Page 6 - GC-Mar-Apr-2023
P. 6

German places you should know about:

      St. Matthew Roman Catholic Church in Buffalo

         by Martin Ederer
          omprising territories belonging
      Cto the overcrowded parishes of
      St.  Mary  Magdalene,  St.  Mary  of
      Sorrows  and  St.  Gerard,  St.  Mat-
      thew was created in 1908 by Bishop
      Charles Colton, who appointed Rev.
      George  Sellinger  its  first  pastor.
      After  the  German  parish  was
      formed in May 1908, it began work
      on  a  two-story  frame  building  on
      June 19, 1908.
         As it was nearing completion, a
      thunderstorm  almost  destroyed  it.
      After a rebuild, Bishop Colton dedi-
      cated the structure in August 1908.
      The first floor was the church, and
      the  second  floor  was  the  school.
      The sisters who taught in the school
      lived in the attic.
         Almost  immediately  the  parish
      laid plans for a more formal church
      building, and in 1911 a cornerstone
                                     likened the Romanesque Ohio sand- with  Venetian  mosaics,  and  a
      for the new church was laid at East
      Ferry Street and Wyoming Avenue,  stone  structure  to  Charlemagne’s Moeller organ.
                                     cathedral  complex  in  Aachen.  In  1987,  St.  Matthew  suc-
      designed  by  architect  George  A.
      Setter.    Once  the  basement  was  While  that  may  have  indeed  been cumbed  to  the  same  demographic
                                     the  inspiration,  the  similarities  ap- problems  many  erstwhile  German
      complete,  it  served  as  the  church
      until  the  upper  church  was  built.  pear to be more imagined than real.  parishes suffered – but with added
                                        Outstanding furnishings includ- tragedy.  In 1987 Rev. David Herli-
      That portion of the project did not
      begin until 1927.              ed  windows  from  Franz  Mayer  in hy, in residence at the rectory, was
                                     Munich and local Otto Andrle win- murdered;  a  similar  tragedy  also
         The fully completed church was
      dedicated  in  1928.  Some  writers  dows,  white  Carrara  marble  altars occurred  at  St.  Bartholomew
                                                                    Church, where Fr. David Bissonette
                                                                    was murdered.
                                                                      Shortly  afterward,  the  St.  Mat-
                                                                    thew was twinned with St. Bartho-
                                                                    lomew Church.  Both were closed in
                                                                    1993 as part of a reorganization of
                                                                    inner-city parishes.
                                                                      Good intentions to make a major
                                                                    Protestant spiritual center out of St.
                                                                    Matthew’s Church in its post-Cath-
                                                                    olic incarnation came to naught.  By
                                                                    2010 what little was left of the dere-
                                                                    lict church had been stripped out.  A
                                                                    succession of real estate “flips” has
                                                                    yielded no future.  What is left of the
                                                                    church continues to crumble.


                                                                    War impacts

                                                                    German economy
                                                                      from page 1

                                                                    ment should not increase subsidies
                                                                    for fossil fuels.
                                                                    Business lobby group
                                                                    expects more losses
                                                                      The  Association  of  German
                                                                    Chambers of Commerce and Indus-
                                                                    try  (DIHK),  a  prominent  business
                                                                    lobby group, on Monday also high-
                                                                    lighted the costs of Russia's war to
                                                                    the German economy.
                                                                      The group forecasts that the war
                                                                    and its impact would cost Germany
                                                                    about 4% of GDP between Russia
                                                                    launching its invasion in February
                                                                    2022 and the end of 2023.
                                                                      DIHK  President  Peter  Adrian
                                                                    told  the  Rheinische  Post  newspa-
                                                                    per,  the  economy  will  generate
                                                                    about  €160  billion  less  –  roughly
                                                                    €2,000 per German resident.
                                                                      Meanwhile,  Germany's  central
                                                                    bank  predicted  that  the  country's
                                                                    economy will likely enter a techni-
                                                                    cal recession.
                                                                      A recession is generally identi-
                                                                    fied by a fall in GDP in two succes-
                                                                    sive  quarters,  and  the  German
                                                                    economy  contracted  in  the  fourth
                                                                    quarter of 2022.
                                                                      "Economic  output  in  the  first
                                                                    quarter of 2023 is likely to be lower
                                                                    than  in  the  previous  quarter  once
                                                                    again," the Bundesbank wrote in its
                                                                    monthly report.
                                                                      Looking ahead, the Bundesbank
                                                                    said German economic output was
                                                                    likely to decline slightly on average
                                                                    in 2023, but that it was expected to
                                                                    do a little better than the 0.5% fall
                                                                    in GDP predicted in December.
                                                                      rc/dj (dpa, Reuters)
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