Monday, August 23, 2021

Noise annoys nuns, plans exodus from Brooklyn


  

The Tablet

A small community of Carmelite nuns living in a monastery on the Brooklyn-Queens border has cloistered themselves from the rest of the world, but not to escape it.

Rather, their mission is to quietly pray for the world, and the Church in particular, with special attention to the salvation of souls and the sanctification of priests. This work continues unfettered by the distractions of current events, pop culture, or the media.

As a result, the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Joseph on Highland Boulevard in Brooklyn is permeated with serenity.

That is, except on the weekends when next-door Highland Park undergoes a conversion from popular greenspace to a nighttime magnet for teenagers and young adults who come to party. Criminal activity ensues — including drinking and fighting — and music blasted from dueling car speakers rattles the monastery’s windows.

High cement walls shield the sisters from hooliganism, but the noise disrupts their prayers. Consequently, the Carmelites plan to relocate to a 13-acre plot near Scranton, Pennsylvania, that has been gifted to them. Although the actual move might take years to complete, the nuns are already sad to leave their current neighborhood and the Diocese of Brooklyn.

“We’ve been here since 2004,” said Sister Maria, who speaks for the community, in a recent telephone interview. 

“And everyone in the neighborhood has been wonderful. And one thing is for sure — how we loved this diocese and the people,” she added. “But this [noise] problem has escalated over the past year. The police are also still trying as much as they can, but once they go, they come right back. It’s crazy.”

Since the nuns are cloistered, they only venture outside the monastery for essential tasks such as medical appointments, explained Jim Krug, who helps the sisters as a member of a lay group, the Carmelite Oblate Confraternity.

His regular job is teaching theology and religion at Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale, New York.

Krug reiterated that the nuns have minimal contact with the outside world. Occasionally, he said, they receive guests — such as relatives or even Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio — in a special parlor with a metal grate separating them from the visitors.

Therefore, the sisters asked Krug to conduct a tour — inside and out — of the monastery. He pointed to graffiti and garbage on the sidewalk along Highland Boulevard, just outside the monastery’s walls. The discarded junk included an empty liquor bottle, fast-food wrappers, and a busted vaping pen.

The north wall of the monastery’s enclosure faces the park. Trails cut through the thick foliage and trees surrounding the walls. Numerous tissues clinging to the ground indicate people use the secluded spot as a public restroom.

But the exterior has also been the venue of another activity — Santería rituals including sacrifices of animals, usually chickens, Krug said. In addition, animal bones, makeshift altars, and statues have been left outside the walls, Krug said.

15 comments:

georgetheatheist said...

Seems like if the cops confiscated the "dueling car speakers" . . over and over, it would put an end to the "partying' racket. Enforce the DEP noise code. Simple, no?

Anonymous said...

Truth to Pinko Demorats... this is your fault after 60 years of failed Commie Agenda.

Moses said...

The New Pharoah - Brooklyn and Queens Lowlife. Nice choice of descriptive term for the nuns' leaving: Exodus. Let the people go.

Anonymous said...

Sad commentary on this once great city!

Anonymous said...

Too vibrant even for the Church!

Colonel Sanders said...

Don't the chicken-slaying Santerias complain about the noise from the loudspeakers?

Colonel Sanders said...

Don't the chicken-slaying Santerias complain about the noise from the loudspeakers?

Joe said...

Quote "We’ve been here since 2004,” said Sister Maria'

Oh cry me a river !!
The "Puerto Rican" BBQ Sundays and wild drunken weekend mobs have been going on in those Highland parking lots since I can remember when my family moved to Ridgewood from Bushwick in 1969. So crazy it was hard getting on the Interburo parkway ramp at times. Im not singling out Puerto Ricans, I also remember barn fires on weekends, Barnfires and motorcycles driving through rings of fire in Forest Park too. Especially the rock concerts at the shell. Brats from Woodhaven, MV, Glendale & Ridgewood in Forest.

The corrupt church had to know all this, those priests & nuns were duped and dumped on that location because the church rater sell other properties.
This property will be sold also !!
Let'em go to cow pastures and take the whole dam church, gold wine goblets and diocese screwing up neighborhoods with them !!
Criminals complaining about criminals ? WTF, LOL

-Joe

Silence is Golden said...

.Joe. I'd rather listen to serene Gregorian chant than bass-booming bachata

Anonymous said...

Joe go and crawl back under the rock you came from.

Joe said...

"Joe go and crawl back under the rock you came from"

Its the hard truth the sheep just refuse to accept it.
Most all running the church are no dam good, I know because my mother was a catholic school teacher in Bushwick. Nobody believed the horror story's of what went on behind closed doors. Mass corruption, alcoholism, perverts, and perverts sheltering more perverts from law enforcement. In a nutshell the church takes in all these mentally deranged and "programs" them into nuns & priests.
It doesn't work because the Mr.Hyde element will eventually always comes back out. Fact: You can repress mental illness but it can never be fixed, the church should have learned that century's ago when the same shit was going on back in Italy.

1968 or so:
I was assaulted by Dominican nuns from Ridgewood with sticks and a bat in 3rd grade and jumped out a 2nd floor window of the school, because my mother refused to quit and talked to the police about abuse, nepotism and embezzlement. Run home bleeding with a black eye and egg sized bump is when my grandfather lost his shit, had enough and ran up to the school on Melrose street with his Italian musket and evacuated all the kids. The school was closed a week later, the diocese of Brooklyn protected, hid and transferred all those criminals.
The church was plowed down and became housing
The old Italian grandparents knew this and the were told by the "flock" to crawl under rock also.

Some of those church people are good and mean well however they are not the majority, and they are never the ones running the show.
This is a boots on the ground, boots in the room person typing this and if you can find an old 83rd Precinct cop they will collaborate it.

I hope you voting habits are much more prudent because other devils are at work in 2021

-Joe

Anonymous said...

New York! Love it or leave it.

Anonymous said...

Highland Park has been a dangerous place from the 70's and I've stayed away but when the reservoir was fixed up a few years ago I figured I'd go back on a Sunday.The parking lot was packed and there was dueling car radios blasting Salsa music and guys on ATV's and dirt bikes on the reservoir bike paths.We called the cops but they never came.Go on a week day and avoid that crowd.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how much "The church" is going to make on the sale of the property to developers?

Anonymous said...

These Karens NEED TO FIND A NEW COUNTRY.