I'm still scratching my head over this one. The Archdiocese's itchy trigger finger got the better of them again, and they once more figured North Philly was a lost cause, writing this parish, and its neighborhood, off.
The thing is that if any parish in North Philadelphia deserved salvation, it was this one. Assumption BVM was rife with Roman Catholic history and tradition. Saint Katharine Drexel was baptized here; St. John Neumann administered confirmation here twice, and purportedly assisted in the church's consecration. Oh, and for architecture buffs, it's alleged to be the oldest surviving work of architect Patrick Charles Keely, who also designed Project fave St. John the Baptist.
Now, yes, the Project realizes that the changes in North Philly brought the parish to some difficult times. But a thinking man would have looked at this church, realized the deep historical and spiritual significance, and taken steps to preserve it. At the very least, why not turn the place into a shrine to St. Katherine Drexel? That would not only save the parish and the building, but also make Assumption BVM a destination, and bring in scores of additional revenue and attention.
(Shrines, after all, are big businesses. Does anyone honestly think St. Rita of Cascia or St. Peter the Apostle would still be around if not for their shrines? The Project doesn't.)
Yet, the Archdiocese was not that thinking man (or men). In one of their most boneheaded, short-sighted and ridiculously incomprehensibly poor decisions, they swept Assumption aside with the rest of the North Philly Swath.
In fact, in one of life’s supreme ironies, they closed Assumption during the parish’s 150th anniversary year. I imagine the conversation went something like this:
<phone rings>
ASSUMPTION BVM: Praise be to Jesus! Thank you for calling Assumption BVM.
PHILA ARCHDIOCESE: Ah, yes, hi, this is the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
ASSUMPTION: Archdiocese! How are ya, buddy?
ARCHDIOCESE: Good, good. Listen, we need to talk.
ASSUMPTION: Great! We just celebrated our 150th anniversary, and we’re reading for anything! Whoo-hoo!
ARCHDIOCESE: Uh, yeah, about that. We know you just reached an incredible milestone, and you're so historically significant to our flock, but uh, we’re going to have to go ahead and shut you down.
ASSUMPTION: What?!?!? <various choking sounds>
Perhaps the bigger irony is that, barely 10 years later, lower North Philadelphia is experiencing a complete renaissance. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, it’s being born again through gentrification and yuppie voodoo.
The Archdiocese has taken some flak for what is perceived as a liberal practice of closing parishes. Even The Project has occasionally taken them to task. Some ones had to go, no doubt. But the extent of the closings were pretty severe. And now some of them, like Assumption, are starting to look rather silly now that “North Philly” is no longer a punchline.
Sure, Assumption’s West Poplar area hasn’t exploded with the force of its eastern neighbor, Northern Liberties. But it’s still prime real estate, and as North Philly continues to remake itself, it’s only going to get better and better. I’d like to think the Archdiocese has a little egg on its face for this one.
<phone rings>
ARCHDIOCESE: Thank you for calling the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
ASSUMPTION: Hey, remember me?
ARCHDIOCESE: Assumption! It’s, uh, great to hear from you.
ASSUMPTION: Yeah, have seen what’s going on north of the city? Pretty amazing stuff.
ARCHDIOCESE: Hehe, yeah. Uh, we might have jumped the gun a little on that one. Sorry, our bad.
