A relic of St. Anthony of Padua will visit Brooklyn

(The following paragraph is printed as received.)
"The Franciscan Friars invite you to join them in welcoming Saint Anthony of Padua on the occasion of the 750th Anniversary of the Discovery of Saint Anthony’s Relics by Saint Bonaventure. St Anthony will be visiting us in the form of a precious relic from his Basilica in Padua, Italy. The relic will be accompanied by one friar from the Messenger of St Anthony in Padua."

Saturday, December 7th, 2013
Most Precious Blood church
70 Bay 47th St. (Bath Beach Area) Brooklyn 
Veneration at 4:00 PM, Vigil Mass at 5:00 PM
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Sunday, December 8.
St. Anthony of Padua church, 155 Sullivan St. (Soho)
Manhattan
Mass at 11:00 AM
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Monday, December 9
St. Patrick’s cathedral, New York
5th Avenue at 50th St.
Welcoming of the Relics Mass 7:00 AM
Mass 9:00 AM, Veneration from 10:00 to 8:00 PM
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Tuesday, December 10.
St. Patrick’s cathedral
5th Avenue at 50th St.
Veneration from 8:00 to 5:00 PM, Closing Mass at 5:30 PM
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Wednesday, December 11.  
Our lady of Pompeii church, 25 Carmine St., Manhattan
Veneration at 5:00 PM, Mass at 6:30 PM
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Thursday, December 12.
Our Lady Queen of Martyrs church 110-06 Queens Blvd.
Forest hills, Mass at 12:05 PM
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St. Catherine of Sienna
33 New Hyde Park Rd. Franklin Square,
Vigil Mass at 5:00 PM, Vigil Mass at 8:00 PM
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Sunday, December 15,
Basilica of Regina Pacis, 1230 65th St.
Brooklyn 
Mass at 12:00 Noon
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For more information, please contact the Anthonian Association, 347-738-4306

(The above seems to come from some Conventual Franciscans, who have charge of the Basilica in Padua and who have a friary in Elmhurst, Queens.  St. Anthony (1195-1231) was born in Lisbon, and  traveled to Madrid and Padua. An article in the National Catholic Register (linked here) describes more, but does not specify which relic will visit Brooklyn.  Presumably his tongue remains in its golden case in Padua.  St. Anthony was not a martyr.)

St. Vincent de Paul, Williamsburg

This post concerns the sale and conversion of three properties of the former parish of St. Vincent de Paul running through from North 6th Street to North 7th Street, Williamsburg.  To the west is Bedford Avenue, with a thronged subway station of the L train.  To the east is Driggs Avenue, with a secondary entrance to the same station.  The photos and narrative are generally in reverse chronological order.  The church was designed by Patrick Keely and dedicated on October 17, 1869, according to several sources, including a report by Fr. Sylvester Malone printed in the Brooklyn Eagle of October 12, 1890.
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It seems that in 2014 lodging in the church was in the form of rental apartments.  The February 12, 2015, issue of Time Out New York has a quarter page story of an actual renter, under the title "Property peep show: Cathedral condo."  I have not been able t find a link to the article and its photos.
Back on May 28, 2014, ny.curbed.com ran a story, linked here.
The Awl on June 30, 2014, ran this critique.

The former rectory has been converted to apartments and is inhabited.

The above photo shows new construction at the north end (apex) of the church.  Acqua Santa restaurant, at 556 Driggs Avenue, is not part of the property.

Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.  The 49th Street address given for the owner is a mailbox store in Borough Park. It would appear that one project, conversion of the rectory into apartments, is complete.  The conversion of the church is under way, and the drawing in the above photo details the preservation of the facade on North 6th Street.  The skylights in the church roof seem new. Some work has been done on the former school on North Seventh Street, but there appears to be a hiatus in renovation.  Entrances to the Bedford Avenue subway station are only a half-block away.

The next two photos were taken in 2012.

The above photos, taken April 4, 2012, may be enlarged by clicking on each.  Obviously, the buyer of the St. Vincent de Paul property has moved quickly towards gutting and some demolition.  The top photo looks from North 6th Street towards the parish school on North 7th Street, a 1950's building vacant for a few years.  The second building seems to indicate that the senior center used by Catholic Charities, perhaps a former convent, was not sold.  (Yes? No?)  The third photo shows the gutted rectory.
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(Update, October, 2012: I much appreciate this comment from Howard Weber:
The Catholic Charities building referred to as a former convent was actually at one time the residence (friary) of the Franciscan Brothers who staffed St. Francis Prep at 186 North 6th Street ( across the street from St Vincent De Paul) from 1952-1974.

