Many of you know that weather (and in particular, extreme weather events) are a fascination of mine. I typically lull myself to sleep at night watching tornado videos on YouTube. I have been known to spend hours reading articles about infamous blizzards that stranded people across large swathes of the country. I can sometimes be found immersing myself in documentaries about the most destructive hurricanes in history. Am I nuts? Probably. I just never let go of the five year-old boy sense of wonder at incredibly large, powerful, and awe-inspiring things like construction equipment and airports.
I also harbor a soft spot in my heart for certain regions of the Northeast. For instance, I’ve always had fun on my visits to Boston. I love to walk the streets going from pub to pub. I have some bizarre fascination with Pittsburgh even though I’ve only ever spent at best a weekend there. I think it’s because of the geography. Two rivers merge into a third. That’s just bizarre to me and worthy of respect at the same time. The western reaches of upstate New York are another favorite of mine. When I was a toddler, my family lived outside of Syracuse for about a year and a half. When I got married, my wife and I honeymooned in the Finger Lakes and Niagara. And Buffalo – second largest city in the Empire State – always struck me as, well, a neat little city that lost some of its former luster but still tries somehow to sparkle as one of the great Great Lakes cities. Truthfully, I have spent quite a bit of time in Buffalo as a dear friend of ours was in the Carmel there for a number of years and we would occasionally visit. Side note: say a prayer for the nuns.
So this afternoon as I was cross-referencing my obsessions online, I stumbled upon the site of one of the local news channels in Buffalo. I came for the blizzard coverage – they’re about to get slammed with a truly historic 4-6 FEET of snow – and I stayed for the destruction of the church. No, I’m not talking about the “capital-C-Church” as in Bride of Christ and Mystical Body. Satan can try all he wants but Our Lord isn’t a liar so we know that’s not going anywhere (even if She is in terrible eclipse at the moment). I am talking instead about the physical destruction of a church building. Take a look at the story linked below.
St. Ann’s Church Property Sold
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The former St. Ann property, including the church, school and convent, sold Wednesday to Buffalo Crescent Holdings, Inc. for $250,000.
WKBW.com
The company plans to convert the 651 Broadway property into a downtown Islamic Center.
According to the Diocese of Buffalo, St. Ann’s was part of the parish (sic) until 2007. All activities ceased at the church in 2013.
I started reading the article and felt sick to my stomach. $250K? An Islamic Center? How disgraceful. I did some further digging and discovered that the parish school had at one time been one of the largest private schools in the nation, boasting an enrollment of 2000. The convent, rectory, all of it… Useless now. The Diocese has been through some rough times over the past decade at the hands of bad shepherds and I’m sure that might have had something to do with this situation. But when you think about it, this is really just another one of the “fruits of the Council”. Dwindling numbers of priests, non-existent religious vocations, Catholics who abandoned the actual practice of the Catholic faith (i. e., Mass and the sacraments), schools that failed and fell apart. And today what do we see?
On this sunny and cold day before a record lake-effect snowfall completely buries Broadway on the East Side of Buffalo, NY, we witness the final nail driven into the coffin of the once-great presence of Catholicism in that neighborhood.
To think of the number of faithful who gave their blood, sweat, and tears, not to mention all of their money in order to build this magnificent edifice to God’s glory; and to know that it will become a temple to the false god of a heathen people, is to make one cringe bile and weep bitter tears.
But then again, NuChurch would have you not weep. Remember, we’re an (snaps fingers) Eater People! Oh and evangelizing people is a sin according to the “pope” of the NuChurch. He tells us to let the Mohammedans be Mohammedans and we can all get along and they can buy our glorious buildings for pennies on the dollar because we need to shift our focus to helping James Martin, SJ build latex bridges.
A remnant we shall be. I just hope someone remembers what these places looked like so we can one day build anew.
St. Ann, pray for us!
Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad 