BY MELINDA HOLM | It was a packed house for the last Mass at St. Veronica’s on Christopher St. this past Sunday. Built by Irish longshoremen and platform workers that labored on the nearby docks, the Catholic church’s cornerstone was laid in 1890 and early services were held in the basement until the church was completed in 1903.
In its heyday, St Veronica’s, located on the block between Greenwich and Washington Sts., ministered to 6,500 parishioners. It was built in a Gothic Revival style, with an unusual oval shape to maximize space for the faithful. The church had a rectory, which since 1985 has housed the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Theresa’s order of nuns that give dignity to the dying, and a church school, now a private school. The church’s exterior is landmarked.
There is an effort underway to save the church.
In his closing words, Monsignor Kenneth Smith, who pastored St. Veronica’s from 1990 to 2001, spoke of the AIDS Memorial that was established at the church in 1991. Along the base of the first balcony are hundreds of small plaques bearing the names of those who died. At a time when many churches were insensitive to those who died of AIDS, Smith opened the church to interfaith services with, as he put it, “Protestants, Jews and those without religion that we might say prayer before carrying the ashes to the river.”
He reminded the packed congregation that St. Vincent’s Hospital was the epicenter of the AIDS crisis and where the Sisters of Charity (another order distinct from the Missionaries of Charity) ministered to the dying that they might die with dignity.
In Catholic tradition, St. Veronica wiped the brow of Jesus on the Via Dolorosa as he carried his cross to Calvary. According to the Bible, his image imprinted on her veil, hence her name — Vera, Latin for “real,” and icon, Greek for “image.” While the relic may or may not be held in the Vatican, Veronica’s act of compassion is represented as the sixth station of the cross in all Catholic churches. Monsignor Smith recalled the hundreds of 9/11 survivors fleeing up the West Side Highway entering St. Veronica’s to find rest and solace.
Petitions have been sent to the Catholic Archdiocese of New York — and are now also being sent to the Vatican — to keep St. Veronica’s open as a church. A group called St. Veronica’s Moving Forward is spearheading the effort. There is also talk of trying to save the church as at least a spiritual space of some sort.
