Wednesday, December 16, 2020

San Damiano Mission, Greenpoint

 


IMPORTANT NOTE: On December 8, 2020, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio reopened Holy Family church in Greenpoint under an administrator from the Shalom Catholic Community, a group of Brazilian roots. Please see the article in the Brooklyn Tablet linked HERE.
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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.