At Holy Innocents, the Latin Mass helped bring a renaissance, parishioners said, and transformed it into a beloved institution among a small but vocal community of traditionalist Catholics across the country. The church, which dates to 1869 and has about 300 registered parishioners, operates at a surplus, driven in part by generous collections and a thriving thrift shop in the basement, according to church documents. Attendance at Sunday Mass has nearly tripled since 2009, and the church recently paid $350,000 to restore an 1870s mural behind its high altar.

Faced with a shortage of priests and a declining number of parishioners, the New York Archdiocese — which includes the Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island and seven counties north of New York City — has been determining which of its 368 parishes it will shutter through a planning process called Making All Things New. Though the initial recommendations of an archdiocesan advisory panel, released in late April, were meant to be confidential, Holy Innocents printed them in its church bulletin.

The parish was advised to consolidate with St. Francis of Assisi Church on West 31st Street, at St. Francis’ site. But the letter from the archdiocesan panel made no mention of what would happen to the Latin Mass when Holy Innocents closed.

Parishioners were angry and fearful when Father Wylie, a 40-year-old priest from South Africa who had been the lead human rights negotiator for the Holy See, arrived on May 18 to celebrate the Latin Mass, as he did monthly. Parishioners said he decided to address the plight of the congregation extemporaneously, hoping to calm them.

While he urged them to be obedient to any decree, Father Wylie also told them in his sermon that he believed the archdiocese had a responsibility to provide them a stable place to worship, according to a transcript made by a parishioner from a recording.

Some dioceses dedicate a priest and a parish for the celebration of the Latin Mass. But in New York the laity must organize traditional Masses themselves, seeking out volunteer priests “hither and thither as though we were seemingly still living in Reformation England or Cromwellian Ireland,” Father Wylie said, calling it an “injustice.”