NYC St. Patrick’s Parade rejects pro-life group as gay activists prepare to march | News | LifeSite

 

As if it wasn’t controversial enough that a homosexual activist group will be marching under its own banner in the New York St. Patrick’s Day parade led by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the parade has refused a pro-life group’s request to participate.

When Cardinal Dolan was appointed Grand Marshal of the parade, he excused the decision to allow Out@NBCUniversal to march under their banner by saying they were merely Catholics who were homosexually inclined, rather than advocates for sinful behaviour.  The group, however, is an overt promoter of same-sex ‘marriage.’

The controversy heightened January 22, though, when the parade officially rejected a pro-life adoption advocacy group’s application to march this year.

“It’s absolutely been a double-cross,” Dr. Elizabeth Rex, president of the Children First Foundation (CFF), told LifeSiteNews. Not only was the group refused, they had to get a lawyer to pursue the parade committee to find out the result of their application. And even then the parade committee waited until the very last day before the launch of legal action to respond.

When the parade committee announced in September that the homosexual group could march in the 2015 parade, it came with a policy change allowing groups to march under their own banner, which organizers called a “gesture of goodwill” toward the LGBT community.

But the change in policy was supposed to also mean a pro-life group could march, and after many months, and this year’s parade looming, one has yet to be announced.

Rex’s pro-life group first applied to march in the 2015 parade last September, just after the policy change was made known.

Rex, an adjunct bioethics professor for Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, CT, founded CFF in 2001. The group promotes and supports adoption, and sponsored “Choose Life” license plates in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.  

The controversy with the parade committee’s allowance of the homosexual group to march in the parade was compounded last fall when New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan deviated from his predecessors, who had stood firm in regard to Church teaching as it relates to the Irish Catholic-themed parade, by saying he had no problem with the decision, and in fact, calling it a wise one.

Cardinal Dolan was shortly thereafter named the 2015 grand marshal, causing considerable disappointment among many Catholics.

The Catholic Church teaches that people with same-sex attractions must be treated with respect and dignity as children of God. However the Church also teaches that homosexual activity is intrinsically disordered and gravely immoral, and just as all children of God, those suffering with same-sex attractions are called to live chaste lives.

Catholics worry that the media will use the approval of the homosexual activist group by Dolan and the parade organizers to undermine Church teaching on marriage, especially by playing up Dolan’s participation in the parade.

At least one Catholic leader initially gave parade organizers a pass on the decision allowing the homosexual group in the parade.

Catholic League President Bill Donohue had said he was consulted by the parade committee prior to its announcement that the homosexual activist group could march with its banner in the 2015 parade, and he told them he could only support the decision if there were an official revision in the parade's rules on marching units.

NYC St. Patrick’s Parade rejects pro-life group as gay activists prepare to march | News | LifeSite

New York Archdiocese Parishioners See System of Secrets as They Fight Church Closings - NYTimes.com

 

For aggrieved parishioners at churches ordered closed or merged by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan last November, it seemed like a simple task: Get a copy of the formal decree of his decision on their parishes, so they could properly appeal to the Vatican.

So across the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, they began calling and writing letters to Cardinal Dolan and his senior aides, asking for the decrees. Some seven weeks later, a definitive answer came back: No, they could not have copies.

But archdiocesan officials said they would allow parishioners to view the documents — under certain conditions.

There could be no photographs and no transcriptions. Notes could be taken, but sometimes only after the document was out of sight. Viewings were by appointment, monitored by archdiocesan officials, parishioners who saw their decrees said.

The rules bewildered parishioners, who feared they might be stymied in filing their appeals. And several leading canon lawyers interviewed this week said they represented a highly unusual departure from church norms.

The following is from:  New York Archdiocese Parishioners See System of Secrets as They Fight Church Closings - NYTimes.com

Michael D'Antonio: Cardinal Dolan and the Dead Lose One to the Living

Michael D'Antonio

Timothy Dolan chose the dead people, placing $55 million into cemetery trust funds and out of the reach of local abuse victims suing the Church. (They want compensation for the suffering caused by childhood sexual trauma.) Dolan left Milwaukee to take the most visible post in Catholic America -- cardinal of New York City - but he could not escape his choice. The victims asked a federal bankruptcy judge to reverse him, and on Friday she did. For now the $55 million is available to settle hundreds of well-documented cases in which priests raped and sexually molested children and adolescents.

