Making a Statement

St. Ignatius Loyola, celebrating 150 years on Park Avenue, serves wide community

By JOHN BURGER

It's the Park Avenue church where the funeral of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was held, but it's also a place that has given shelter to countless homeless people on some of the coldest nights of the year. The way the pastor sees it, St. Ignatius Loyola is a big, "basilica-like" church, not a "local church around the corner," so it "has to be making a big statement."

That statement seems to be one of welcome, not just for the well-to-do residents of Park Avenue but for the entire city.

"We're not just some kind of tony parish," said Father Walter F. Modrys, S.J., the pastor since 1986. "It's not just where the rich and sophisticated people can go." For one thing, parents from diverse backgrounds all over the city and beyond send their children to the parish school, religious education program or day nursery. And with a music program that has been featured in The New York Times, the parish offers Catholics and non-Catholics the kind of art and beauty that the Church has fostered over two millennia.

"Our niche is to make Christ present on the upper East Side and to all people who approach us," Father Modrys said in an interview.

Many who attend Mass (there are seven on weekends and three on weekdays) are people who have come back from the Church after being away for a while. "It may be a miracle of grace that they stop in" while walking past the grand limestone structure at Park and 84th, Father Modrys said. "It's amazing how prevalent that grace is."

Priests and parish staff "try to be welcoming and respectful" of people's questions, working with them by "accentuating the positive, acknowledging their thirst and their search," he said. "We call them to social justice and service, to prayer, to the challenging word of the Scriptures."

In particular, St. Ignatius, which is run by the Society of Jesus, a religious order known for its educational ministry, pays special attention to the fact that it serves a largely college educated congregation. The parish takes what Father Modrys calls a "liberal approach to Catholicism," reaching out to "thoughtful, independent-minded people."

"We're loyal to Catholic teaching and traditions, but we're not conservative," he said.

And so the four Jesuit priests there, including the parochial vicars, Fathers William Bergen, S.J., Mark Hallinan, S.J., and Charles Wrightington, S.J., put a special emphasis on preaching.

"People are hungry for support that will get them through the week," said Father Modrys, who did pastoral outreach on Wall Street before moving uptown. "They live in a pagan environment, and Catholics are often looked upon with puzzlement."

Many parishioners appreciate the preaching. "They work so hard at giving great homilies and great spiritual direction and confession," said Joseph Cannon, a parishioner for 17 years. "The homily means everything to me. And even if it's lousy, they know how to be brief and not obnoxious."

Walking along the sunny, broad sidewalks of Park Avenue, a short jaunt from the subway station at Lexington and 86th, it's difficult to imagine that the Catholics of Yorkville in 1850 had to travel over fields or muddy roads to attend Mass at either St. Paul's on 117th Street or St. John's on 55th. Four Irishmen living in the area asked Archbishop John Hughes for a church and a priest. After a committee raised $1,000, the archbishop assigned the first pastor, Father Eugene O'Reilly, an Irish missionary, and the first Mass was celebrated in a dance hall Aug. 10, 1851. A church was dedicated two years later and named for St. Lawrence O'Toole.

Archbishop Hughes gave the Jesuits charge of the parish in 1866. He figured the Yorkville church was more convenient to their work of caring for the prisoners on the islands of the East River than their other church, St. Francis Xavier on 16th Street. When the present church was being built in the 1890s, the parish kept the name St. Lawrence O'Toole for the lower part, but the upper church was dedicated to St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Eventually, the latter name came to refer to the entire church.

When the parish celebrated its centennial in 1951, the congregation was still mostly Irish, and a celebration on a grand scale seemed to be a way for this long discriminated-against population to assert itself. It was as if the Irish were saying, "We have arrived," Father Modrys speculated.

It's no longer like that, and when Cardinal Egan celebrated the anniversary Mass May 13, it was a much quieter affair.

The cardinal preached at the 11 a.m. solemn Mass, which is where one can hear, every Sunday, grand sacred music. The pastor points out that the parish provides a "range of liturgical styles." At the same time as the solemn Mass, there is a folk Mass downstairs in Wallace Hall. Saturday evening at 5:30 there is a quieter liturgy. And Sunday evening, the 7:30 p.m. Mass attracts young adults, with contemporary music and a chance to socialize afterward in Wallace Hall.

"There is a liturgy for every personality style," Father Modrys said. "Each Mass is consistent with the best celebratory style and reverence the Church wants to maintain for the Eucharist." There are some nontraditional practices: a laywoman sometimes gives the homily; Mass-goers are invited to stand around the celebrant during the Eucharistic prayers, and Eucharistic ministers are given Communion before the priest's prayer, "Behold the Lamb of God," and receive at the same time he does.

The church is worth a visit during quiet hours, and since hiring a security guard, it's open during the day. Visitors can stop by the rectory and purchase a walking guide, written by Father Paul Tabor, S.J., an expert in art history. Redolent in Christian symbolism, the church was declared a landmark of the City of New York in 1969.

"The marble mosaic pavement of the baptistry depicts four rivers flowing from the foot of the Carrara marble font--a design suggesting Eden's river, the fountainhead for the four rivers of the world mentioned in Genesis 2," Father Tabor writes. "These rushing waters gather into a pool where lilies grow and fish frolic. Among the smaller fish is a large fish resting on an anchor, a second-century Christian symbol for Christ."

A major renovation of the interior is planned. According to plans, the communion rail and several front pews will be removed and the sanctuary extended into the nave to allow for a bigger altar and space for more concelebrants and lay ministers.

But, Father Modrys warned, "we have to be careful about the acoustic integrity of the church." Even a cleaning and painting will brighten the sound, and with a new marble floor in the sanctuary and cushions in the pews, the acoustics could be altered. For a church whose concerts are reviewed in the Times, that's an important consideration.

In 1993, the church installed a handcrafted $1.25 million mechanical pipe organ. Music director and organist Kent Tritle oversees two parish choirs and a music series called Sacred Music in a Sacred Space. Lincoln Center has used the church for concerts featuring Yo-Yo Ma, the Tallis Scholars and others.

The parish elementary school, where the Sisters of Charity have served since 1854, enrolls 530 students. The principal is Grace M. Cavallo. The school won the Excellence in Education Award from the U.S. Department of Education in 1986, but even this year it had some outstanding achievements. The eighth-grade class won first place in the Mount St. Michael Academy Academic Olympics, and students won top awards in the National and International Latin Competition. Graduate Lee Anthony Germino made it to the finals in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

The Interparish Religious Education Program, directed by Joanne Cunneen, enrolls 450 children from all over the city and some suburbs. During the Sunday family Mass, Ms. Cunneen takes the children into the Lady Chapel for a Liturgy of the Word service for children.

Parish life is enhanced in many ways, including a Christian Life Community; a young adults group called the St. Ignatius Loyola Catholic Adults; Eucharistic adoration in the Lady Chapel; a St. Vincent de Paul Society, and lectures featuring speakers such as Father J. Bryan Hehir, the new president and chief executive officer of Catholic Charities USA.

"There's a deep well of spirituality there," said Catherine M. Heaney, who plans to keep attending Sunday Mass at the Park Avenue church even after moving to Riverdale. "I never leave without being given something to think about."

Added Maria Fuentes, who has a hectic job as a property manager in Times Square, "St. Ignatius Loyola is my peace."