Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Our Lady of Loreto is in court


From AM-NY:

It has arrived in the form of a showdown between a faith-based group determined to level a 109-year-old church to erect affordable housing and residents who want to preserve their neighborhood’s patrimony while providing a hub for Brownsville culture.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Bernard Graham issued a temporary stop to the demolition of the magnificent, albeit deteriorating, Our Lady of Loreto Roman Catholic church on April 26.

A final decision on the historic architectural gem is expected to be handed down on May 9.

Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development Corporation (CCPOP), which leases the site from the Diocese of Brooklyn, wants to demolish the 1908 Italian Renaissance church at Sackman and Pacific streets to erect an unknown number of “energy-efficient units for low-income families” in a city where almost 60,000 people are homeless.

Members of the Brownsville Cultural Coalition and others long to landmark the church, which was closed to parishioners around 2008, and repurpose the shrine built by an all-Italian team of craftsmen into a cultural center for residents woefully short in community spaces for the arts.

Housing is important, said Miriam Robertson, executive director of the Brownsville Cultural Coalition, but Brownsville also needs to honor and preserve an important and elegant monument to its immigrant roots and history.

The pro se lawsuit that resulted in the current stay of demolition charges that multiple defendants failed to abide by a 2010 “letter of resolution” concerning the property. The letter of resolution stipulates “the Church itself shall not be demolished, reconstructed or damaged,” and was signed by the then CCPOP CEO and other parties. The church, said the resolution, “is not on the portion of the site of the modified project” slated for homes.

The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, said a commission spokeswoman, “has carefully reviewed this building several times over the past few years and each time determined not to advance it for further consideration due to a lack of support from critical community stakeholders, including the Council member,” for the district, Rafael Espinal.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh please they are talking about 60k homeless yet they know for a FACT that almost every single building going up these days only benefits people who make 80k+.

Anonymous said...

Goodbye church ,Hello cash for the BK Diocese.

Anonymous said...

Why would anyone want to demolish such a gorgeous building?

Most of the buildings Crappy complains about are nearly as ugly as what replaces them, but this one is magnificent.

Anonymous said...

You are absolutely correct. Low income is 60k to 80K gross income. Any single person or family making less than that is not even taken into consideration which accounts for all the homeless and potential homeless in New York City. Sad but true.

Anonymous said...

Let them build a tower while preserving the front façade of the former church.

Anonymous said...

A lot of priest abuse cases to be settled. Money must be raised.

(sarc) said...

The "Church" belongs to Christ on the basis of these gospel truths. Our Savior died for it. Jesus built it. He lays down requirements through which we can belong to him. The church belongs to Christ. He is the head of the church.
Colossians 1:18
(King James Version)

The "Church" is simply Christians who belong to Christ — collectively the church of Christ — when people obey the gospel.

Matthew 18
(King James Version)
19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Per the scriptures, the "Church" is often defined as a local assembly or group of believers.
Second, it is defined as the body of individual living believers
Finally, it is defined as the universal group of all people who have trusted Christ the Lord through the ages!

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
John 14:2-3
(King James Version)

It sound beautiful, something to truly look forward to.

This is just an old ornate building...

Anonymous said...

Msgr. LoPinto, Bishop DiMarzio, Cardinal Dolan, Catholic Charities and the Catholic Church care nothing about souls nor people as long as their precious St. Patrick's Cathedral is a money maker and the jewel in their crown of parting the 1 percent class of New Yorker's with their money. Here is what LoPinto said on March 7, 2013 to the Forum Newspaper reporter Patricia Adams at an information session hosted by Catholic Charities on the new Senior Residence to be located at the former Bernard Fineson Center at 155-55 156th Avenue just off Cross Bay Boulevard., Catholic Charities developed the Howard Beach Senior Apartments. "Msgr. Al LoPinto, Pastor of St. Helen’s Parish as well as the Vicar for Human Services of Catholic Charities, told The Forum that he expects the applicant pool for the state of the art facility to be somewhere between 5,000 and 7,500 applicants for the total pool of less than 100 units. “The need for these types of living spaces for seniors is tremendous,” said Msgr. LoPinto." Each and every word out of LoPinto's mouth is rehearsed AND is what appears to be STANDARD WORDAGE at each opening of a Catholic Charities Low Income/Senior Housing project. AS IS each and every time Robert Siebel, chief executive officer, CCBQ speaks to a news reporter-No matter what the project they use the same quotes and numbers. I do not know how true it is but now I hear Catholic Charities does not run the day to day operations, they outsource it and only own the property. To do this, can you imagine how much money they are making, disgusting!!! But before I get off point EACH AND EVRY NEIGHBORHOOD THAT WILL OCCUPY A CATHOLIC CHARITIES LIVING CENTER WILL HAVE THOSE APPLICATION NUMBERS-IT IS NOT ONLY IN THE EAST NEW YORK/BROWNSVILE COMUNITY-EVERY LOW INCOME FAMILY, PERSON OR SENIOR WILL APPLY. WHERE EVER THE CATHOLIC CHARITY OR ANY OTHER ORGANIZATION BUILDS. LOPINTO * STOP THE BS*