Ed Wilkinson on numbers in OCD 2011

Ed Wilkinson, editor of the Brooklyn Tablet, has written about statistics reported in the 2011 edition of the (P. J. Kennedy) Official Catholic Directory. You may read his remarks at this link.
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I point out:
1) Because of the time required to edit the book, the numbers are about a year out of date.  A possible clue to the date of reporting is whether the replacement of a pastor has been entered.  Some parishes report the same number of religious ed students as the previous year.
2) Regarding school enrollments, it is sometimes unclear whether pre-school is included in the count. It would be helpful if an October issue of The Tablet included a chart of grade-by-grade enrollments in each academy.

A presentation about six parishes

At Douglaston on October 28, 2010, Joseph Coen, archivist for the diocese of Brooklyn, offered an excellent Powerpoint review of the history of six parishes: St. James Cathedral, St. Joseph (Pacific Street), St. Augustine (Park Slope), Most Holy Trinity (Williamsburg), Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Bay Ridge), and Regina Pacis (Bensonhurst). I must review my notes of this evening and make necessary corrections to this blog. Many thanks to Mr. Coen and to the members of the audience, who also made comments of interest.
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The diocese is under the patronage of Mary with the title of the Immaculate Conception. The long-planned and never-constructed cathedral on Greene Avenue was to have that title. However, high school students in the 1950's were told that the diocesan patron was St. Joseph, and a holiday was given March 19th instead of March 17th because the archdiocese across the river had St. Patrick as patron. So, who is the patron: Joseph or Mary?
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Some of the questions raised by the audience are answered well in the book, "Diocese of Immigrants," available from the archivist's office, 718-965-7300, ext. 1001.




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Parish schools that have closed

In my visit to Sunset Park in 2009, I did not get to Seventh Avenue and the parish and school of St. Agatha. What surprised me at St. Rocco, St. Michael, and Our Lady of Czestochowa was that I found three adjacent parishes without schools. By checking the diocesan website, I count about forty open parish schools with Brooklyn zip codes. At a now-unavailable page of the diocesan website, I came across a list of about 63 parish schools in Brooklyn that have closed. To avoid double-counting, I have attempted to exclude from that number schools that still exist as merged and schools that were closed in sequence. ("Unavailable page" as of 2012.)
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It would appear that the following ten zip codes lack a Catholic elementary school: 11201-Main (0 of 6 parishes); 11212-Brownsville (0 of 1 parish); 11216-Brevoort (0 of 1 parish); 11217-TimesPlaza (0 of 1 parish); 11219 (0 of 2 parishes); 11224-ConeyIsland (0 of 1 parish); 11230-Midwood (0 of 1 parish); 11231-RedHook (0 of 5 parishes); 11232-BushTerminal (0 of 3 parishes); 11238-Adelphi (0 of 3 parishes).  (This 2009 analysis deserves editing, as more schools have been closed and the switch to "Catholic academies" is only about half complete in October, 2012.)
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This official website lists the open Catholic elementary schools and academies of Brooklyn.

Purpose of this blog

On Google's Blogger, there is an efficient system of labeling posts, which leads to easy and extensive indexing. I propose to wander about Brooklyn's Catholic parishes and on this blog sort them by labels. Obviously, a community of believers is more than their historic church building, but the buildings do contain memories of worship, baptisms and weddings years ago or recently. Many friends have described for me their experiences of growing up or working in Brooklyn. Also, I rode many of the transit lines through the borough (streetcar, el, trackless trolley, and bus) and observed many of its spires. A ride on the J train or almost any bus is enough to convince a tourist that Brooklyn is the Borough of Churches. As Brooklyn hosts about 150 Catholic parishes, this blog will probably remain incomplete. For a better survey of this topic, please see this excellent 2003 book of history and photos, Diocese of Immigrants.
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One of the puzzles I hope to solve is which Roman Catholic churches were sold to other Christian communities as houses of worship.
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The following parish churches seem to have been closed or merged with other parishes: St. Ann, St. George, St. Ambrose, St. Alphonsus, St. Benedict, St. Bernard, St. Casimir, St. Columbkille, St. Edward, Fourteen Holy Martyrs, St. Leonard of Port Maurice, St. Lucy, St. Mary of the Angels, Nativity of Our Blessed Lord, Our Lady of Sorrows, St. Stanislaus Martyr, and St. Peter.
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To offer a comment or correction, please use the comment link after each post, or email me at cjmcmann (at) msn.com, using the word Brooklyn in the subject. Thank you. Joe