Most
are aware of Buffalo's great treasure of religious architecture. Unfortunately,
few have a real appreciation for the significant cultural value as these great
edifices begin to disappear year by year.
These
amazing palaces of worship are increasingly in danger as the population of
local parishes ages and declines. There seems to be little civic urgency
as churches close, interior treasures are sold off, and the buildings are left
to rot. Perhaps WNY takes this amazing collection of art and craft for
granted because it has seemed so commonplace in Buffalo. Now, more than ever,
the people of WNY need to sit up and take notice as this fragile gift from our
ancestors becomes more and more rare.
The
amazing collection of angels shown in this slideshow are all from just one
Church, Corpus Christi Church, at 199 Clark Street on the city's East Side.
Recently the Church was adopted by the Pauline Fathers, making it safe from closure for
the foreseeable future. I stumbled on this wonderful collection of
pictures, and knew I had to do a BRO story about it.
The
pictures were taken by Steven Kroczynski, a lifelong resident of Buffalo,
New York, who is currently a photographer for the Am-Pol Eagle, a weekly Polish-American
newspaper in WNY. He has had a long association with the Catholic church and
formerly served as photographer for the Western New York Catholic magazine
during the 90's. He has a degree in photography from Villa Maria College. These
images will be part of an exhibit this fall at the Karpeles Manuscript
Library/Museum in Buffalo celebrating the 100 anniversary of Corpus Christi
Church.
This is
the kind of exposure that Buffalo's churches need so that they are pushed to
the forefront of the city's collective consciousness.
Check the Karpeles schedule and watch BRO for more on that Church exhibit. In the meantime there is nothing stopping you from heading on over to Corpus Christi and seeing the real thing in person.
The priests who took over Corpus Christi (after it was surplussed from the diocese) come from Poland. They go into inner city neighborhoods (they came to Buffalo via a poor neighborhood in NYC) and establish viable parishes. Congrats to them. Between this and St. Stan's, it's impressive that two mammoth church buildings in such a distressed neighborhood can prosper.
That said, I just don't see how we can save a majority of these structures. Yes, they are beautiful. But what prospect of use can we find for so many?