Click on the following for more details:  Michael D'Antonio: Cardinal Dolan and the Dead Lose One to the Living

Mirror of Justice: An Important Mandate Decision: EDNY Holds Standing and Ripeness Requirements Satisfied

 

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York has denied in part and granted in part the federal government's Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss the complaint of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Catholic Health Care Systems, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre and Catholic Charities, and Catholic Health Services of Long Island (CHSLI). 

Click on the following for more details;  Mirror of Justice: An Important Mandate Decision: EDNY Holds Standing and Ripeness Requirements Satisfied

Father Benedict Groeschel, American Friar, Claims Teens Seduce Priests In Some Sex Abuse Cases

The Huffington Post | By Meredith Bennett-Smith

Groeschel is an influential voice in the American Dioceses and continues to maintain a high-profile in the church, writing several books and appearing weekly on a religious television network.

The priest received a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University in 1971 and now lives in Larchment, N.Y., where he assists with Trinity Retreat, a center for prayer and study for the clergy he founded.

Trinity House stirred controversy in 2006 when the press learned that New York priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children, but not legally convicted, had the option of a life-long close supervision program that began with a stay at the retreat. In the wake of community objections, the Archdiocese later removed Trinity House from the list of program's offered facilities, according to the Larchmont Gazette.

Groeschel is also a professor of pastoral psychology at St. Joseph’s Seminary of the Archdiocese of New York.

Clarification: Information has been added to the article to indicate that the Legion of Christ is no longer an owner of the publication.

Update: National Catholic Register has taken down the interview and Groeschel has offered this statement:

I apologize for my comments. I did not intend to blame the victim. A priest (or anyone else) who abuses a minor is always wrong and is always responsible. My mind and my way of expressing myself are not as clear as they used to be. I have spent my life trying to help others the best that I could. I deeply regret any harm I have caused to anyone.

Read the entire article by clicking on the following:  Father Benedict Groeschel, American Friar, Claims Teens Seduce Priests In Some Sex Abuse Cases

Cardinal Dolan to give benediction for RNC

Read the entire article by clicking on the following:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/nyregion/new-york-archbishop-will-give-closing-prayer-at-gop-meeting.html?_r=1

Cardinal Dolan sees US as 'mission territory' :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

 

But Catholics should not be “depressed” by Western countries' shift away from religious belief and practice. Instead, they should be “awakened and challenged,” Cardinal Dolan said.

Today, he said, the Church is “with the apostles on Pentecost Sunday as we embrace the New Evangelization.” The campaign to re-evangelize historically Christian societies is the topic of an October 2012 synod in Rome, which will begin the Year of Faith called by Pope Benedict XVI.

Click on the following for more details:  Cardinal Dolan sees US as 'mission territory' :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

It's official: No more Simbang Gabi Masses at the PHL Center in New York |

 

In a meeting last month at the archdiocese office on First Avenue, Bishop Dennis Sullivan, who is the right hand man of New York Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan, personally told Filipino diplomatic and community leaders that the archdiocese is firm in its previous decision to ban the holding of masses outside a sacred place of worship.

Sullivan, as in the past, cited the Canon Law which states that the eucharistic celebration is to be carried out in a sacred place which is the church, unless a particular necessity requires otherwise.

Click on the following for more details: It's official: No more Simbang Gabi Masses at the PHL Center in New York | GMA News Online | The Go-To Site for Filipinos Everywhere

Two former New Yorkers on path to sainthood | SILive.com

 

Pope Benedict XVI declared as “Venerable” Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who is buried below the altar at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, and Sister Mary Angeline Teresa, who founded the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirmed, Cardinal Dolan wrote in his blog on the Archdiocese of New York web site, Archny.org.

“Venerable” is the second step along the way to beatification and, ultimately, canonization.

While Archbishop Sheen is best known for his work in the Archdiocese of New York, the Diocese of Peoria, Ill., headed by Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, is pushing for sainthood since he grew up, was ordained and served as a priest in that Midwestern community.

