At the turn of the century, when faced with a crumbling and stripped-down former convent building at All Saints, Williamsburg, then-pastor Father Donald Kenna, could have shown interest in the proposal to convert the property into a fitness center.
Where Have all the Convents Gone?
Franciscan U. Students Find a Home in B’klyn
Father John Maduri, pastor of Most Precious Blood, invited young men from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, to live in the former convent building.
Bushwick Building Helps Teens with Special Needs
The parish and the state eventually agreed that the best use would be to provide a loving home for people with developmental disabilities who were being moved out of Willowbrook State School.
Special Needs Youth Learn Where Nuns Lived
At the old convent building at St. Finbar, Bensonhurst, where nuns once prayed and worked, children now learn and play.
Two Convents Add to Parish Life in Flushing
St. Mary’s Nativity and St. Ann combined to form one parish in 2012. The merger not only left the parish with two worship sites, but also with two convent buildings.
Mercy Sisters Motherhouse Still Serves the Community
This was the motherhouse of the so-called “Walking Sisters” for 146 years. It was also where the order cared for the most vulnerable of the then-poor, mostly Irish-immigrant community. The beautiful complex, complete with a chapel adorned with stained-glass windows and a beautiful garden evoking tranquility was also once home to hundreds of orphans cared for by the Sisters.
