Upper West Side Catholics: Liberal Catholicism in a Conservative Archdiocese

This remarkable history of a beloved Upper West Side church is in many respects a microcosm of the history of the Catholic Church in New York City. Here is a captivating study of a distinctive Catholic community on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, an area long noted for its liberal Catholic sympathies in contrast to the generally conservative attitude that has pervaded the archdiocese of New York. The author traces this liberal Catholic dimension of Upper West Side Catholics to a long if slender line of progressive priests that stretches back to the Civil War era, casting renewed light on their legacy: liturgical reform, concern for social justice, and a preferential option for the poor long before this phrase found its way into official church documents. In recent years this progressivism has demonstrated itself in a willingness to extend a warm welcome to LGBT Catholics, most notably at the Church of the Ascension on West 107th Street. Ascension was one of the first diocesan parishes in the archdiocese to offer a spiritual home to LGBT Catholics and continues to sponsor the Ascension Gay Fellowship Group. Exploring the dynamic history of the Catholic Church of the Ascension, this engaging and accessible book illustrates the unusual characteristics that have defined Catholicism on the Upper West Side for the better part of the last century and sheds light on similar congregations within the greater metropolis. In many respects, the history of Ascension parish exemplifies the history of Catholicism in New York City over the past two centuries because of the powerful presence of two defining characteristics: immigration and neighborhood change. The Church of the Ascension, in fact, is a showcase of the success of urban ethnic Catholicism. It was founded as a small German parish, developed into a large Irish parish, suffered a precipitous decline during the crime wave that devastated the Upper West Side from the 1960s to the 1980s, and was rescued from near-extinction by the influx of Puerto Rican and Dominican Catholics. It has emerged during the last several decades as a flourishing multi-ethnic, bilingual parish that is now experiencing the restored prosperity and prominence of the Upper West Side as one of Manhattan's most integrated and popular residential neighborhoods.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Father Daniel S. Kearney ix List of Abbreviations xi 1. A Home of Their Own 1 2. The Founding Fathers 6 3. The Upper West Side 15 4. The Ascension Parish Plant 27 5. The Confident Years at Ascension 37 6. A Parish in Transition 46 7. Quo Vadis ? 56 8. A Neighborhood in Peril 74 9. Recovery and Renaissance 83 10. Old and New Horizons 97 Appendixes A. Pastors of the Church of the Ascension 117 B. Upper West Side Catholic Churches in 1865 119 C. Upper West Side Catholic Churches in 1910 121 Acknowledgments 123 Notes 125 Bibliography 137 Index 143

About the Author :
Monsignor Thomas J. Shelley, a priest of the archdiocese of New York, is Emeritus Professor of Church History at Fordham University. His publications include Bicentennial History of the Archdiocese of New York and Fordham, A History of the Jesuit University of New York: 1841–2003 (Fordham).

Review :
Filled with fun facts and gossip about ecclesiastical politics in the Archdiocese of New York, Monsignor Shelley's book will have a wider appeal than readers in New York. It will likely spark the imaginations of pastors around the country.-- "Catholic Library World" Upper West Side Catholics is local history at its best--from the ground up. Shelley captures the parish's interactions with the neighborhood's ethnic and religious diversity along with its buoyant social life and liberal politics. This lively account embeds the story of Ascension parish and its parishioners in the growth of a neighborhood with multiples declines and rebirths. An enlightening and absorbing story.---Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, Former editor of Commonweal