This church is on the National Register of Historic Places, thanks to JFK getting married here, a fact which it's obviously very proud of. It's over 150 years old. I drove here this morning for an early Mass, the longest trip I had left apart from Block Island. There was a group of nuns at Mass, possibly Dominicans - I'm not sure if they're based in Newport or just visiting. At the end of Mass, three parishioners got up in front and sang "America the Beautiful".
The church has an extremely high ceiling, but it's a bit smaller than the cathedral-like space I was picturing. There's a huge arrangement of stained glass behind the altar. The pews are highly unusual - I'm at a loss to describe the wooden things sticking out of them - and clearly very old. I sat at the back, and the pews were so close together that I was barely able to kneel properly. The pews are also numbered, which I don't think I've seen on this pilgrimage before either. I'm guessing this is so that seats can be assigned in the event of a well attended wedding - this must be a popular church for that because of the JFK connection.
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