If you look at the cornerstone of that it would appear it was built expressly for that purpose.)

(Update, August, 2013: I much appreciate this comment from Terri White:
I believe that the school located on North 7th street was actually built in the 1960's as I was in the first graduating class in 1969. The original school was on Driggs Avenue and North 6th street and was adjacent to the original St Francis Prep boys high school which is now Boricua College. The convent was also adjacent to St Francis prep on north 6th street just before the row of houses. Terri White.)

A friend mailed me a clipping from the Greenline newspaper, dated March 1-31, 2012, page 4, with the headline, "St. Vincent de Paul Church to Become Apts.; Historic Edifice Will Remain Intact."  The developer The North Flats, according to the story, has applied to the Buildings Department to turn the church into 33 apartments, and the parish house into ten apartments.  The adjacent vacant school on North 7th Street and the parking lot were also part of the purchase.  Please read the notes below in view of this latest news.  I must note that there are similarities with the conversion of the buildings of St. Peter's parish some years ago (at Warren and Hicks Streets, Cobble Hill).
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On December 6, 2011, the Brooklyn Paper linked here reported that the church of St. Vincent de Paul has been sold to a developer.  In recent days, the diocese has removed the bell and stained glass windows for storage in East New York.  The article is not clear about the other buildings adjacent to the church, to the left in the photo below and the school on the adjoining block behind.  It says that zoning restricts development to residential buildings no taller than fifty feet.
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On December 20, 2011, BrooklynEagle.com reported here that the sale price was $13.7 million and the size of the property 37,500 square feet (0.86 acre).  The buyer "plans a new residential project."
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On April 4, 2011, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio issued a decree linked here, stating that the parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel could no longer afford to maintain the church of St. Vincent de Paul on North 6th Street and that said church could be sold for profane use after June 30, 2011, except for sordid purposes.
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The photos below date from March, 2010.

For a few years, Armenian Catholics used this church and rectory.  Please see the link here. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction is the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Nareg.

This 1960's school on North 6th Street (photo of March 2010) was in the process of being gutted when I saw the shovel and dump trucks at work 4.5.2012.  Queen of the Rosary Catholic Academy has superseded Northside Catholic Academy.  In November, 2013, scaffolding and some debris obscured this side of the building.

Queen of the Rosary Catholic Academy

Sorry, this school closed permanently in 2020.  In September, 2013, Queen of the Rosary Catholic Academy moved into new quarters at 11 Catherine Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY 11211.  The telephone number is 718-388-7992. The former St. Nicholas Commercial High School was renovated for the Academy as a state-of-the-art facility. 
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In a sense, this Catholic Academy replaced four parish schools: St. Cecilia, Holy Trinity (more recently named Sts. Joseph and Dominic), Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and St. Nicholas.

St. Ignatius

On March 26, 2013, the diocese issued a press release with the canonical document allowing the church of St. Ignatius to be put up for sale for profane (that is, secular) use, not sordid use.  The contents would become property of the parish of St. Francis of Assisi or, if St. Francis could not use them properly, be placed in diocesan storage.  However, within a few weeks this decree disappeared from the diocesan website.
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I may stand correction, but I believe St. Ignatius church was part of the property of Brooklyn Prep, but did not get sold to CUNY for Medgar Evers College, 1971-1972, as most of the other Prep buildings were sold.   St. Ignatius church faces Rogers Avenue, and is also bounded by Crown Street and Carroll Street. Surrounded by lawn, it is on the east side of Rogers Avenue.
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Please see this 2014 article from ny.curbed.com on the destruction of the church and elimination of the lawn.  An apartment house is there.

Holy Family, Greenpoint

IMPORTANT NOTE:  In November, 2019, I am unable to ascertain the role of this church. Some changes have happened.
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This parish was established in 1905, and the cornerstone of the church above reads 1911. It seems that Slovak Franciscan Friars cared for the faithful here during the parish's early era. 
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When I took the above photo about 5:15 p.m. on a weekday in 2008, many cyclists seemed to be heading home on an established fast bike lane, unlike the worse traffic of parallel Manhattan Avenue.  The church is on North 15th Street at Nassau Avenue.
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In 2011, the bishop of Brooklyn merged this parish with the parish of St. Anthony of Padua, which earlier had absorbed the parish of St. Alphonsus.  Since early 2015, it is San Damiano Mission.
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Above, the rectory at 21 Nassau Avenue.

The parish school, which closed in 1970, is now a day care center operated by the diocesan Catholic Charities.