Joseph Delaney of Pleasant Plains serves on the national board for the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, which is the primary organization promoting the cause of his sainthood. Delaney said he was “ecstatic” when he received an e-mail from Monsignor Stanley Deptula of Peoria, executive director of the foundation, spreading the good news about Pope Benedict’s decree affirming the heroic virtues of Archbishop Sheen. 

</sub>PROUD SUPPORTERS<RR>“New Yorkers like myself are proud to be part of the cause,” said Delaney, who in April was selected as the first-ever recipient of the University of Notre Dame Alumni Association’s Volunteer of the Year award.

Delaney was a boy growing up in West Orange, N.J., attending St. John’s Grammar School, when he first saw and heard then-Bishop Sheen speak on the Dumont TV Network, locally broadcast on Channel 5. He remembers sitting down with his family after dinner to watch Archbishop Sheen’s TV show, “Life is Worth Living.”

The clergyman’s messages were aimed mainly at adults and, Delaney believes, had meaning for all Christians, not only Roman Catholics.

“I’ve always had a love and veneration for Archbishop Sheen,” Delaney said. “I consider him a hero of mine.” 

</sub>CONTINUING THE MISSION<rR>As coordinator of Adult Religious Education at St. Joseph-St. Thomas Parish, Delaney continues the mission of Archbishop Sheen.

“One of the reasons why I got myself involved in Adult Religious Education at St. Joseph-St. Thomas was I was inspired by the example of Archbishop Sheen,” Delaney said.

Pope John Paul II gave Archbishop Sheen the nickname “Preacher to the World,” referring to the many years that the preacher spent working in radio, television, and for the missions, Cardinal Dolan said.

“As head of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith from 1950 to 1966, the Venerable Fulton Sheen was heroic in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ far and wide — from Peoria to Pretoria; New York to New Delhi,” proclaimed Father Andrew Small, current president of the society.

“He teaches us still that the Church is missionary by Her very nature,” Father Small said.

In his visits to Staten Island, Cardinal Dolan has described Archbishop Sheen as a hero and a 20th-century pioneer in TV and radio evangelism.

Sheen was born in 1895 in El Paso, Ill, in the Diocese of Peoria, and ordained a priest there in 1919. He began a radio ministry in New York City in 1926, and became the first regular speaker on the NBC network radio program “The Catholic Hour” in 1930, according to his foundation. 

</sub>WINS AN EMMY<RR>His “Life is Worth Living” national television program aired from 1952 through 1957, drawing millions of viewers weekly. He won the 1952 Emmy for Most Outstanding Personality and, during his acceptance speech, thanked his “four writers — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,” saintly writers of the Bible.

He also hosted the TV series “Pro Vadis, America?” from 1964 to 1966, and “The Bishop Sheen Program,” which bowed in 1966.

In 1955, Archbishop Sheen became the first Latin Rite bishop ever to offer a Solemn Byzantine Rite Mass in English. It was attended by more than 150,000 faithful in Uniontown, Pa.

In 1966, he was elected chairman of the Committee for the Propagation of the Faith. Pope Paul VI appointed him Bishop of Rochester (N.Y.) in Oct. 1966, and Archbishop of the Titular See of Newport, Wales, in Oct. 1969.

Archbishop Sheen died in 1979 at his home in New York City, according to his foundation. 

</sub>VENERABLE MARY 

ANGELINE TERESA<RR>Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa was born in Ireland in 1893. She joined the Little Sisters of the Poor at the age of 19, made her novitiate in France and ultimately was sent to the United States, where she was appointed Superior of a Home of the Little Sisters in the Bronx.

The then-Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Patrick Hayes, encouraged her to expand care for the elderly throughout all of New York City and the United States. With his approval, she and six other Sisters withdrew from the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor and founded the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirmed.

Sister died on Jan. 21 1984, and is buried at St. Theresa’s Motherhouse in Germantown, N.Y. She is remembered by the Sisters of her order by her words: “If you have to fail, let it be on the side of kindness. Be kinder than kindness itself to the old people.”

