Most Holy Redeemer Church in Limbo: Locals Rally, Archdiocese Mum

More than 70 people, including past parishioners, community members and District 2 Council Member Harvey Epstein held a vigil/rally outside the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer on Monday Aug. 31 — the one-year anniversary of the parish’s last regular mass. Locals fear the financially struggling Catholic Archdiocese of New York will try to sell the shut-down church to a developer and are pushing to preserve the historic church by having it declared a landmark.

The event, which was organized by the grassroots group Save Most Holy Redeemer, was announced on both its Instagram and Facebook accounts, and by allies like Village Preservation, the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, and the neighborhood blog, EVGrieve.

“No decision has been made about the future of the church building, and the parish will continue to be in contact with parishioners with any updates,” said Director of Communication of the Archdiocese Joseph Zwilling. “Parishioners continue to worship at nearby St. Brigid–Saint Emeric Church on Avenue B.”

“Since its founding in 1844, the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer has been a beloved and historic community institution with an enormous and longstanding impact on the communities across the Lower East Side,” said Epstein in a statement. “My office and I are in touch with the archdiocese and parish leadership and advocating to reopen the church to ensure a future of services, weddings, and family gatherings.”

The reasons why the beloved Catholic parish may not just perish — its lass mass was held on Aug. 31, 2025, and save a parishioner’s funeral on Jan. 17, 2026, the building has been closed ever since — but also be demolished are manifold but one reason looms over all: Money.

The archdiocese needs to sell of big ticket real estate to pay off an estimated $800 million sexual abuse settlement.

With the city’s Catholic population in a decades-long decline with is only partially offset by recent immigration, the church has become ruthless: consolidating parishes, closing parochial schools, and selling off its valuable real estate.

Before neither sex-abuse settlement nor its growing magnitude were known, efforts to save Holy Redeemer began even before the last Agnus Dei resounded late last summer.

It’s a Lovely Church

”It’s a lovely church,” one elderly worshipper told Our Town days before its closure date. She was the sole person in the edifice at 173 East 3rd Street between Avenues A and B. “Nobody knows what is going to happen,” she said. “Maybe they will keep it open as a landmark. Maybe they will sell it.”

Founded by the German-speaking Redemptorist Fathers in 1844, the church was completed in 1851 and served as a center for the German Catholic population of an area that would become known as Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany.

The parish negotiated innumerable cultural and economic changes over the next two centuries, eventually ending up a predominantly Hispanic congregation. The travails of Most Holy Redeemer and its closure are even more painful in that it followed so closely on the restoration of the church bells in December 2023.

The significance of the event was demonstrated by the presence of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who celebrated a 5:30 p.m. vigil Mass there on Dec. 23 and afterwards joined a candlelight procession outside to bless the parish bell and clocktower. Afterwards, the new electronic bells rang to the tune of “Silent Night.”

“We’ve got so many ups and downs, don’t we?” said Dolan afterwards “And now, when they see their beloved parish, my God, that goes back to 1851, it’s still alive and still confident!” Dolan then made a fist with his right hand and gave a brief, elated pump. Dolan continued, “When we illuminate the clock and repair the tower and ring out the bells so appropriate with Christmas coming up, this is the place to be.”

“Its magnificent tower rises 232 feet into the sky, a prominent symbol of our Christian faith here in the neighborhood, but for the past three decades it has been in disrepair,” said Father Seán Costello, then the administrator of Most Holy Redeemer. “The bells have not been working, the clocks have not been working, and its four wooden faces have been deteriorating, making it an eyesore for our local community, so we’re really excited the restoration has been completed just in time for Christmas.”

“It’s our hope that everyone who looks up at the clock, seeing it illuminated, at night will be reminded that god loves them and they will always be welcome in this church to receive his saving grace.”

While the bells continue to ring out on East Third Street, for how much longer that tower will be there remains an open question.

“It was heartening to see how strongly the community continues to feel about saving this church. The Archdiocese made a promise to keep the church open for services on major holidays, but that promise like so many others has been broken. We know where this is headed. The Archdiocese sees this as a real estate asset rather than as a piece of this community or a link to a long and proud lineage,” said Village Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman in an impassioned statement.

“We join residents and parishioners in calling upon the Archdiocese to reopen the church to the community which has long made it its spiritual home. And we demand that the Landmarks Preservation Commission finally act to landmark this historic edifice... We hope they will change course and protect Most Holy Redeemer before it’s too late.”

The LPC surprised—and pleased—many church watchers this past spring when it accorded landmark status to the Church of St. Mary on Grand Street. Whether this victory augurs well for the future landmarking of Catholic churches is unclear but the mood among preservations remains wary and vigilant.

Break In At Most Holy Redeemer; Heavy NYPD Response Follows

In a seemingly unrelated incident, just days after the Most Holy Redeemer vigil, the neighborhood was startled by a heavy police response outside the parish. Among the responding units were officers from the 9th Precinct, ESU and the Strategic Response Group, the presence of the latter often suggesting a serious, violent crime in progress.

According to NYPD, however, the cops were responding to reported burglary report, with details as follows: On Wednesday, September 2, 2026, at approximately 3:45 p.m., an unknown individual entered the front door of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer at 169 East 3rd Street by hopping over the fence.

No items were removed, and no injuries were reported. There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing.