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A k mm J\r \\ i L d0 ^ 1 ---------A xr u s u u m t\\L St* Jellies CctthtjclralBY JEANNETTE WALLSDuring the Dark Ages, when society considered many fields of art and science unfashionable, it was the churches that kept them alive. Though religious impact on the arts remains obvious today, and though churches still participate in the arts, they no longer lead or exert major influence on today%u2019s world of art.Father Dennis Corrado of the Cathedral of St. James says all of that may change. No, gospel music isn%u2019t rising to the top of the charts, but churches are becoming the cultural as well as educational and organizing centers of many neighborhoods. Following this trend, St. James (as part of a celebration of the church%u2019s 125th year as a cathedral) will be sponsoring a massive festival of the arts.Although St. James has been standing since 1822, it was not until 1853 that it was recognized as a cathedral. Literally this title means that the church contains the cathedra, or the chair of the bishop. Because only one church in each diocese can hold the cathedra, only one churclTin the area can be a cathedral.Located at 250 Cathedral Place, in Fort Greene, St. James will kick off the celebration Friday at 8 p.m. with a conctfrt by the Boston Archdiocesan Boys%u2019 Choir. Directed by the renowned Theodore Marier, this group is an Americanversion of the Vienna Boy%u2019s Choir. The concert will include songs from seven centuries of sacred music. The admission is S3 tax deductible.In addition to being a happening for the Brooklyn audiences, the event will be a special experience for the boys in the choir: they will be overnight guests of several Brooklyn families. %u201c It%u2019s really a very nice thing,%u201d commented Corrado, who pointed out that the arrangement has happened successfully in the past. %u201cAll the preconceptions these boys have about the horrors of Brooklyn are smashed. They expect dirt and foulness, and instead are received with warmth and hospitality.%u201dA parish reunion Mass will be the big event on the second day of the celebration. Saturday, the staff and members associated with the long history of St. James Parish (as well as the public) are invited to the celebration. A Liturgy will be sung by the Boston Archdiocesan Boy%u2019s Choir and an informal reception follows the celebration.Francis J. Mugavero, the Bishop of Brooklyn, will contribute to the Sunday celebration, the finale of the weekend. The combined choirs of St. James Cathedral, St. Matthias, Ridgewood and the Holy Child Jesus of Richmond will provide musical entertainment. A ribbon cutting ceremony marking the opening of a new Cathedral Center is scheduled at 1 p.m. The center is in a downstairs area(which for 40 years was used for a crypt) and will be used for cultural events and community affairs.Following the opening ceremony will be an %u201c Inauguration of 1st Cathedral Festival,%u201d featuring scores of arts and crafts people, international culinary booths, downtown Brooklyn community groups and entertainment. The festival lasts from 1:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.%u201c Since the residency of the area has dwindled in the past 25 years, the size of our congregation has also dwindled,%u201d said James Hinshy, administrator of the cathedral. %u201c We want to go beyond the needs of the immediate neighborhood,%u201d explained Hinschy. %u201c We are trying to approach people Us a whole, and from a broader scope of needs. When you consider it, the arts are, in the broadest sense, an extension of the soul. We will be offering, beginning November, a spectacular chamber concert series, featuring some of the best musicians from around the city. We%u2019ll also be offering adult education classes that will approach many topics other than Catholicism.%u201dHinschy possesses a Ph.D. in contemporary British performing arts, and many of the others who compose a relatively new staff are also well versed in the arts. As Father Corrado sees it, it%u2019ll be a new artistic renaissance part of the Brooklyn renaissance.C A T H E D R A L : Historic S t. J a m e s , cathedral o f the Rom an Catholic Diocese o f B ro o klyn, m arking an a n n ive rsa ry.LaC orte Envisions Bridging The World BY JEANNETTE WALLS JEANNETTE WALLS This nrnieot. should it snrropd rouorcA o toon J tlint xi : %u2022. < %u2022 %u2022%u2022 ... _ _John LaCorte has taken on some pretty ambitious projects in his life so far.Seems like every time there was a controversy or a movement storming up in Brooklyn for the last 50 odd years, LaCorte was either involved with it, or at the front leading it. A combination history buff/activist with a focus on Italian heritage, LaCorte has been responsible for getting numerous commemorative statues and structures erected in the borough, including the statue of Columbus that stands in Boro Hall Plaza and a multimillion dollar auditorium to the FBI founder, Charles Boneparte.In the midst of the naming of the Narrows Bridge, he led the controversial crusade for naming it Verrazano. He is credited for having Columbus Day nationally recognized as a holiday. He discovered and publicized the fact that it was Antonio Ceucci, not Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone. LaCorte works mostly by lobbying, but one can%u2019t deny that what he wants done, usually gets done.He is currently working on a novel, is the President of the Italian Historical Society, and is finalizing the plans for his most ambitious project of all.This project, should it succeed, could change the way the world thinks. %u201cI call it a %u2018Back to God%u2019 movement,%u201d said the Brooklynite, explaining that God, as he interprets the word, refers to a way of thinking, as opposed to an invisible entity. %u201c More specifically, it is a movement to get people to realize their own potential, to recognize the good in man and to use that good for furthering the country.%u201dcrusade reverse a trend that, though perhaps more intensified and more visible in recent years, has been going on since the beginning of mankind?LaCorte says his first step is the media. %u201cIf they are capable of selling Coca-Cola all over the world,%u201d he said, %u201c and are able to sell ice boxes to Eskimos during the winter, people in the media can do anything. Face it, they can makeI %u2019 v e m o r e o r le s s g i v e n u p o n t h e o l d p e o p l e i n t h i s w o r l d . T h e y %u2019 r e t o o u n c h a n g e a b l e .%u201dThough his plan may seem somewhat vague and very idealistic, the 68-year old activist has plotted a definite plan that he feels will make the nation, and eventually the world, return to what LaCorte feels is an abandoned feeling of brotherhood.The idea, he says, has been cultivating in his mind since he came to Brooklyn, 49 years ago. Since he %u201cfell in love%u201d with the borough a few days after he arrived, he feels Brooklyn is the right place for it to happen. And next year, marking his fiftieth anniversary as a Brooklynite, will be the right time to begin this.So how does a one-man, 20-yearblack white and white black...And with this power they can make it fashionable to be %u2018nice.%u2019 %u201d And, he explained, everyone follows fashions.%u201c I%u2019ve more or less given up on the old people in this world,%u201d LaCorte said. %u201cThey%u2019re too unchangeable. But if we can reach the youth! They are the leaders of the year 2000. We need to make it so that all their influences are good ones.%u201dMORAL CRUSADEWhat, exactly, are these ambitious plans? Well, so far he%u2019s only given hints as to what actual steps he%u2019ll be taking.%u201c We are the only structures inthe universe with intellect. We have conquered space and are able to communicate with anyone else on this planet,%u201d pointed out the bearded, white-haired man. %u201c But what is happening to family unity? To love and brotherhood? Much of this we have lost, despite all that we have gained.%u201dLaCorte says that the month he spent in Italy, the professed capital of Christianity and culture, depressed him greatly; not only because of its state of religion, but also because of the country%u2019s financial and social conditions, its government and views on ecology. A look at the statistics of suicides and the number of inmates at penal and mental institutions, of drug consumption, and a look at students from five New York colleges depressed him in the same way. %u201cThis trend has got to stop!%u201d he emphasized. %u201c What we have is not civilization.%u201dIn his large book and plaquefilled office in Columbia Heights, which also serves as the headquarters for the Italian Historical Society, LaCorte opened a good number of books, maps and charts, some of which were quite old, all of which served as guides and pointers to his ambitious plan. %u201c I should have it well researched,%u201d he said. \years.%u201dTurning to the influential populace of the world, in addition to the influenced, LaCorte is preparing letters to President Carter and to various senators and congressmen, throwing at them the question, %u201c What can you do to make this a better world?%u201d LaCorte is asking these political big-wigs to a dinner/ discussion at Avery Fisher Hall on March 4 of next year.How much does he believe in this crusade? Well, LaCorte has put his house up for mortgage to help fund this dream.The stately brownstone, incidentally, was at one time the home of two famous Americans. Not only did it house Thomas Wolfe, the famous playwright, but it was also home to the Roeblings, the designer, engineer, and constructor of the Brooklyn Bridge.So it becomes doubly appropriate that this 20-year program is launched from where it is. %u201cThe spark that will set the world on fire will be started right here. In Brooklyn there is the largest number of cultural, religious, and ethnic institutions in the world.%u201d%u201c While he lived here, Roebling built a great bridge that connected Brooklyn with the rest of the world. And from this house another great bridge will be built%u2014but this one will connect the entire world together.%u201dU ndergraduate N eeds Fulfilled In Community ColleqesThis fall, there are two new t h f i f f t A T P . t w n n p w a e o r w u i r r a r _____________________________ 3 i__ %u00ab . ^educational programs in our area, and both are most unusual. Long Island University%u2019s Continuing Education office is conducting a Brooklyn Heights program, and the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood College has been founded to meet the demand for a local undergraduate institution in that community.Dean Victor Marrow of LIU says, the Brooklyn program is unique because it %u201cdraws on thfe resources of the community.%u201d Seventeen local organizations and businessesare sponsoring courses or lending space for the program. The faculty is made up primarily of Heights residents, augmented by members of the LIU faculty.Classes in the Heights program will be held throughout the neighborhood. and while most are of ageneral nature, %u201c Spaces and Places: Treasures of Brooklyn%u201d and How To Research Your House%u201d are aimed specifically towards residents of Brooklyn brownstone communities. Charges for courses range from $25 to $95 andinformation can .be obtained by calling LIU%u2019s office of Continuing Education at 834-6020.The Carroll Gardens Neighborhood College came about as part of a project by the National Congress of Neighborhood Women to bringr n l l p o p ^ d u r a t i o n t n w r %u00bb m < * n i n t h # %u00bb i rown communities. Classes offered are %u201c Social Change and Community Development,%u201d %u201c Survey of Social Sciences%u201d and %u201c English Compositon.%u201dThe classes are accredited by LaGuardia Community College,and can be transferred to any school in the City University of New York system. Students completing the two year liberal arts program receive A.A. degrees, but the main attraction of the Neighborhood College is the emphasis on comm i t m f i rAccording to spokeswoman Connie Noschese, the school is geared towards %u201cwomen who are active in the community.%u201d Hence, the %u201c Social Change and Community Development%u201d class focuses on neighborhood problems, such as thoseinvolving planning of changes on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.Classes started last week and are currently being held in local churches, but organizers hope that the College will have a building of its own soon.%u201c T%u00bb%u2014 j i__ i t . ________ A i_ -* %u00bb** u w n g m v u xjj u iw t V W J /U U Uof local churches and community organizations,%u201d said Laura Polla Scanlon, program director. %u201cThis shows an attempt to broaden the scope of women%u2019s education.%u201d For information on the college, call 388-6666.-D.H.