Video: Sacrilege at St. James in NYC
Someone at St. James Catholic Church in New York City seriously neglected their responsibilities.
On Friday, January 15th the Church was the scene of a multi-band, late-night, rock/rap concert which took place in the sanctuary of the Church, as the videos clearly show:
This video, taken the same night, makes it clear that the bands are performing in the sanctuary. And these bands are clearly not “Christian rock” (as if that would make it any more acceptable) – one of the groups involved, in fact, described the concert like this (emphasis mine):
“Any location with the the capacity to hold people and plug in a sound system automatically becomes a venue for the arts. Their latest show, held in St. James Church in the Lower East Side, featured a lineup of indie rock acts the likes of The Beets, The Tony Castles, Beach Fossils, and Total Slacker. In the impromptu fashion of a LAMC show, The Tony Castles invited Curren$y to come up and rock with the band.
The juxtaposition of throngs of partygoers in the usually stolid aisles of a catholic church is enough to steam pleats out of the pope’s robe and Creative Control was there to recount the sacrilege in all of its glory.”
Recognize this sanctuary where the “sacrilege” happened? You can see it is the same “venue.”
To send a charitable but firm email to the pastor of St. James Church, contact m075@archny.org and info@stjamesnyc.org. I would also recommend contacting the Archdiocese of New York communications office so they can alert the proper officials to take swift action (Communications@archny.org).
If you are aware of a grave abuse such as this one that is about to take place at your parish, please let me know about it. These things are far more prone to occur when we are not vigilant and do not help safeguard the holy places of God.
update – this photopost gives a better appreciation for the debauchery of the scene that friday night, from a dance party in the processional aisle to a beer can on the altar. There can be no explanation for this:
update 2 – Someone is circulating an email in support of the St. James community, but it makes no sense to me, beginning with its subject line:
THIS JUST IN – CONCERT WAS CANCELED: “I just spoke with the secretary of the parish of St. Joseph and St. James who assured me that the concert was canceled. According to the secretary, the organizers of the event told Fr. Walter that this would be a concert to bring in young people to the Church.”
The email goes on to encourage people to come to a rally in support of the parish this upcoming week. But the fact remains that the concert took place – as the video and images demonstrate. Now the only thing to be done is figure out who let this happen and see to it that it never happens again. At the very least there was a huge breach of oversight on behalf of those entrusted with the care of holy property.
Prayers in reparation for this outrage would also be appropriate, and we can all do this.
update 3 - More on this here.
I maintain that this sort of activity is indefensible, as is allowing it, and that we should be vigilant that it is never allowed to happen again. The proper penalty for those who allowed it to happen this time is up to Archbishop Dolan and the administrators of the Archdiocese of New York.
(Props to CulureWarNotes.com for also giving this story attention early.)
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40 Comments
No one should have any sympathy for this priest! It was Fr. Walter’s responsibility – no one else’s – to get clear information BEFORE the event took place. He is well known for passing on responsibility to some one else, rather than take the blame himself. All he is interested in is money and that is what motivated his decision to allow for such a hideous travesty to take place in church. Is anyone aware of his latest antic? He is forcing the sisters who teach in St. Joseph’s School and who have ministered to the people there for over 85 years to leave at the end of this school year. He didn’t even have the guts to speak directly with the sister who is principal who has given totally of herself to the students and parents for the last 9 years….what a coward!! With the consequences of such a stupid and cruel action, he is going to need a whole lot more than a Rosary and Holy Hour in reparation. This man is a complete idiot and, unfortunately, only another instance of someone who presents himself as a priest, but is the farthest thing from it.
[...] has come to the aid of St. James Church in New York City, which as I have reported on before (here and here) was duped into hosting a late-night grunge concert in the church’s [...]
[...] of faith everywhere are outraged at recent events at St. James Catholic Church in New York City. A group seeking permission to put on a Christian music event to bring young people back to the [...]
Yes. This was completely wrong and really evil if they lied and misled the Church staff. Criminal.
In the same way, Traditional Catholics, aware of Modernism, with all it’s inherent sacrileges and abuses, allowed everyday at your typical Catholic Church, [communion received in the hand allows for many particles of the Body of Jesus to be desecrated] feel just as outraged at this practice and at the casual attitiude of the average priest. This inside abuse is much more serious then outsiders hurting the Church. I realise that most Catholics are just ignorant today because this is what is taught and widely practiced, especially here in the U.S.A.