The original story in its entirety is available by clicking on the following:  Two former New Yorkers on path to sainthood | SILive.com

More Stuff About Cardinal Dolan Not Discussed On Fox News - NewsHounds

 

NY's Cardinal Dolan gets lots of face time on Fox News - a "fair & balanced" media outlet which has provided Dolan with extensive coverage that appeared to validate his animosity towards President Obama regarding the HHS contraception mandate and the ensuing lawsuits filed by Catholic entities against the administration. However, as I reported, Fox seems to be avoiding any discussion of Dolan's payouts to pedophile priests when he was archbishop of Milwaukee. And now that NY legislators are trying to relax laws governing statutes of limitations on sex abuse crimes, Fox's favorite prelate, Cardinal Dolan is lobbying against changes in the law.

Read more by clicking on the following:  More Stuff About Cardinal Dolan Not Discussed On Fox News - NewsHounds

Cardinal Dolan being criticized by national organization | ksdk.com

 

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest, or S.N.A.P., protested Sunday afternoon outside Cardinal Dolan's mass.

During an afternoon news conference, Cardinal Dolan talked about his strained relationship with S.N.A.P., which dates back several years.

"To be honest, my relationship is not too good. I got burned pretty back when I was in Milwaukee because I did meet with them and I found it counterproductive and destructive," said Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

"Publicly he puts on a pleasant face and a warm exterior and everybody finds him a charming, delightful man, and yet behind the scenes and in the courtroom, and in the state house, he acts just like every other Catholic Bishop does, trying to keep a lid on clergy sex crimes and cover- ups, trying to discourage victims from coming forward," said David Clohessy, Directory of S.N.A.P.

Click on the following for more details:  Cardinal Dolan being criticized by national organization | ksdk.com

Dolan Admits Catholics Don't Agree With Church's Birth Control Prohibition | ThinkProgress

 

By Amanda Peterson Beadle on May 2, 2012 at 4:30 pm

Catholic bishops have loudly opposed the Obama administration’s plan to expand contraception access, despite the fact that a majority of Catholics disagree with the church’s position. New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan even has claimed that expanding access to birth control would spread “secularism.” But in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Jansing, Dolan conceded that most Catholics reject the Church’s prohibition on birth control

Click on the following to se the interview:  Dolan Admits Catholics Don't Agree With Church's Birth Control Prohibition  | ThinkProgress

Roberts: Bishops go after the nuns - Hudson, MA - Hudson Sun

 

It’s not just the nuns who challenge the bishops — it’s the folks in the pews and in public office. Every gay-marriage law passed so far has been signed by a governor who is Catholic. When asked by “The Wall Street Journal” whether the church has a problem convincing the congregants to follow its moral principles, New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan replied, “Do we ever!”

Dolan thinks that’s because church leaders have gotten “gun-shy” about talking about chastity and sexual morality. What? That’s all we hear them talking about — abortion and gay marriage, and now contraception. Yes, bishops back immigration reform and have recently rejected Republican budget proposals, and Catholic Charities runs wonderful social welfare programs. But those programs are not where the bishops put their political muscle.

Maybe if the men who run the church put the same lobbying efforts behind things the nuns talk about — human dignity, including the dignity of women, and care for children, the poor, the sick and the frightened — their flock would pay more attention to them. Instead, the hierarchy is trying to make the women sound more like the men. It won’t work, thank God, but it will give these good women grief, and that’s a knuckle-rapping offense

Read the entire story by clicking on the following:  Roberts: Bishops go after the nuns - Hudson, MA - Hudson Sun

Cardinal Dolan and Fr. Benedict Groeschel Affirm Me in My Okayness! | Catholic and Enjoying It!

Very interesting TV interview.  Much of it is about the controversy over the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). But there also are some interesting side comments from Cardinal Dolan regarding “women cardinals” and that the Pope may have asked Mother Teresa to be the first female cardinal. These comments are all within the first five minutes.

Click on the video to gear the Cardinal’s exact words.  Also click on the story  shown immediately below: 

Click on the following for all the details:  Cardinal. Dolan and Fr. Benedict Groeschel Affirm Me in My Okayness! | Catholic and Enjoying It!

Carl Siciliano: A Call to Cardinal Dolan to Stop Endangering LGBT Youth

LGBT="lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender”

I write to you as the director of the Ali Forney Center, the nation's largest organization dedicated to homeless LGBT youth. I am writing to you on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of LGBT youths who have been driven from their homes by parents unwilling or unable to accept their own children because they are gay. And I write to you as a member of the Archdiocese of New York who is deeply ashamed by the ways that his bishop contributes to the abuse and harm suffered by these youths.

