“This church was damaged by parts of the plane on 9/11, and is the church where they brought the body of Father (Mychal) Judge," said Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling, according to the Canadian Press. Father Judge was killed by falling debris while ministering to those at the World Trade Center the day of the attack. A cross-shaped piece of debris from Ground Zero, the ruins of the destroyed World Trade Center, stand outside the church.
St. Elizabeth Bayley Seton, the first canonized saint born in the United States, converted to Catholicism at St. Peter’s in 1805. A widow with five children, she founded both the U.S. order of the Sisters of Charity and the nation’s first parochial school. Canonized in 1975, her former living address on State Street is now the home of Our Lady of the Rosary Church, which houses the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine. http://www.setonshrine.com
The first American to be canonized was Frances Xavier Cabrini, an Italian immigrant whose remains are preserved at St. Frances Cabrini shrine in New York City. Devotees visit to pray for healing and other intercessions. As a patroness of immigrants, some ask St. Frances Cabrini for help obtaining green cards. The shrine’s website is at http://www.mothercabrini.com/ministries/shrine-ny.asp.
Other Catholic sites include The Cloisters, an art house containing illuminated manuscripts, saints’ relics, paintings, and the famous Unicorn Tapestries. St. Malachy’s Church, known as the “Actor’s Chapel,” has an 11 pm Saturday Mass that attracts theatergoers and cast members from Broadway shows.
Pope Benedict will meet with Protestant and Orthodox Christian leaders at New York City’s St. Joseph’s Church, historically a German-speaking church.
The Canadian Press also noted the influential Catholics who lived in New York City, including writer Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement. A “hospitality house” she lived in still provides services to the poor in the area. The Catholic Worker maintains a website at http://www.catholicworker.org