to grassroots efforts to try to save their historic worshipping community.
Hesitant to come on the record with their concerns that the New York Archdiocese is playing favorites in their decision-making process, some parishioners have told The White Plains Examiner that they want a more transparent process and they want to know exactly what criteria have been used in making the decisions to keep one community open while closing the doors on another community’s sanctuary.
What parishioners at Our Lady of Mount Carmel find particularly hard to believe is that their church may be shuttered even though the congregation is in the midst of a building renovation campaign that raised over $500,000 to fix its historic bell tower. Scaffolding now covers the outside of the edifice.
As part of the Archdiocesan program “Making All Things New,” Cardinal Dolan has sent a proposal to member parishes of a Cluster group of 46, which outlines the following possible changes.
The parishes of St. John the Evangelist (148 Hamilton Ave.), St. Bernard (51 Prospect St.), and Our Lady of Mount Carmel (92 S. Lexington) will merge. The Church of St. John the Evangelist will be designated as the parish church. Masses and sacraments will continue to be celebrated at St. Bernard Church. At the present time, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, although remaining a church, which may be used on special occasions, Masses and sacraments will not be celebrated.
Responses were requested back by March 1. A final decision is expected by mid-April.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel congregation’s initial response has been to pray to keep their doors open, establish a grassroots marketing campaign and a petition to try to gain public attention and demand a presence in the decision-making process.
One parishioner said that with all financial control possibly going to St. John’s, many members of Mount Carmel parish might seek out other places to go. “This is the community we have chosen,” he said.
The New York Archdiocese has plans to merge 31 parishes. There is much speculation about the Archdiocese’s plan to raise funds with sales of the closed properties.
Parishioners at Mount Carmel have expressed concerns that because of their location, the property has been identified as “valuable” but they feel violated by administrators who have not allowed them to have any say about the future of a place they not only call their own, but which they have invested in financially and emotionally for many generations.
The priests who run Our Lady of Mount Carmel are Claretian Missionaries. They are not Archdiocesan priests. They spend much of their time as a delegation to the United Nations and working in hospitals. They have focused their parish ministry in White Plains under the direction of Father Ralph Berg.
According to the parish web site (olmcwp.org), Our Lady of Mount Carmel came into being in 1889 when Father Paolino Sapienza gathered a small group of new, Italian speaking Americans about him for Mass. They met first, under the auspices of the Sisters of the Divine Compassion (based at 52 North Broadway, White Plains), and later in the clubrooms of the Society of the Stella D’Italia and in Saint John’s Hall.
In 1902, the trustees of this pioneering group, bought a house and grounds at number 5 Smith Street, near the Harlem railroad station, the first property the church was to own. They built a small wooden chapel next to it and for 13 years services were conducted there. Father Joseph Marinaro (1902-1915) was the first Pastor.
In 1916, the Westchester Highway Commission announced that all buildings in the area were to be razed to make way for the Bronx River Parkway. The parish was able to secure a building at 27 Brookfield Street, then the heart of the business section, covered over today by the new County Court House complex. Mass was celebrated in the basement of a four story building but, soon it became imperative to find larger quarters.
In 1922, the spiritual care of the Italian colony was given over to the Stigmatine Fathers Congregation. The first Stigmatine Pastor in White Plains was Father Leo Sella, C.S.S. (1922-1932). Early in his tenure he obtained approval from Patrick Cardinal Hayes for the Italians to build their own church. He was able to obtain the Elks Club on South Lexington Avenue, which at one time had been the City Hospital. This three-story building was used for the rectory. Behind this was another building with two big halls. These were later the rectory and the classroom building. The property was purchased on May 1, 1924 and the Brookfield Street building was sold. On July 1, 1924, the first Mass was celebrated.
In 1927 designs for a new Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church were drawn up with the approval of Cardinal Hayes. The foundation of the church was laid and a campaign initiated, partly in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the parish.
The facade of the Church is a reproduction of the Church of Santa Maria Della Pietà in Venice, Italy and the interior modeled after Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, Italy. The campanile, 200-feet high with a gold-leaf dome is designed after the tower of the Church of San Lorenzo, the Cathedral of Lugano, Switzerland.