I want you to understand how you, and other religious leaders who fight against the acceptance of LGBT people, are helping to create a national tragedy

Parental rejection has become so prevalent that LGBT youths make up an astonishing 40 percent of the nation's homeless youth population.

When you use your position as a religious leader to fight the acceptance of LGBT persons as equal members of our society, you inevitably make many parents less able to accept their own LGBT children

Carl Siciliano is the founder and executive director of the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing, medical care, and vocational and educational support to LGBT youths who have been driven from their homes. Formerly he was a Benedictine monk and a member of the Catholic Worker movement.

Click on the following for more details;  Carl Siciliano: A Call to Cardinal Dolan to Stop Endangering LGBT Youth

Cardinal Dolan's Contraception Fight With Obama - The Daily Beast

 

In a sense, the fight over the contraception mandate has its roots in the old divide within the church that began with Vatican II, the ecumenical council convened by Rome in 1962 in the hope of reinvigorating the church. By the time the council concluded in 1965, the agenda had become full-scale reform, and the prevailing reformers imagined a thoroughgoing remaking of the church, informed by the contemporary culture. The progressive ideal, with its strong emphasis on social justice, dominated the American episcopacy for decades, largely shaped by the hand of Joseph Bernardin, the first head of the American bishops conference. Bernardin urged the church to follow “a consistent ethic of life,” by which he meant that Catholics should devote as much concern to such matters as tending to the poor and advocating for peace as they did to protecting the fetus in the womb. One expression of Bernardin’s vision came to life in his own archdiocese of Chicago, in the form of the Developing Communities Project, on the city’s impoverished South Side. In 1984, one of the project’s founders, a Saul Alinsky–trained organizer, traveled to New York and hired a young Columbia University graduate to run the operation. That is how Barack Obama, operating out of an office at the Holy Rosary Church on the South Side, began his career as a community organizer.

By then, among those in the church who believed that the reforms had gone off track was the charismatic Polish pope, John Paul II, and his right-hand man (and eventual successor), Joseph Ratzinger. They began a program of reinterpreting Vatican II, with an emphasis on evangelization, derived from a strongly held orthodoxy. A new generation of churchmen arose, deeply attached to the person, and the theology, of John Paul II, and began to assert itself inside the American church. One of them was Timothy Dolan, whose 1950s upbringing in the Holy Infant parish in Ballwin, Missouri, with its Irish nuns in the classrooms, and its robust community life, instilled in him a lasting vision of the faith as a joyous and liberating thing. “The church is about a yes,” he says. “And the only time she says no is when she detects something negating human dignity.”

Click on the following to read the entire story from Newsweek.:  Cardinal Dolan's Contraception Fight With Obama - The Daily Beast

St. Patrick's to Undergo a Three-Year, $177 Million Renovation - NYTimes.com

 

I’m talking about survival,” the cardinal said in an interview last week. “If we don’t do something substantive for St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in four or five years we’re going to have to close it, because it will be dangerous.”

That may be a bit of fund-raising hyperbole. But the physical condition of St. Patrick’s, which was designed by James Renwick Jr. and opened in 1879

last renovation of equivalent scope occurred in the 1940s. Lesser rehabilitation was done in the 1970s.

Click on e following for more details:  St. Patrick's to Undergo a Three-Year, $177 Million Renovation - NYTimes.com

 

WIKIPEDIA:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Patrick%27s_Cathedral_(New_York)

Construction of the cathedral

The Diocese of New York, created in 1808, was made an archdiocese by Pope Pius IX on July 19, 1850. In 1853, Archbishop John Joseph Hughes announced his intention to erect a new cathedral to replace the Old Saint Patrick's Cathedral in downtown Manhattan.^[6]

The new cathedral was designed by James Renwick, Jr. in the Gothic Revival style. On August 15, 1858, the cornerstone was laid, just south of the diocese's orphanage. At that time, present-day midtown Manhattan was far north of the populous areas of New York City.

