Msgr. Thomas J. Shelley, 1937-2022

With sadness, I report the death of Msgr. Thomas J. Shelley, author of several books on the history of Catholics in the Archdiocese of New York. He died yesterday. The Mass of Christian Burial will take place at Ascension church, 221 West 107th Street, Manhattan, 10 a.m., Friday, November 18, 2022. Please see an encomium on the website of America Magazine, linked HERE.

In Six Months, Catholic New York Gone

Shocking and disappointing news arrived this morning. The archdiocese has announced the closure of the bimonthly (every other week) Catholic New York, which will cease publication in November.

Please see the link HERE.

About 1985 , the archdiocese established the weekly Catholic New York to replace the family-owned Catholic News. The Ridder family published the Catholic News since 1886, when it was founded by Herman Ridder. The Catholic News Publishing Co. of Mamaroneck still publishes an annual Catholic Telephone Guide, a valuable list of the parishes, schools, personnel and works of archdioceses and dioceses in vast metropolitan New York (New York, Newark, Bridgeport, Brooklyn, Rockville Centre, Camden, Trenton, Metuchen, Patterson).

Appointment of deans

Yesterday, this list was posted on Catholic New York. Msgr. John Graham has been named dean for the Bronx East, Fr. Enrique Salvo for Bronx West. However, Fr. Salvo has just been named rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral, news HERE. He replaces Msgr. Robert Richie.

Parish schools sudden closure 7.9.2020

Link to article in The Riverdale Press HERE.

St. John's, Kingsbridge Avenue
Our Lady of the Assumption, Pelham Bay.
Sts. Philip and James, East 213th St. and Boston Road.
Nativity of Our Lady, Dyre Avenue
St. Luke, East 139th Street
St. Thomas Aquinas, West Farms

The press release from the archdiocese is linked HERE.

Apartments at St. Philip Neri

Catholic Charities has received approval for two apartment houses on Villa Avenue, the street that runs behind the church and school of St. Philip Neri.  Please see this January, 2020, article in New York Yimby.
Old photos of St. Philip Neri parish are in this blog at St. Philip Neri.

Superintendent of Schools Michael Deegan

Since September, 2019, the Superintendent of the Schools of the Archdiocese of New York has been Michael J. Deegan.

Bronx CCD or religious education

Fifty-five Bronx parishes reported enrollment numbers for their religious education classes to the Official Catholic Directory 2019. However, about half the numbers were exact repeats of older numbers, therefore incredible.
Using such poor data, I counted 10,492 in parish religious ed programs, in addition to the 12,883 enrolled in Catholic elementary schools.
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The five programs reporting the largest enrollment with reliable numbers were St. Barnabas (590 plus school), St. Joan of Arc (439, no school, a parish serving the Bronx River Houses on East 174th Street). St. Lucy (318 plus school), St. Nicholas of Tolentine (296), and Immaculate Conception Melrose (285, plus school). The median parish enrollment was 163 at St. Athanasius. The five lowest religious ed enrollments were at Nativity of Our Blessed Lady, Dyer Avenue (25 plus school, in a parish the archbishop attempted to close in 2015), 31 at St. Michael in vast Co-op City (43,700 residents), 34 at Sts. Philip and James, 36 at St. John Nam, 40 at Our Lady of Grace (plus school).

Bronx elementary school statistics

The Bethpage NY public library has just purchased a copy of the Official Catholic Directory 2019. This analysis is based on the figures reported to the OCD, with two caveats. Some figures are unreliable, as the same enrollment appears yearly, and is obviously not updated. Also, if the enrollment numbers are bloated by Pre-K 3 and Universal Pre-Kindergarten, city-funded programs, I have yet to learn how many students are being added to the enrollment. Thirty-one of thirty-nine Catholic elementary schools participate, so there is a chance the bloat averages out.
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When the count was made (now two years stale?), there were about 12,883 students in the Bronx Catholic elementary schools. The top five schools were St. Raymond (802), Immaculate Conception Melrose (510), St.  Lucy (480), St. Theresa (471) and St. Clare of Assisi (466). The median was St. John Chrysostom at 319.
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The lowest enrollments were at St. Thomas Aquinas (188), Nativity of Our Blessed Lady, Dyer Avenue (194), Sts. Philip and James (225 pupils, on East 213th Street near Boston Road), St. Luke, East 139th Street (232), and St. Margaret Mary (234).

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.

Dr. McNiff closes two more schools

The archdiocese of New York announced on 2.4.2019 that two more Catholic elementary schools in The Bronx will close in June.  They are St. Nicholas of Tolentine as 2336 Andrews Avenue, one block west of the church, and St. Joseph's elementary school on Bathgate Avenue, opposite St. Joseph's church.
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For the official announcement from Dr. Timothy McNiff, please see THIS LINK. Seven schools in five counties are being closed.

Merger of St. Clare of Assisi and St. Francis Xavier parishes

Effective today, September 1, 2018, is the merger of two parishes less than a half-mile apart on Hone and Haight Avenues in the Morris Park section of The Bronx. The records held at St. Francis Xavier parish will be moved to the rectory of St. Clare of Assisi. The merger is somewhat unusual because the territorial parish is St. Francis Xavier, which will set the boundaries, while St. Clare of Assisi is a personal parish (read: national or Italian). Judging from the bulletins, attendance and revenue at St. Clare may be a bit stronger than at St. Francis Xavier, but both parishes have schools. Until today, the pastor of St. Francis was also the administrator of St. Clare, so this merger has been in the works. Neither church will be closed.
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The merger decree is linked HERE.
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My photos from St. Clare are HERE.
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My photos from St. Francis Xavier are HERE.