In April 2019, we watched heart-stricken as the 800 year-old Cathedral of Notre-Dame burned in Paris. You didn’t have to be Catholic, or even Christian to grieve… you didn’t have to be French, or European, or even western… Notre-Dame is one of the great treasures of humanity. Thank Heaven it still stands, although fragile and still endangered.. President Macron said, “We shall rebuild.”

President Trump tried to coerce the Ukrainian president into using the Ukrainian government to help with Trump’s re-election campaign. When public servants revolted, Trump issued a summary (not actually a transcript) of the conversation, and Trump’s own summary appears to show him committing a crime. This led, among other things, to impeachment hearings.

Trump also yanked protection from our Kurdish allies, and gave permission for Turkish forces to enter Kurdish-held areas and massacre Kurdish forces.

Trump fled the NATO summit after video showed world leaders laughing at him, and then the House of Representatives impeached him. He doesn’t need to fear losing his office – most of the jurors proudly proclaim that they are working hand-on-glove with the accused – but these twin setbacks endanger Trump’s mental and emotional health, as he has shown a life-long desperation to present himself as strong, successful, and respected.

Christianty Today called for Trump’s removal, leading to speculation about Trump finally losing some white evangelicals, and to hilarious attacks describing CT as “left-wing.” The reality is probably that CT in this case speaks for those evangelicals who are already anti-Trump, though the editorial might encourage a tiny amount of erosion around the edges, white evangelicals having a strong follow-the-crowd, follow-the-leader bent.

The year also speeded up a process that’s been going on for 60 years, of people leaving churches and organized religion. Catholics have been bleeding, largely over the abuse scandal and the handling of the scandal. White evangelicals are driving out their own young, who are largely disgusted over hypocrisy as those who wailed that Bill Clinton was too immoral to be president now passionately embrace Trump. They probably could have gotten away with the 180-degree shift if they had FACED it as a 180, confessed that they’d been wrong before, and announced that they’d changed their minds. Come back for the 2028 elections and you’ll find that the Catholic bloc and the white evangelical bloc are both smaller, weaker, and much more elderly.

Locally, 2019 saw the closing of Immaculate Heart Church in Painted Post. This had been the newest Catholic congregation in Steuben County, and the newest Catholic edifice. Like St. Vincent on Corning Northside, which closed last year because of a structural collapse, IH has merged with St. Mary/All Saints, leaving just one congregation in the Corning-PP area.

St. James Mercy Center in Hornell moved along in its transition from being a Catholic hospital to becoming a University of Rochester hospital, complete with new location to come. A multi-structure fire wrecked a large part of the Preston Avenue neighborhood in Hornell, but no lives were lost. But an April car crash in Allegany County killed four young people from the Dansville area. An October crash in Pulteney killed four people who had just left a bar in Hammondsport. Both drivers survived, injured, to face charges.

Beaver Pharmacy closed in Canisteo – the business went back to at least 1901, and the Beavers bought it in 1935. Walgreens in Hornell bought the business, and took on all the employees. Bennet’s Motors closed in Wayland on New Year’s Eve – the Bennet brothers started the business when they got back from World War I.

Bath’s K-Mart closed, although the main chain endures. Bath Building Company went out in November, but the parent Corning Building Company continues. Also in Bath the Steuben Bowling Academy closed after structural collapse – the county bought the place, demolished it, and plans to use it for parking. The Chat-a-Whyle Restaurant closed on Liberty Street, but there may be some possibility that it will open again. And after more than 150 years, the Steuben Courier no longer has an office in Bath. It still publishes weekly, out of the Leader office in Corning.

Carol Channing, Albert Finney, and Kaye Ballard died in 2019. So did author Rosamund Pilcher, and Jackie Kennedy’s sister Lee Radziwill. Doris Day, Tim Conway, Peter Fonda, Valerie Harper, and Herman Wouk passed away. Lee Iacocca and Ross Perot departed, as did Addison native MLB player Jim Greengrass.

Locally we were forced to say goodbye to Norm Brush, Kitty Ormsby, Floyd Hayes, and Dot Cornell. And we miss every one of them.