When Greenwhich Village

Was a Village

It had a local hospital Saint Vincent's that has a long history of serving the financially struggling catholic population of New York's artier crowd- the struggling artists, busboys and poets, actors and actresses, singers, the gay community and new york immigrants yearning to breathe free. You didn't have to be catholic to go, it was catholic because they served all the poor- in the mission of healing that Christ inspired to even the least of these brethren.

Saint Vincents now has been closed for about 100 days and there is a rally next week-end in the Village to protest its closing. There is still a profound need for a catholic hospital that serves the crowd who don't fit the wall street condo mold of aspiring gentrification of everything with character and charm-turning it into corporate trumpland.

My thought; just as major hospitals merged in NYC, Columbia merging with NY Presbyterian and Cornell Med in various stages (where my mother was born)- perhaps Saint Vincent can conspire in merger discussions in heaven with Saint Padre Pio.
Saint Vincent, that famous French saint whom one can see slightly embossed with wax encased in the chapel of the Miraculous Metal at Rue Du Bac in Paris is famous for miraculously healing disease stricken destitute Parisians in the 19th Century with Saint Catherine Laboure (who had the vision of the Miraculous Mary Metal)- while Padre Pio astutely financed a hospital for the suffering for the poor of southern italy near Foggia, in San Giovanni Rotunda (meaning Saint John's rotunda)- It is one of the best hospitals in Europe.
Perhaps this merger of saintly figures and forces could result in a reconfigured renamed hospital in Greenwhich Village called "Padre Pio-Vincent's" (a merger sure to pass DOJ antitrust scrutiny) blessed by the fine friars of Saint Anthony of Padua's Shrine down the street where some of the best preaching in the world is found (what do you expect from a shrine named after the Preacher so famous for preaching that his tongue is preserved in his home basillica in Padua.)
http://stanthonynyc.org/id16.html

Imagine the collaborative opportunities between one of the best hospitals in the world found in southern italy and saint Padre Pio-Vincent's in Greenwhich Village New York. How many people could be healed and saved?
I encourage everyone in the New York area next weekend to visit Saint Anthony's (there is an awesome market where artists, bakers, antique map vendors and distressed furniture dealers line the church on week-ends) to support the catholic hospital in Greenwhich Village and call on the conspiracy of Padre Pio and Saint Vincent to make it happen - for the good of all His Church.