St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy

St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy, an elementary school, is located at 241 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn NY 11215, telephone 718-768-7629, close to Holy Name Church.  The school's website is linked here.  In September, 2012, this academy was formed by the merger of the parish elementary schools at Holy Name and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
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The 2016 Official Catholic Directory states that St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy reported an enrollment of 314 students.

St. Cecilia, Greenpoint

The church of St. Cecilia is now one of three worship sites within the new Divine Mercy parish, established in 2011. An office is maintained at 84 Herbert Street, but the principal office and rectory is at 219 Conselyea Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211.

Queen of the Rosary Catholic Academy is less than a mile south of St. Cecilia's.

Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.  The above photo was taken about a half-hour before the arrival of Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio.

St. Cecilia's parish, Greenpoint, has been merged into a new parish of Divine Mercy, which has three worship sites: Saint Francis of Paola (daily Mass, Sunday Vigil, and two Sunday Masses), St. Cecilia (daily Mass and one Sunday Mass), and St. Nicholas (two Sunday Masses).

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St. Cecilia's buildings take up almost the entire rectangle of the block bounded by North Henry, Herbert, Monitor, and Richardson Streets, the exception being a few private houses to the right in this photo. The parish was established in 1871. One year, it seems, almost 1,700 students were educated in the parish school, which closed in June, 2008. 

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St. Cecilia's website is linked here.  It is helpful to click on the word Bulletin, because that has been presenting an updated schedule of Masses, lists of the parish staff, and telephone numbers.  The St. Cecilia website offers both recent and older information and photos.

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This blog includes an older post from 2012, which I hesitate to delete: Divine Mercy triple merger.  Also, there is this post from 2009, St. Nicholas.

The cornerstone of this five-story school on Monitor Street, corner Richardson, bears the date 1906.  Brother Albert Matthew, who began his teaching career here about 1928, related how the classrooms used gas lamps at that late date. 

It is now the summer of 2016 and the above work has been done. Several buildings have been turned into rental apartments. The largest building, of course, is the former school (above) on Monitor Street. The second largest building is the former convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph, also on Monitor Street.  Adjacent to the school, but on Richardson Street is a building that may have been used by a school employee and family.  At 2 North Henry Street, but now using a Richardson Street number on the conversion permits, is the former house of the De La Salle Christian Brothers, which has been turned into either two or four apartments. The grand total is a large number of apartments in renovated parish structures, which were rented on a 49-year lease to the developers, that is, not sold by St. Cecilia's parish.

Between the school and former convent is a new flagpole and this memorial.
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For decades, the Sisters of St. Joseph and the De La Salle Christian Brothers staffed the parish school.  Sad to relate, Brother Andrew Gerard Duncanson, teacher at St. Cecilia's Boys' department 1962-1964 and principal there 1967-1969, passed away in Providence, Rhode Island, 8/28/2011, where he worked at La Salle Academy.

Holy Name, Windsor Terrace

The address of Holy Name of Jesus church is 245 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn NY 11215, telephone 718-768-3071. The parish website is linked here. Prospect Park West is in front of the church, with Prospect Avenue alongside the church.  The Mass schedule above was photographed in April, 2013.

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The parish Facebook page is linked HERE.

Clicking on any photo will enlarge it. In 2013, the church property was being renovated, as described in this link.  An altar designed by James Renwick is being moved from the closed church of St. Vincent de Paul, Williamsburg, to this church.
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The parish school at 241 Prospect Park West has been renamed St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy, website linked here.

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For almost a century, Sisters of St. Joseph staffed this parish school, and the Xaverian Brothers taught her for several decades. An excellent guide titled "Weekend Walks in Brooklyn" was authored by Robert J. Regalbuto, who graduated from this school in 1964. He says the school was built in 1923 and the Gothic Revival church dates to 1878.
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The three organizations with offices in the former convent apparently deal with diocesan finances.  The name "Rocklyn" hints at a joint venture with the diocese of Rockville Centre, but the few notices I have come across are in Brooklyn.  There are also diocesan corporations named Rocklyn Properties and Rocklyn Ecclesiastica.  Futures in Education is linked here.  It seems to work with the Catholic Foundation for Brooklyn and Queens, but both seem to raise funds for diocesan operations.  Futures in Education submitted an IRS form 990 in 2011 showing a balance of $5.8 million.

Church of the Virgin Mary, Park Slope

The Melkite Church of the Virgin Mary stands on the southwest corner of Eighth Avenue and Second Street in Park Slope.  Its address is 216 Eighth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215, telephone 718-788-5454.  The parish website is linked here, and I learned more by downloading a Newsletter from the tab on the left.  This parish belongs to the Melkite Catholic Eparchy of Newton, Massachusetts.

Resurrection Coptic Catholic Church, Park Slope

Resurrection Coptic Catholic Church is located on the south side of 14th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.  In the adjacent garden is a statue of Mary, with the Latin inscription, Ave Maria, Ora pro nobis, "Hail, Mary, pray for us."  The address is 328 14th Street, Brooklyn NY 11215.
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I am uncertain how to express the canonical and juridical relationship of this parish to the diocese of Brooklyn.  It is clearly part of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, Egypt, Eastern Catholics who in January, 2013, elected a new patriarch.  Other internet descriptions of Coptic Catholics relate that this parish is one of three in the United States.  It was established in the former St. Stanislaus Martyr church about 1985.
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The church has a cornerstone of 1891.  Apparently a Scandinavian national parish, in 1979 St. Stanislaus Martyr was merged into nearby Holy Family parish, which itself became part of St. Thomas Aquinas parish, Ninth Street.  Sunset Park and Bay Ridge used to have a more Swedish and Norwegian population than at present. Please distinguish between two different saints named Stanislaus: St. Stanislaus Martyr, killed in Krakow in 1079 (the patron of this parish when dedicated) and St. Stanislaus Kostka, a Jesuit novice who died in Rome in 1568. The parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka is in Greenpoint. 
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The diocese of Brooklyn has a fair number of repeated names of parishes. In the borough of Queens, there is also a parish of St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr in Ozone Park and another parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Maspeth. Likewise, there is another Resurrection parish in Gerritsen Beach.

Outstanding advertising in NY Daily News 4.7.2013

This morning, I picked up a Sunday New York Daily News, $1.50 at Dunkin', to find a magnificent special forty-four page advertising section for the Catholic elementary schools of Brooklyn and Queens.  The entire section is available on the Daily News website linked here.
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The front cover is titled Catholic Schools Spring Tours.  It shows eleven students and two teachers at St. Kevin's, Flushing.
I will list the schools in the order of presentation in this advertising section:
On page 4, Blessed Sacrament School, Euclid Avenue, East New York.
On page 4, Catherine Laboure Special Education Program, serving elementary and high school students, open house April 11 and May 16, 2013.
Full page 5, St. Patrick School, Bay Ridge.
On page 6, Mary Queen of Heaven, Avenue M and East  57th Street.
On page 6, Holy Angels Catholic Academy, 74th Street, Bay Ridge.
Full page 7, St. Jerome School, East 29th Street, East Flatbush, 718.462.0211.
On page 8, Midwood Catholic Academy, Hendrickson Street.
On page 8, Nazareth Regional High School, East 57th Street, with an Open Admissions Day on May 1, 2013.
On page 9, Our Lady of Grace School, Avenue W.
On page 9, Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, Sixth Avenue and 59th Street.
On page 10, Our Lady of Guadalupe School, 72nd Street, Dyker Heights.
On page 10, Our Lady of Trust Catholic Academy, Canarsie.
On page 11, Queen of the Rosary Catholic Academy, Williamsburg.
On page 11, Salve Regina Catholic Academy, East New York.
On page 12, St. Agatha School, 48th Street, Sunset Park, 718.435.3137.
On page 12, St. Anselm Catholic Academy, 83rd Street, Bay Ridge.
On page 13, St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Academy, Greenpoint.
On page 13, Saint Saviour Catholic Academy, 701 Eighth Avenue, Park Slope.
On page 14, St. Mark School, Sheepshead Bay.
On page 14, St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy, Windsor Terrace.
On page 15. St. Gregory the Great, 2520 Church Avenue, Flatbush.
On page 15, St. Francis Xavier School, 763 President Street, Park Slope.
On page 16, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy, Lincoln Rd. & Nostrand Ave.On page 16, St. Ephrem School, Open House, April 10th, 718-833-1440.
On page 17, St. Edmund Elementary School, 1902 Avenue T.
On page 17, St. Catherine of Genoa - St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Academy, Avenue D.
On page 18, St. Bernard School, 2030 East 69th Street.
On page 18, St. Athanasius School, 6120 Bay Parkway.
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The remaining pages of this Daily News supplement cover Catholic schools in Queens.  An excellent map of the two boroughs is provided.

An updated map of elementary schools

In connection with Spring Tours of Catholic elementary schools, an updated map is available here.

Argentines in Brooklyn

At first glance, it appears that two groups from Argentina work in Brooklyn parishes:
1) A religious congregation of Sisters, The Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara, S.S.V.M., works in Sts. Peter and Paul, Williamsburg.
2) Members of the Institute of the Divine Word, I.V.E., work at Mary, Mother of the Church parish, 749 Linwood Street, New Lots.

Catherine McAuley HS to close

Sad to read, this announcement in the Tablet states that Catherine McAuley High School will close in June.  The school has educated students for decades at its location on East 37th Street near Foster Avenue.  It is named after the foundress of the Religious Sisters of Mercy.

An excellent map of elementary schools

The January 26, 2013, Brooklyn Tablet published an excellent map of 38 Catholic elementary schools in Brooklyn and 57 in the borough of Queens.  It is obvious that the intended conversion to the "Catholic academy" governance format has been about half accomplished so far.
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An April, 2013, update of the map is available at this link.
More information can be found here.
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The map does not transmit the hard work by parents, teachers, and students to education, but the good qualities support this overview.
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This blog and the map described above use Brooklyn zip codes to designate neighborhoods and clusters.  The offering of Catholic education has thinned out so much that not only are there about fourteen zip codes without any Catholic elementary school, but several adjoining neighborhoods have no Catholic school.  The threesome across Brooklyn, Borough Park, Kensington, and Midwood appears now more Jewish than it was  thirty years ago.  The shoreline neighborhoods of Bush Terminal, Red Hook, and Brooklyn Heights had schools, but no longer do, perhaps as dockworkers lost employment. The zip codes called Crown Heights, Stuyvesant, St.John's Place, Brevoort, and Brownsville have no Catholic schools.

St. Blaise, Kingston Avenue

Because today, February 3, is the feast of St. Blaise, a bishop-martyr in Armenia, I looked around for a photo of the church of St. Blaise that was merged into that of St. Francis of Assisi in 1980.  The parish of St. Blaise was established in 1908 as an Italian national parish.  The photo at this link shows the breaking of ground for a new building in 1954.
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The Brooklyn Library Digital Collection offers many photographs, but the links seem to "time out."  You then have to reenter the search word, in this case the word blaise.
The church was at 520 Kingston Avenue between Maple and Woodward Midwood Streets. I wonder whether the Horeb Seventh Day Adventist church seen there on Google Street View is the 1954 church of St. Blaise.
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Yes. Today, 10.21.2018, Deacon John Lynch confirmed that the 1954 church of St. Blaise is the Horeb SDA.

St. Fortunata, East New York

St. Fortunata church stands on Crescent Street at the intersection with Linden Boulevard.  Its postal address is 2609 Linden Boulevard, Brooklyn NY 11208, telephone 718-647-2632.  The large school buildings take up much of the block to the east, but they now house a charter school.  St. Fortunata parish was established in 1934, and the school closed in 2008.  On January 31, 2013, the pastor here also became administrator of St. Sylvester parish, a mile north.
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The parish website is linked HERE.

The Tablet: Catholic Schools Week

The diocesan Tablet has published a supplement for Catholic Schools Week, linked here.  It provides descriptions of ten elementary schools and one high school in the borough of Brooklyn. These include:
Holy Angels, Bay Ridge.
St. Anselm, Bay Ridge.
St. Bernadette, Dyker Heights.
St. Ephrem, Dyker Heights.
St. Francis Xavier, Park Slope.
Salve Regina, East New York.
St. Francis of Assisi, Nostrand Avenue, Flatbush.
St. Mark, Sheepshead Bay.
Queen of the Rosary, Williamsburg.
St. Bernard, Mill Basin.
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A more complete list of Catholic elementary schools in Brooklyn may be found here.

Our Lady of Good Counsel, Putnam Ave.

The parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel is located at 915 Putnam Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11221, telephone 718-455-6864 The bishop has merged this parish with that of St. John the Baptist, a mile away on Lewis Avenue, and one pastor serves both churches. 

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The website of the combined parishes is linked here.  St. John the Baptist's phone number is 718-455-6864.

Along the north side of Putnam Avenue is the church, a garden (with a statue of Mary and an Ankh) and the parish office.  Behind the garden can be seen a parish building that faces Madison Street.

The above photos show the north side of Putnam Avenue.

The photos below show the south side of Madison Street, that is, behind the church.

At 800 Madison Street, a new corridor connects what appears to be two former elementary schools of the parish.  The building to the left (east) shows the date 1893.  I could not find a construction date on the building to the right. Presumably a convent was someplace here. Present use of the building is for some 70 apartments of "single room occupancy" with permanent tenants, possibly under the management of a division of Catholic Charities.

Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

The property of this parish lies mid-block between Ralph Avenue and Patchen Avenue, named after Ralph Patchen, a farmer who owned 150 acres closer to the waterfront in the early 1800's.

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