Happy surprise at Preston

 https://bronx.news12.com/ballys-foundation-purchases-preston-high-school-preventing-closure

Msgr. Thomas Scott Preston (1824-1891)

 Link to Wikipedia article on Thomas Scott Preston HERE.

Msgr. Preston is buried in the crypt behind the altar of the chapel  of the Divine Compassion, 52 North Broadway, White Plains, New York.

Preston HS letter of closure

 

St. Lucy School will close

St. Lucy School, 830 Mace Avenue, taking the entire block between Bronxwood  Avenue and Matthews Avenue, will close in June, 2025. The announcement from Sister Mary Grace Walsh, Superintendent of Schools, is linked HERE.

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Also  HERE.

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Francis Cardinal Spellman dedicated the school in 1955. That's an impressive seventy years,

Our Lady of Refuge school to close.

Our Lady of Refuge School, 2708 Briggs Avenue, just south of East 196 Street, will close in June, 2025. The annoucement from Sister Mary Grace Walsh, Superintendent of Schools, is linked HERE.

The title Refugium Peccatorum has been used since the eighth century, Mary as a powerful intercessor who helps sinners.

The parish dates from 1923. The 1925 construction placed the church inside the school.  Several Bronx and Brooklyn parishes used that remedy for the high cost of land.

All Hallows High School will close.

Sad to report, the leadership of All Hallows High School on East 164th Street has announced that the school will close at the end of June. I think it has 320 students total in grades 9-12. In September, it included twenty girls from the closing of St. Barnabas High School.

Please see the school's website at https://www.allhallows.org/

The current tuition is $7,000, but the cost per student is $11,000.

A mile to the south is Cardinal Hayes High School, supposedly with an enrollment of 748. I wonder whether its administration will seek transfers from All Hallows. I am quite certain there are spare classrooms. The president of Cardinal Hayes HS seems to be Dr. Michael Carey.   

The word Hallows means Saints. The Irish Christian Brothers ran a successful high school at All Saints parish at East 129th Street and Madison Avenue.

Its history may be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Hallows_High_School

The school is about 0.3 mile east of the new Yankee Stadium. 

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On May 1, 2025, Crain's New York Business website reported that All Hallows would be sold for $24 million. Please note that this is not a done deal. I have never been inside the building, but I suspect that the Brothers' quarters are very small. In another school downtown, I recall a Brother joking that he had to leave his room to change his mind.     

Nativity of Our Blessed Lady

On November 16, 2024, Cardinal Dolan visited the East 233rd Street church of the Nativity of Our Blessed Lady for a celebration of the parish's 100th anniversary. Please read the article HERE.

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In my opinion, it was an unwise move in 2015 when His Eminence removed Nativity as a parish, merging it with Holy Rosary, inconveniently two miles south by walking or two buses with infrequent Sunday service.  Nativity now has a priest administrator from the diocese of Okigwe, a thriving cattle-transport city in southern Nigeria. The celebratory Mass included Igbo, Spanish, and English.

St. Barnabas Girls' HS will close

 Please see the announcement on the website  of St. Barnabas Girls' HS in Woodlawn Heights.

Link HERE.

 Yes, it is with great sadness. The story broke over the weekend on News 12 Westchester. 

Missing from the school's website is the number of students in each grade.

Note that, in similar fashion, it is difficult to learn the current enrollment per grade in each of the possible receiving schools. I suspect that the surrounding Catholic high schools would welcome more students, but there also the weakness or strength of current enrollment per grade should be stated.

Also, I note that the destination school has to be at least somewhat convenient, based not on St. Barnabas's location, but on where the student lives.

End of partnership with some elementary schools

 The administration of the "Partnership Schools" will be transferred back to the Archdiocese. This article explains much of what I did not know.

Priest assignments effective July 1, 2024

The Vicar for the Clergy has announced priest assignments effective July 1, 2024. The names and parishes may be seen at this link.

I know none of the men, but these are the Bronx parishes receiving new pastors or administrators. "Administrator" seems to be a fill-in job.

St. Margaret & St. Gabriel

Our Lady of Mercy

St. Margaret Mary

St. Anthony of Padua

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Parochical Vicars or assistants

St. Margaret -St. Gabriel

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

St. Frances de Chantal

Fordham Prep

 On its website, Fordham Prep presents a clear description of where the students live.  Please see

https://www.fordhamprep.org/about/facts-on-fordham-prep