Brownsville

Judge decides to end temporary ban on Our Lady of Loreto’s demolition

Catholic officials plan to build low-income housing on Ocean Hill-Brownsville church site

June 6, 2017 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Our Lady of Loreto is partly hidden behind a fence that was put up as a prelude to demolition. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan
Share this:

Our Lady of Loreto is in jeopardy once again.

Justice Ellen Spodek of the state Supreme Court in Brooklyn has denied plaintiff and former parishioner Jillian Mulvihill’s motion for a preliminary injunction to halt the demolition of the vacant historic church by Catholic officials.

Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development Corp. (POP) plans to tear down the neoclassical Roman Renaissance-style church in the Ocean Hill section of Brownsville and build 40 units of low-income housing on the site.

Last March, the city Buildings Department issued demolition permits.

Members of the Brownsville Cultural Coalition had been campaigning to have the church building at 126 Sackman St. declared a city landmark and turned into a neighborhood cultural center.

Justice Spodek writes in her decision that the plaintiff has no legal standing to bring a case against the Catholic charitable organization and various government agencies that are also defendants in the case.

Mulvihill is not an “intended third-party beneficiary” of a Letter of Resolution that POP and the
government agencies signed in 2010, the judge writes.

The resolution stipulated that Our Lady of Loreto would be spared from demolition to make up for razing the church’s rectory to build 64 low-income apartments.

Both the church and the rectory had been declared eligible for listing on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

The judge notes in her decision that the resolution stipulated that the Catholic group should “make good-faith efforts to preserve the former church building for community or residential use should funding become available for its restoration.”

But, the judge writes in her decision, “it is undisputed that funding did not become available to restore the Our Lady of Loreto Church building.”

Also, Justice Spodek writes in her decision, the Catholic charitable group has complied with the terms of that resolution.

A refuge for Italian immigrants

Our Lady of Loreto was built a century ago as a refuge for Italian immigrants — who were subjected to the scorn of Catholics of other ethnicities.

The architect who designed the cast-stone church was an Italian immigrant. The builder, sculptor, interior decorator and painter were Italian immigrants.

Community leaders in Brownsville have argued that the neighborhood is woefully short on cultural facilities, but there’s already plenty of low-income housing.

“We continue to fight the good fight to save Our Lady of Loreto Church,” the Brownsville Cultural Coalition’s Lester Ford said in a statement.

“The residents of Brownsville deserve a future of their own making, not a future bestowed from on high from Catholic Charities,” Ford continued.

“Catholic Charities destroying Our Lady of Loreto Church against the will of Brownsville residents is not done to serve Brownsville but rather to serve themselves.”

There was no immediate comment from a Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development Corp. spokeswoman.   

Subscribe to our newsletters


Leave a Comment


Leave a Comment