Work was begun in 1858 but was halted during the Civil War and resumed in 1865. The cathedral was completed in 1878 and dedicated on May 25, 1879, its huge proportions dominating the midtown of that time. The archbishop's house and rectory were added from 1882 to 1884, and an adjacent school (no longer in existence) opened in 1882. The towers on the west façade were added in 1888, and an addition on the east, including a Lady chapel, designed by Charles T. Mathews, was begun in 1901. The stained-glass windows in the Lady Chapel were designed and made in Chipping Campden, England by Paul Vincent Woodroffe between 1912 and 1930. The cathedral was renovated between 1927 and 1931 when the great organ was installed and the sanctuary enlarged.

The cathedral and associated buildings were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.^[2][7][8]

[edit] Architectural features

This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (August 2011)

‎

• The cathedral is built of brick clad in marble, quarried in New York and Massachusetts.
• It can accommodate 2,200 people.
• The site of the church takes up a whole city block, bounded by East 51st Street to the north, Madison Avenue to the east, East 50th Street to the south, and Fifth Avenue to the west.
• It is 332 feet long and 174 feet wide at the transepts.
• The spires rise 330 feet (100 m) from street level.
• The windows were made by artists in Chartres, France; Birmingham, England; and Boston, Massachusetts. The great rose window is one of Charles Connick's major works.
• The Saint Michael and Saint Louis altar was designed by Tiffany & Co. The Saint Elizabeth altar was designed by Paolo Medici of Rome, Italy.
• The Saint John Baptist de la Salle altar, sculpted by Dominic Borgia, remains one of the few original side-chapel altars commemorating the patron saint of catechists and teachers. The adjoining stained-glass window depicts the Papal bull (a type of letters patent) of approbation granted by the Vatican to the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools who, since 1848, have conducted numerous parish grade and high schools throughout the Archdiocese of New York, as well as Manhattan College, Riverdale (in The Bronx borough of New York City) and Lincoln Hall.
• The cathedral's Stations of the Cross won a prize for artistry at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.
• The Pietà is three times larger than Michelangelo's Pietà. It was sculpted by William Ordway Partridge.
• A bust of Pope John Paul II is located in the rear of the cathedral, commemorating his visit to the city in 1979.
• Archbishop Francis Spellman, later cardinal, undertook a major renovation of the cathedral's main altar area in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The bronze baldachin in the sanctuary is part of this work, and the former high altar and reredos that stood there were removed and replaced. The original high altar of Saint Patrick's is now in the University Church of Fordham University in The Bronx (Spellman's alma mater). Coincidentally, that church, built in the 1830s, is also home to stained-glass windows donated by French King Louis-Philippe I for Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral downtown when it was originally being built. The windows were installed in the University Church when it was discovered that they did not fit in the Old Saint Patrick's. Clendenin J. Ryan donated the rose window. He was the grandson of Thomas Fortune Ryan and Ida Barry Ryan who built the Church of St. Jean Baptiste at East 76th Street and Lexington Avenue.
• In the 1980s, Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor undertook further renovation work, most notably the construction of a new stone altar in the middle of the sanctuary, closer and more visible to the congregation. It was built from sections of one of the side altars that were removed to reposition the baptismal font in the north transept.
• The roof is made from slate from Monson, Maine.

[edit] Organs

The original pipe organs, built by George Jardine & Son in the 19th century, have been replaced. The chancel organ, in the north ambulatory, was made by the St. Louis, Missouri, firm of George Kilgen & Son, and installed in 1928; it has 3,920 pipes. The grand gallery organ, by the same company, was installed in 1930, and has 5,918 pipes.^[9]

The combined organs, totaling 177 stops and 9,838 pipes, can be played from either of two five-manual consoles installed in the early 1990s to replace the original Kilgen consoles.

[edit] Burials and funeral Masses

Located underneath the high altar is a crypt in which notable Catholic figures that served the Archdiocese are entombed. They include:

The eight past deceased Archbishops of New York:

• John Hughes (interred 1883)
• John McCloskey (interred 1885)
• Michael Corrigan (interred 1902)
• John Murphy Farley (interred 1918)
• Patrick Joseph Hayes (interred 1938)
• Francis Spellman (interred 1967)
• Terence Cooke (interred 1983)
• John Joseph O'Connor (interred 2000)

Other interments:

• Michael J. Lavelle (Cathedral Rector and Vicar General; interred 1939)
• Joseph F. Flannelly (Auxiliary Bishop, 1948–1969; interred 1973)
• Fulton J. Sheen (Auxiliary Bishop, 1951–1965, later bishop of Rochester; interred 1979)
• John Maguire (Coadjutor Archbishop, 1965–1980; interred 1989)
• Pierre Toussaint (interred 1990)

In the above list, Cardinal O'Connor declared Pierre Toussaint, Archbishop Sheen, and Cardinal Cooke to be servants of God, a step in process of being declared a saint of the Catholic Church. Toussaint was declared venerable in 1996 by Pope John Paul II.