[...] CatholicVoteAction.Org, Culture War Notes, and Aufer A Nobis all have posts claiming “abomination”, “sacrilege” and “desecration” at St James Church on Friday, 1/15. They’re referring to the Real Estate, Beach Fossils, The Beets, The Tony Castles & Total Slacker show (that Curren$y was also a special guest at). Videos from the event below… [...]
The fact that the parish simply believed whatever a concert promoter told them just shows their sheer ignorance/desperation . Did they take two minutes of time & invest a little research into WHO they were granting the space to? Why did they not take precautions to put away anything that they felt could be desecrated? In case some misguided souls found their way there and damaged it out of hate? Or better yet, why was there not someone there to watch over the event if it was the first time they allowed such a thing to take place? Whether it were all due to laziness or good faith, a little logic could have gone a long way.
[...] are some updates on the story I published yesterday about the desecration that took place in St. James Church in NYC. This information has been cobbled [...]
So apparently one concert did take place at St. James, and apparently the pastor was grossly mislead about the nature of the event. There was a second concert scheduled at St. James but that has been canceled. The pastor apparently is very sorry for what happened, and is apologizing and making amends over it.
“Maybe if more indie rock shows happened at church, all the lapsed Catholic hipsters would ironically start going again. Just a suggestion.” The Jesus and Mary Chain January 25, 2010
“Again”?
Weren’t they going ironically before?
Thomas – Please Remove that information. You are putting the wrong info about what we’ve said and posted. The Land of Arthanius was posting information to tell people that the Concert for Jan 30th, was canceled, thanks to the efforts of the Heirarchy, the Pastor and the Catholic Lay Leaders of New York who fought hard to protect the Church of St. James. We were the ones that found out wanted our people to Rally on that day. The Concert was canceled, but there are still venues, still sites and places that may be promoting the event. This information gives bad light to the many Catholic Youth and Young Adult Leaders who want this Church to survive and we are sadden by the event. Second, It was not a Christian youth group that went in there. If you knew the facts, the Pastor was dupped in believing that the gentleman or woman who came to him said he was a Catholic, and father believed him on his word. You are giving false information without reading the facts and contacting the sources. Please remove the content or correct it. Thank you and God bless you
Thomas, FYI, the YouTube video has just been removed.
Be sure to save all videos and pictures for future use. This is a critical time.
Please check out CultureWarNotes.com and click on the headline link. It will take you to the website of the concert organizers and revelers where you can leave comments giving witness and preaching the truth. Fear not their vile comments towards you, but rather rejoice and continue to spread the Good News!
Spread the word – Let’s Pray for St. James Church
January 30th at 8:00PM – BE THERE EARLY
ST. JAMES CHURCH
32 James St. (Also known as the Ancient Order of Hibernians)
Between Pearl St (St. James Place) & Madison St.
New York, N.Y. 10038
I get the “video has been removed by the user”.
As a musician who has been in every kind of rock band you can imagine, I am entirely aware of rock concerts as a kind of liturgy. One that is part of the religion of pluralism that has the effect of drowning out anything not like its own. That is to say, one might as well have erected a statue of Ba’al in the sanctuary and danced around it. Thanks wembly. Good to see common sense still prevails among those who happen to not share the faith.
@NOT Bernard: True, we don’t determine reality just by believing or not believing. It is, however, a wager I’d not want to lose. Bernard is out of line, IMHO, and definitely off-topic. (There I go, being judgmental.) But the point is that God does exist–it’s been proved by Thomas Aquinas strictly by reason–so it behooves us to recognize the fact.
[...] CatholicVoteAction.Org, Culture War Notes, and Aufer A Nobis all have posts claiming “abomination”, “sacrilige” and “desecration” at St James Church on Friday, 1/15. They’re referring to the Real Estate, Beach Fossils, The Beets, The Tony Castles & Total Slacker show (that Curren$y was also a special guest at). Videos from the show below… [...]
[...] Here is the original story from Thomas Peters with the updated information since the story first broke. Tags: blessed sacrament, Catholic Vote Post a Comment or Leave a Trackback [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Thomas Peters, Creative Minority, Autumn, Randy Cremean, Ray R and others. Ray R said: RT @CMReport: RT @americanpapist: New on AmP: Video: Sacrilege at St. James in NYC {AmP Exclusive} http://bit.ly/7mKVuO [...]
The reactions to this are hilarious!!!!
Caption of the Day/PPOTD
