Friday, August 30, 2019

Bronx parish closures & mergers, 2015 in 2019

It is four years since Cardinal Timothy Dolan closed or merged many parishes in the seven counties of the Archdiocese of New York. This post will attempt to review the status of the changes in The Bronx. Remarkably, some parishes clearly mark their merger. In others, the merger is ignored, and little information is available on the closed parish. None that I know of have been sold. 
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I begin with recent appointments at some parishes. 
Fr. Stephen Malanga, A. J., was appointed pastor of Holy Family - St. John Vianney - Blessed Sacrament near the Unionport neighborhood along Bruckner Boulevard. He joins two other priests from Africa residing in the Holy Family rectory on Watson Avenue. There are five weekend Masses at Blessed Sacrament, four at Holy Family, none at St. John Vianney. The large building of St. John Vianney parish school now carries the name of a charter school.  For the Apostles of Jesus, please see this link.
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Father Michael Kissane is back at St. Simon Stock as pastor, appointed July, 2019.  St. Simon Stock lists four weekend Masses, and St. Joseph on Bathgate Avenue one bilingual (presumably Spanish and English) and one for the Catholic Ghana Community. However, the Ghana Catholics may have moved to St. Luke, East 138th Street.
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St.  Pius V parish was merged with St. Rita of Cascia, but the St. Rita website does not mention the closed church.
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Visitation church and school are closed. In 2018, the yard seemed to have been rented to a fleet of medical vans. Visitation appears on St. John's website.
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The merger of two Riverdale parishes means one pastor, two or three assistants, but two churches with worship, two schools of maybe 300 students (counting Universal Pre-Kindergarten), and two schools of religion.  The parish website is https://stmargaretofcortona-stgabriel.com/
St. Gabriel's church, inside its school, is two miles south of St. Margaret of Cortona. It appears that the priests reside at St. Margaret.
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On 9.7.2019 I drove by St. Ann's closed church-inside-school on Bainbridge Avenue. It appears that the nearby Montefiore hospital uses the corner playground as a parking lot. The church/school and the rectory continue north from the lot, but no change is obvious. A paper sign is on the front door. Clicking on the photo will enlarge it.




On 9.21.2019, I found the sign below on the church of the Nativity of Our Blessed Lady on East 233rd Street. At that time, there were Sunday Masses in the church, but the elementary school, now closed, was also open.








On November 12, 2019, an anonymous reader informed me that he saw St. Joseph's on Bathgate Avenue being demolished.





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