Hopes and Habits Persevere at Churches Gone, but Not Destroyed

By PAUL VITELLO and CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
May 16, 2009

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 seller was the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, which closed more than two dozen houses of worship and schools between 2003 and 2008. It sold development rights to a handful of properties, leased others and padlocked the rest in an effort to narrow a local budget gap, while confronting nationwide trends like low attendance, a priest shortage, the rising cost of maintaining century-old buildings, and a new demand for churches in the far exurbs.

Some people watched as their old churches were demolished.

Many more enlisted help from lawyers, politicians and historic preservationists, and in many cases wrestled the archdiocese to a Pyrrhic standstill. Today, their churches — a half-dozen in Manhattan and one in the Bronx — still stand, but are locked tight, unused, while the altars, pews, statuary and stained-glass windows of some have been removed piece by piece for use in other churches. the rest