The Jesuit complex that hosted Woody Allen films and same-sex advocacy

If you think a Catholic church on the Upper East Side is just a place for quiet pews and old-fashioned discipline, you haven't been paying attention. This block is a sprawling Jesuit complex that manages to be a high-prestige academic machine and a site of active theological discussion all at once.

The site has evolved significantly since its inception. It started in 1851 as St. Lawrence O'Toole's Church for Irish immigrants. A wooden church was erected in 1852, which was replaced in 1853 by a modest brick structure built through the fundraising of the Rev. Walter Quarter. The current Gothic church was built from 1895 to 1900 and was designated a New York City Landmark in 1969.

Operations here are diverse. You have Regis High School, an all-scholarship boys' school, and Loyola School, which maintains a single-digit acceptance rate. Then there is the church itself, which has hosted scenes for the film Interiors and a confessional scene in Gossip Girl, while also hosting a ministry that explicitly affirms same-sex couples. The parish published an essay in 2021 criticizing the Vatican's refusal to bless same-sex unions.

Walk around the block today and you will see the contradictions in action. It is a place where a fictional billionaire can have a lavish funeral, where a grammar school with a National Blue Ribbon pedigree trains the next generation of New York elite, and where the parish actively advocates for marriages that the wider Church says it cannot bless.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons