A Vigorous Young Chaplain

In 1926, Father Holran was transferred to Williamsburg’s Epiphany Parish where he died the following year. To replace him, Bishop Molloy called upon Reverend Edward Brophy, a vigorous young ex-Army chaplain who had served in the Philippines. Father Brophy was transferred from his pastoral assignment at Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Southampton. While Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett were making man’s first flight over the North Pole, Father Brophy assumed his duties in a parish with no permanent church. It was not surprising that Father Brophy put fund raising for a church building high on his list of pastoral priorities.

Again the dedicated parishioners accepted the challenge of their pastor. Among those who rallied to Father Brophy’s appeal for a new church were Aeneas Neligan, James Prendergast, George Klopf, who counted money for many years at our weekly Bingos and on Sunday mornings, James Godfrey, Jack Barker, John Duffy, William Kenneally, Michael McGauley, Nick Pascale, and George Krahe. Again, our list is not complete since no written records are available. Significantly, the fund-raising volunteers were all men. Father Brophy as an ex-Army chaplain had a tremendous respect for the talents of an organization of men in getting things done; he was a fervent man's man.

A "Buy-a-Brick" campaign was inaugurated with pledges being paid directly into Chemical Corn Exchange Bank without any door-to-door collections being made. The women of the parish played an important role in raising funds by staging Sodality shows and organizing block parties.

Little did Father Brophy realize, as he began his fund-raising activities, that the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression would force sixteen million people into unemployment. Raising money in those dire times must have taxed the faith and vital energy of Father Brophy and his loyal supporters. Convinced, however, that he would surmount his financial problems. Father Brophy retained the noted architect. Henry J. McGill, to design a church "worthy of its purpose."

Sunday, November 30, 1930, was the third anniversary of the death of Father Holran, and a chill wind moaned a requiem on that dreary, cheerless day. Following a short service late in the afternoon in the temporary church at Hettinger's Hall, a group of some eighteen hundred parishioners and friends gathered at an empty lot on Thirty-Seventh Street where a blacksmith shop used to stand. The occasion was the blessing of the cornerstone for the new church of Most Precious Blood Parish. In concession to the weather the ceremony was simple and brief. The blessing was given by Monsignor Charles F. Gibney, Pastor of the neighboring parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. A capsule encased in the cornerstone contained a list of parishioners, copies of records of the first Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage performed in the parish, a crucifix blessed by the Holy Father Pope Pius XI, religious articles, coins, photographs of Bishop Molloy, Father Holran, Father Brophy, the assistant priests, and copies of the local newspapers and The Tablet.