Fighting to save church

April 11, 2005

When Greenpoint native Peter Cruz was growing up, he never even heard of the Lower East Side. Now he's on the forefront of fighting to save one of its oldest churches. Famous Irish-American Roman Catholic church architect Patrick Keely built St. Brigid's Church at Eighth Street and Avenue B in 1848. It closed in 2001 because of cracks in the back wall that made the building unsafe. The roughly 200 congregants continued having services in the cafeteria of adjacent St. Brigid's School until 2004. Then the bishop put his foot down and told parishioners they had to find another parish, Cruz said.

"I know it's falling apart, but rebuild it," said Willie Villanueva, 54, an ex-congregant walking though Tompkins Square Park last Monday. "It's very important; a lot of people used to go to that church."

Archdiocese of New York spokesman Joseph Zwilling said no immediate plans have been made for what the land will be used for or when the building will be demolished, which is the worst of ex-congregant fears. "There has never been any suggestion other than this church would need to come down," he said.

Zwilling said that attempts at repairs have been unsuccessful, adding that the archdiocese is in a "process of realignment," which will result in the closing of some churches, merging of others and openings of new ones. Even so, he said, the cost to fix St. Brigid's would be in the millions, far too much for the archdiocese to bear.

"If someone came in with that kind of offer we'd certainly talk to them, but the reality is that the church is not fixable," Zwilling said.

The facade of the church facing Tompkins Square Park seems as strong as it ever was, from when the Irish congregated there in the early days, to the Hispanics who arrived later on.

Though the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is looking into an application to protect the building, if it proves to be a hardship, it would be demolished anyway, Commissioner Robert Tierney said.

Last year the Department of Buildings permitted the archdiocese to replace the church with 29 apartments. But Zwilling said the apartments, which would be used for a nursing home, has been couched.

"It didn't look like it would be a good fit for the property," he said.

Peg Breen, president of the New York City Landmarks Conservancy, a private, non-profit organization, said the church could be fixed for less than a million dollars.

"The archdiocese is looking at the worst-case scenario," she said. "If the congregation had been able to continue its fund-raising, they probably could be in there now."

Between June 2001 and September 2004, Cruz said, parishioners raised about $100,000. The former pastor of the church, the Rev. Michael Conway, started the fund drive, but it ended when services stopped in September. The archdiocese said it never had knowledge of the fund drive. Conway could not be reached for comment.

Zwilling said the archdiocese is now trying to find records to determine how much money was raised and where the money is.

"I don't care about the money; I just want the church," Cruz said.

Cruz, a property manager, said the church was a very personal part of the congregants' lives, especially his.

"This wasn't only a church," he said. "This was a home away from home. This is where we laughed, we cried."

It wasn't until Cruz started dating his future wife, Rosalie, more than 30 years ago that he became aware of the Lower East Side and St. Brigid's Church. Rosalie lived in the Lower East Side and when the couple married in 1973, Peter moved across the river, too. Though they moved to Long Island 14 years ago, they stayed active in the church, going every Sunday and running the religious education program together. Peter was also head usher. Now his energy is spent on "biding time to stop demolition."

"It's like what the Vatican said about the Holy Father, 'he fought the good fight until his last breath,' and that's what we're going to do, too," Cruz said.