Church of Immigrants
Transfiguration parish in Chinatown celebrates 175 years
The Pastor of Transfiguration parish in Manhattan's Chinatown is a
Maryknoll priest who spent 15 years as a missioner in Hong Kong. But his 12
years at Transfiguration have been "as much of a mission experience to me as
any I've seen in the world", said Father Raymond
J.
Nobiletti, M.M.
Transfiguration, celebrating its 175th anniversary, welcomes waves of
new immigrants from China each year, adding to an already settled Chinese
immigrant population and their American-born children
It's a parish with many poor people, a parish of outreach and a parish of
evangelization, with 40 to 50 adults learning about and joining the Church
every year.
'There have always been waves of immigrants coming to this parish,"
Father Nobiletti said. "First it was the Irish, then the Italians and now the
Chinese. We're known as the Church of Immigrants."
Some 900 people attend the four Sunday Masses -- one each in
Mandarin and
~
Cantonese Chinese and
two in English -- with
most making a special
trip to the church at 29
Mott St. from their
homes elsewhere in the
city or the suburbs for
the Chinese Masses.
Father Nobiletti,
who speaks Cantonese
--
usually celebrates the
Cantonese Mass.
Visiting priests celebrate
in Mandarin.
On Oct. 27,
Cardinal Egan visited
Transfiguration to
celebrate the 1 p.m.
Mass in honor of the
anniversary. He blessed
the church's newly
rebuild and refurbished
pipe organ, dedicated to
those who died Sept. 11,
2001, and he dedicated
a statue of Cuban-born
Father Felix Varela,
founder of the parish.
The bronze statue, to be



mounted on the wall between the church and parish school, was donated by
he U.S. Cuban community and the Father Felix Varela Foundation.
Father Varela, who advocated Cuban independence from Spain, settled
in lower Manhattan when he was forbidden to return to his native country by
the Spanish government.
From a base in St. Peter's Church on Barclay Street, he started
Transfiguration parish in 1827 to minister to the poor Irish immigrants flooding
into what was becoming a teeming crime- and gang-ridden slum district. A
school was established in 1832.
Father Varela remained the pastor for 23 years, becoming an ardent
advocate for the poor, for education and for social reform, and serving
simultaneously as archdiocesan vicar general.
In 1853, the archdiocese bought a church building that had housed first
a Lutheran and then an Episcopal congregation, and Transfiguration Church
was moved there -- remaining in the same building to the present day.
The school, which had several homes in the area around what is now
City Hall, moved to a building adjacent to the new church which was hastily
renovated to accommodate the 1,000 children who were enrolled in the years
just before the Civil War.
By the turn of the century, the great wave of immigration into the U.S.
had begun to change the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood, and Italian,
Jewish and Eastern European immigrants came to dominate lower Manhattan.
The parish community became predominantly Italian, and the area
known as Little Italy. In 1922, ground was broken for a new school by Cardinal
Patrick Hayes, who was himself an alumnus of Transfiguration School.
The neighborhood underwent another change following World War 11,
as Chinese immigration picked up substantially and the children of the older
Europeans began moving to the suburbs.
Today, the school is operating at capacity with 280 children in the main
building in grades one to eight, and 125 in a kindergarten in rented apace
nearby. Both have waiting lists. ...
A Chinese school on weekends, ... which teaches the Chinese
language and culture to Chinese-American children, has an enrollment of 900
students who attend classes held on Saturdays and Sundays in the school
and kindergarten buildings and in St. James School a short distance away.
"I beefed that up because education is a very important value for the
Chinese," Father Nobiletti said. he added that one reason the parish
elementary school is so popular is that Chinese parents, even those with no
religious training themselves, want their children to learn moral values.
The parish also has a religious education program which served 85
children under the direction of Sister Mary Ann Scherer, C.S.A.






There are 15 parish
groups, including a Cantonese
Chinese Society and a Mandarin
Chinese Society.
For the anniversary
celebration in mid-October, the
parish re-established its St.
Vincent de Paul Society, which
was first started in 1857 then
died out in the 1950s. Father
Nobiletti was scheduling
meetings with the members to
plan its ministry -- but it will
follow the mission of serving the
needy.
"Every parish has its
poor," he said.
Reference: Catholic New York, November 2002 pp 20-21,
reported by Mary Ann Poust
most recent revision:
7 November 2002
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