Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

I’m a bad Catholic. And by that I mean, I’m spotty on attending mass (and have «several» opinions that might have me on the express train to Bunratty Castle Folk Pakr (i.e. purgatory, see:
), but I try to keep the tenants of love and forgiveness in my heart every day. I’m really fidgety when I have to sit through mass for 90 minutes during Lent and Easter season, BUT the reason I keep going back here, even though mass at Historic St. Mary’s is shorter (and St. someoneorother in Troy is even shorter), is the amazing work of art that is the sanctuary of this cathedral. If I get bored there is no shortage of exceptional stained glass and statuary to gaze upon (and I love the St. Patrick statue).
This American Gothic style cathedral sits on top of a small hill off of Madison Avenue starkly contrasting the modern chaos that is the Empire State Plaza. The Cathedral opened its doors in 1852 and was built with the hope of raising morale and pride among the Irish Catholic immigrants who had recently flocked to the United States to escape the Great Hunger (aka: Potato Famine); the Bishop at the time even went so far as to commission an Irish architect to build the cathedral. Its purpose, like any place of worship, was to create a sense of community and pride for a demographic that was the new target of the xenophobes.
The Cathedral adheres fairly strickly to the Vatican’s protocol on mass and some of it is in Latin and a good portion of it is sung. (This actually only cropped up at the Cathedral re-​dedication after the extensive renovations). Its kinda fun to sing in Latin some times.
The director of music is a great organ player and recently had an «opera» that he composed presented at the Cathedral. The cantors are also talented singers, but have impossible ranges for the masses to enjoyably sing-​a-​long with.
There is NO air-​conditioning in the summer and the fans that they have going just don’t cut it. It is comfortable in the winter.