Catholic church in New York's Chinatown a beacon for immigrants

Published: 2007-05-18

NEW YORK (CNS) -- On Mott Street, in the heart of Manhattan's Chinatown, remnants of silver streamers sparkle against the dark red and brown tenement buildings, reminders of Chinese new year celebrations. Souvenir hawkers vie for space with opticians, drugstores and pots of congee, a rice porridge favored at breakfast. As the street curves to the east, the vista somewhat incongruously gives way to the green steeple and gray brick of the Church of the Transfiguration, the largest Chinese Catholic church in the country. What at first glance seems out of place has been seamlessly woven into the neighborhood's fabric for 200 years. "This is a church of immigrants," said Transfiguration's pastor, Maryknoll Father Raymond Nobiletti. The oldest Catholic Church building in New York, Transfiguration ministered mainly to the Irish and then the Italians before the Chinese began arriving in greater numbers following China's 1949 revolution. The majority of Chinese immigrants in New York today came after 1980. Reflecting the need for Chinese-language liturgies, at least eight parishes in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn now offer Masses in Mandarin and/or Cantonese.

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