By Jessica Easthope
For 100 years the faithful of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn have walked through the front doors of St. Patrick’s Church on 4th Avenue to encounter Christ. But after a century, even those with the strongest faith have a hard time getting them open.
“For the elderly people, I do open them, they need it. They can’t do it themselves,” one parishioner explained.
“Very, very heavy, very heavy,” another told Currents News. “I mean, I can open them, but I’m sure for older people it’s really a struggle. But they are very heavy.”
Enter Peg Horan and Kelly Kunz, a mother-daughter team of parishioners and members of the church’s grant committee.
“The hydraulics on the on the doors do not work. So, they’re very heavy. I mean, we almost joke around that we all have to help each other to get out of the church because we all have to kind of take the door to get out,” Peg said.
“Doors can be heavy, doors can open in, they can open out, doors are what lead us to Christ,” said Fr. Dowd.
Along with St. Patrick’s pastor, Fr. Brian Dowd, Peg and Kelly applied for a sacred sites grant with the New York Landmarks Conservancy, and they got it: $15,000 to restore the original metal-wrapped wood doors.
“They’re what we walk through during the best days of our lives, and sometimes the worst days of our lives and every day in between too,” Kelly said.
“St. Patrick’s has been a beacon here in Bay Ridge, not just to the Catholics, but to all members of the community,” said Fr. Dowd.
Fr. Dowd says the entire project will cost about $50,000 but through fundraising and weekly collections parishioners make up the difference, happily.
“I know that for my children’s future that they get to be a part of a thriving and wonderful St. Patrick’s community for the rest of their lives as well. And it can give them the gifts that St. Patrick’s has given me,” said Kelly.
“It’s uplifting to know that we’re always an environment that’s always changing, always improving,” Peg said.
New York Landmarks Conservancy’s president, Peg Breen says the historic church holds generational significance.
“St. Patrick’s really is an anchor in that community and for the people who go there, it holds memories,” she said.
People come and go, buildings change, but at St. Pat’s faith, community and the front doors were built to last.
“We can always count on St. Pat’s,” said Peg. “It’s our family.”
Fr. Dowd is hoping to have the restoration complete and to be welcoming parishioners through St. Patrick’s front doors again by Christmas.