Four of the Cardinals' galeros (those of Cardinals McCloskey, Farley, Hayes, and Spellman) are located high above the crypt at the back of the sanctuary. Cardinal Spellman's galero was also worn by Pope Pius XII (as Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli) until the latter's election to the papacy at the 1939 Papal conclave. In 1967, the ceremony of the consistory was revised by Pope Paul VI and therefore no galero was presented to Cardinal Cooke or any of his successors.

Some notable people whose Requiem Masses were said at the cathedral include New York Yankees greats Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, and Billy Martin; legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, singer Celia Cruz, former Attorney General and U.S. Senator from New York Robert F. Kennedy, New York Giants owner Wellington Mara, and former Governor of New York Hugh Carey. Special memorial Masses were also held at the cathedral following the deaths of artist Andy Warhol, baseball player Joe DiMaggio, and noted author William F. Buckley, Jr.

NY’s Cardinal Dolan urges faithful to join political ‘battle,’ decries US contraception rules - The Washington Post

Speaking at Holy Trinity Diocesan High School in Hicksville, the spiritual leader of the Archdiocese of New York said the U.S. government is engaged in “an unwarranted, unprecedented radical intrusion.” He told the crowd they “live in an era that seems to discover new rights every day.”

Click on the following for more of the story:  NY’s Cardinal Dolan urges faithful to join political ‘battle,’ decries US contraception rules - The Washington Post

 

COMMENT by stanchaz:

stanchaz--These "faith-based institutions" are businesses - NOT churches....BIG businesses. The government is trying to protect the freedom of their employees, not to limit it! Seriously: The bottom line is that absolutely NO ONE is coming into our Churches or places of worship and telling believers what to believe.....or forcing them to use contraception. BUT If the Bishops (and other denominations) want to continue running businesses outside of their places of worship...businesses that employ millions of people of varying faiths -or no "faith" at all- THEN they must play by the same rules and rights that other workers live by and enjoy (especially if their businesses use our tax dollars, and skip paying taxes, in the process). If the Jehovah's Witnesses church hires me, can they alter my health insurance to exclude blood transfusions? Even worse- what if they operated a hospital by their “rules”? This is not a “war on religion”. Never was. However, it IS a war BY some religions... on women and men who simply want to plan their families, to control their futures, to keep their jobs, and to have health insurance that allows them to do that. if the Cardinal wishes to be a politician instead of a preacher, and wishes to use his pulpit for that purpose, rather than a place of worship, then he should give up his tax exemption.

Cardinal Dolan Issues Letter Hinting at Legal Challenge | Daily News | NCRegister.com

by JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND03/02/2012

– EWTN News

WASHINGTON — Cardinal Timothy of New York, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a letter to his brother bishops today, reporting that negotiations between the conference and the White House had “stalled” and that he was exploring legal remedies to address the First Amendment threat posed by the contraception mandate approved by the Obama administration.

Click on the following to read all Ms. Desmond’s article:  Cardinal Dolan Issues Letter Hinting at Legal Challenge | Daily News | NCRegister.com

 

The four page  letter from Cardinal Dolan is available by clicking on the following:  http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/upload/Dolan-to-all-bishops-HHS.pdf

Two women accused of stealing $1 million each from two archdioceses

In New York, archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling said Jan. 30 that Anita Collins, who had worked for the archdiocese since 2003, allegedly stole about $1 million before she was fired Dec. 6. Collins used "a sophisticated fraud to manipulate the accounts payable system in the Department of Education Finance Office," Zwilling said.
In Philadelphia, Anita Guzzardi, who was named chief financial officer of the archdiocese July 1, was terminated from employment later in July when alleged "financial accounting irregularities" were discovered. Although an investigation by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office was continuing, sources said the amount involved is nearly $1 million.
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