The Test for Admission to Catholic High Schools is accepting applicants now. Parents are urged to look at this information site (link here) and read each of the links in the left-hand column. You may have to print out some of the forms and directions. The list of schools is posted sideways on the PDF, so printing those pages would help you to read the information. It would appear that the thirteen Catholic high schools of The Bronx offer 2,295 places for incoming freshmen.
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Please also note the dates of the Open House visitations and the Information Fairs.
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The cost of the test is $63.
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For students and parents intent on Catholic high school admission, the important point is to GET MOVING, as instructed above.
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The following note is of less importance. Because of my interest in Catholic education in the metropolitan area, I list the number of seats available to freshmen in twelve counties:
The Bronx leads with 2,295 openings.
Queens, with 2,140 openings.
Manhattan, with 1.249 openings.
Staten Island, with 1,325.
Brooklyn, with 1,210 openings.
Westchester, with 1,150 openings.
Dutchess, with 190 openings.
Orange, with 110 openings.
Rockland, with 160 openings,
Ulster, with 60 openings.
Putnam and Sullivan, with no Catholic high schools.
This is an attempt to index references to The Bronx in "The Archdiocese of New York: the Bicentennial History," a marvelous 624-page book written by Msgr. Thomas J. Shelley. The 2007 book may still be available on Amazon or other book dealers. Use the alphabetic list of labels to the right or the search box at top left. The blog format places new posts at the top, but I also edit old posts with new photos from my travels around The Bronx.
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Decrees of Relegation. June 30, 2017
The archbishop has signed decrees relegating certain churches of the archdiocese for profane, not sordid, use. This canonically clears the way for their sale or lease. The list is linked HERE and may disappear soon from the archdiocesan website. Note that this list of properties "up for sale" is limited to churches. Properties other than churches do not require this type of decree.
In The Bronx, the list includes
St. Ann, Bainbridge Avenue, pastor Rev. Raul Miguez. This church is inside a school that was closed in June, 2017. Nearby Montefiore Hospital keeps buying up the neighborhood, so I would not be surprised if St. Ann's will go to Montefiore.
Visitation (a relatively new church on Van Cortlandt Park South), pastor Father Michael Kerrigan.
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Warning: I may have misread some of the decrees in this list, as both halves of each merger are named in the text but only one building is deconsecrated. Please inform me of any error!
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In Manhattan: Nativity Church on Second Avenue between Second and Third Streets. I consider the "modern" design of this church a box used as a gathering place of worship.
The church of Most Holy Crucifix on Broome Street.
The church of St. John the Martyr, a former Presbyterian church on East 72nd Street, purchased for Bohemian Catholics in 1904.
The church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary on East 83rd Street.
The church of St. Lucy on East 104th Street.
The church of St. Paul on East 117th Street, not St. Paul the Apostle at West 60th Street.
The church of St. Gregory the Great on West 90th Street. One building contains the church, the school above the church, and the rectory above the school!
The church of St. Benedict the Moor on West 53rd Street.
The church of All Saints at the corner of East 129th Street and Madison Avenue, This landmarked Gothic Revival church may be the most imposing building on this list.
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In Westchester: the church of St. Ursula, Mount Vernon.
The church of Sacred Heart, Mount Vernon.
The church of Sacred Heart of Jesus, Port Chester.
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In Dutchess County, Immaculate Conception, Bangall.
The chapel of St. Joseph in Clinton Corners.
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In Sullivan County, the church of St. Thomas Aquinas in Forestburgh.
In The Bronx, the list includes
St. Ann, Bainbridge Avenue, pastor Rev. Raul Miguez. This church is inside a school that was closed in June, 2017. Nearby Montefiore Hospital keeps buying up the neighborhood, so I would not be surprised if St. Ann's will go to Montefiore.
Visitation (a relatively new church on Van Cortlandt Park South), pastor Father Michael Kerrigan.
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Warning: I may have misread some of the decrees in this list, as both halves of each merger are named in the text but only one building is deconsecrated. Please inform me of any error!
---
In Manhattan: Nativity Church on Second Avenue between Second and Third Streets. I consider the "modern" design of this church a box used as a gathering place of worship.
The church of Most Holy Crucifix on Broome Street.
The church of St. John the Martyr, a former Presbyterian church on East 72nd Street, purchased for Bohemian Catholics in 1904.
The church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary on East 83rd Street.
The church of St. Lucy on East 104th Street.
The church of St. Paul on East 117th Street, not St. Paul the Apostle at West 60th Street.
The church of St. Gregory the Great on West 90th Street. One building contains the church, the school above the church, and the rectory above the school!
The church of St. Benedict the Moor on West 53rd Street.
The church of All Saints at the corner of East 129th Street and Madison Avenue, This landmarked Gothic Revival church may be the most imposing building on this list.
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In Westchester: the church of St. Ursula, Mount Vernon.
The church of Sacred Heart, Mount Vernon.
The church of Sacred Heart of Jesus, Port Chester.
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In Dutchess County, Immaculate Conception, Bangall.
The chapel of St. Joseph in Clinton Corners.
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In Sullivan County, the church of St. Thomas Aquinas in Forestburgh.
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Fordham University
See pages 359, 360 and 386 for the foundation of St John's College in 1841 and the transfer of its administration to Jesuits in 1846. Somewhere I have read that the name "Fordham" referred rather to an estate along the Harlem River and that Rose Hill, the 106-acre purchase made by Bishop Hughes in 1839, was at the east end of the estate. See pages 111 and 132 for references to the first diocesan synod, held at St John's College, Fordham, in 1842. In 1905, the Jesuits renamed the college Fordham. Thomas Shelley's book, the Bronx references of which I am here indexing, is rich with footnotes. See footnote #14 on page 360 for a helpful history of Fordham University. Page 421 has a photo of Keating Hall. Page 522 refers to the San Juan Fiesta at Rose Hill in 1956. Page 598 reminds the reader that The Bronx was honored with its own cardinal in 2001, Cardinal Avery Dulles, .S.J., residing at Fordham University.
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In 2008, I wrote the above paragraph. In January, 2017, I had the good fortune to find in the Nassau Library System a copy of "Fordham: A History of the Jesuit University of New York: 1841-2003" by Msgr. Thomas J. Shelley, Emeritus Professor of Church History at Fordham University, the same historian who wrote the Bicentennial History (with the page numbers I have been referring to throughout this blog on Bronx parishes).
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Msgr. Shelley's 500-page history of the university is fascinating, insightful, and full of details and intriguing anecdotes. The author excels in placing university events in the context of New York, political, and church history. The quotes are good: Alban Butler, Church history is largely the story of quarrels between two good men. And Martin Spalding, on religious orders: too much esprit de corps and too little Catholic spirit.
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One must remember that the university chapel was originally (in some form before renovations) the parish church of Our Lady of Mercy.
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In 2008, I wrote the above paragraph. In January, 2017, I had the good fortune to find in the Nassau Library System a copy of "Fordham: A History of the Jesuit University of New York: 1841-2003" by Msgr. Thomas J. Shelley, Emeritus Professor of Church History at Fordham University, the same historian who wrote the Bicentennial History (with the page numbers I have been referring to throughout this blog on Bronx parishes).
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Msgr. Shelley's 500-page history of the university is fascinating, insightful, and full of details and intriguing anecdotes. The author excels in placing university events in the context of New York, political, and church history. The quotes are good: Alban Butler, Church history is largely the story of quarrels between two good men. And Martin Spalding, on religious orders: too much esprit de corps and too little Catholic spirit.
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One must remember that the university chapel was originally (in some form before renovations) the parish church of Our Lady of Mercy.
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Four Bronx schools to lose grades K-8.
Sad to report, Dr. Timothy McNiff, Superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese of New York, has announced the closure of three parish schools in The Bronx, and the elimination of grades K-8 in one other. Closed are Visitation School in Kingsbridge, where the church lost regular services in August, 2015, St. Ann School, Bainbridge Avenue, likewise with a church without regular worship, and St. Mary School, Carpenter Avenue. The school at the parish of Sts. Peter and Paul, Brook Avenue, Morrisania, will become a Universal Pre-Kindergarden school financed by the City of New York.
Please see the link HERE. The superintendent's euphemism is "operational changes."
Please see the link HERE. The superintendent's euphemism is "operational changes."
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Catholic New York special section 1.19.2017
Available on the internet is the special Catholic Schools Week section published 1.19.2017. A link is HERE.
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The sixteen pages include high schools and elementary schools in the seven counties of the Archdiocese of New York. However, my focus is on the elementary schools of The Bronx. The sole paid advertising for Bronx elementary grades is for Mount St. Michael Academy, grades 6-12. Cardinal Hayes HS and Fordham Prep also placed ads.
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One hundred forty elementary schools will have Touring Tuesday on January 31, 2017, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Of the forty-four Catholic elementary schools in The Bronx, eighteen are listed with a schedule for Open House. The special section lists school names, dates and times, but not phone numbers or addresses.
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For Bronxites living near Manhattan or Westchester, please do not overlook nearby schools, such as Good Shepherd School, one block from the Bx12 bus terminal in Inwood.
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More information may be found at http://buildboldfutures.org/
Scroll down on that home page to Coming Events. Or use the information links at the top of the home page.
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The New York Daily News on 1.26.2017 published an Advertising Supplement for Catholic Schools. In several aspects, this supplement gives better coverage to Bronx Catholic elementary schools than I saw in Catholic New York (above). The link to the Daily News supplement for Catholic schools is HERE. Don't give up when you see ads for a few New Jersey schools. Continue scrolling through the pages and you will find more Bronx schools.
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The sixteen pages include high schools and elementary schools in the seven counties of the Archdiocese of New York. However, my focus is on the elementary schools of The Bronx. The sole paid advertising for Bronx elementary grades is for Mount St. Michael Academy, grades 6-12. Cardinal Hayes HS and Fordham Prep also placed ads.
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One hundred forty elementary schools will have Touring Tuesday on January 31, 2017, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Of the forty-four Catholic elementary schools in The Bronx, eighteen are listed with a schedule for Open House. The special section lists school names, dates and times, but not phone numbers or addresses.
---
For Bronxites living near Manhattan or Westchester, please do not overlook nearby schools, such as Good Shepherd School, one block from the Bx12 bus terminal in Inwood.
---
More information may be found at http://buildboldfutures.org/
Scroll down on that home page to Coming Events. Or use the information links at the top of the home page.
---
The New York Daily News on 1.26.2017 published an Advertising Supplement for Catholic Schools. In several aspects, this supplement gives better coverage to Bronx Catholic elementary schools than I saw in Catholic New York (above). The link to the Daily News supplement for Catholic schools is HERE. Don't give up when you see ads for a few New Jersey schools. Continue scrolling through the pages and you will find more Bronx schools.