Which explains why this Dominican friar is singing on the streets of Manhattan“I want the Church to go out into the streets,” declared Pope Francis at a youth gathering in Argentina. “I want us to defend ourselves… from all that which means being closed up in ourselves. Parishes, schools, institutions are made in order to come out.”
The Dominicans of the province of St. Joseph took heed.
So, Blackfriar Films — the province’s media division — hit the streets of New York City with Fr. Austin Dominic Litke, Fr. Bob Koopman, O.S.B., and Leah Sedlacek as they performed a new arrangement of the beautiful 17th-century hymn “The Call,” composed by George Herbert and later made famous by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Scenes were filmed at the Brooklyn Bridge, Our Lady of Good Counsel parish, Grand Central Station, Columbus Circle, and the Staten Island ferry.
The move was not the first of its kinds by the friars. In fact, it seems to be their modus operandi, publicly living the Catholic faith in the heart of New York City. Cardinal Dolan recognized this mission when he celebrated the dedication Mass of the chapel at the Dominican-run Catholic Center at NYU: “We’re not afraid to say this is where the Catholic Church belongs… We want to be right smack dab in the middle of this public square… because we are not afraid.”
Here they are, speaking about what it is to live Catholicism in the middle of bustling, not always Catholic-friendly Manhattan, at the NYU campus and beyond:
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