A raccoon climbed the candlelit steps of St. Joseph's Church in Greenwich Village on Sept. 25 and strolled right through the front doors during a special evening mass, sniffing around the foyer before the pastor noticed and sent it back outside. The animal scampered down the steps and up Sixth Avenue, leaving at least one passerby stunned enough to shout that they'd never seen a raccoon in the city before.
The encounter unfolded during the church's Night Fire Mass, a service held four times a year at St. Joseph's, located at Sixth Avenue and Washington Place, according to the New York Post. Father Jonah Teller, the church's pastor, spotted the raccoon inside the foyer and guided it back out the door, according to the same report. The timing struck him as more than coincidence: the visit came about one week before the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, and Teller said the raccoon felt like a reminder of the saint and of God, though he added he hopes the animal does not come back.
A Timely Reminder Ahead of the Blessing of the Animals
The Feast of St. Francis, observed annually on October 4, is marked across New York City's Catholic and Episcopal parishes with traditional Blessing of the Animals ceremonies, where parishioners bring their pets into the sanctuary, as the West Side Spirit has reported. Major venues like the Cathedral of St. John the Divine typically host elaborate blessings featuring a wide range of animal species for the occasion. St. Joseph's own raccoon arrived uninvited, but just in time for the holiday to lend the moment an extra layer of meaning for the parish.
St. Joseph's itself carries weight beyond this one strange visit. Constructed in 1833, the church is the oldest intact Catholic church building in Manhattan and the first sanctuary in New York City built specifically for a Roman Catholic parish, according to the NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project. It was originally established in 1829 to serve Greenwich Village. The parish has also hosted pivotal community moments over the decades, including the first meeting of the Gay Officers Action League in 1982 and Greenwich Village's first public educational program on AIDS, according to Village Preservation.
Why a Raccoon Wandering Into a Church Isn't So Strange
Why a Raccoon Wandering Into a Church Isn't So Strange Urban raccoons navigating human spaces may be less surprising than they might sound.
Still, any raccoon sighting in Manhattan carries a different undertone than it might have a decade ago. Rabies cases among raccoons have been climbing sharply elsewhere in the city: New York City recorded 20 laboratory-confirmed raccoon rabies cases through late August across Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, a 57 percent jump compared to the same period in 2025, Hoodline previously reported. Manhattan, notably, recorded zero raccoon rabies cases during that same window.
Rules Around Feeding and Handling Urban Wildlife
City officials have been blunt about keeping distance from raccoons regardless of where they turn up. WildlifeNYC, an initiative of the city's Department of Parks & Recreation, designates raccoons as the most widespread mammal in New York State and instructs residents to maintain a safe distance and avoid feeding or handling them. Feeding wild animals in city parks is also illegal under Title 56 of the Rules of the City of New York, carrying civil penalties between $50 and $75 and potential criminal fines up to $200.
If a raccoon becomes a persistent presence rather than a one-off visitor, the rules get even stricter for whoever has to deal with it. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation regulations bar private individuals from relocating trapped raccoons off-site or to public parks, instead requiring captured animals to be released on the property or humanely euthanized to curb disease spread. People who hire third-party wildlife-control help must use a licensed Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator.
Manhattan has dealt with raccoon disease scares before. The Central Park raccoon rabies outbreak ran from 2009 to 2011, with 133 raccoons testing positive and roughly 500 immunized through a trap-vaccinate-release program. For now, St. Joseph's uninvited guest appears to have been a solitary visit rather than the start of a pattern, and Teller is hoping it stays that way.
