Brownsville

Statue from Our Lady of Loreto in Brownsville is in storage

August 3, 2017 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Gone but not forgotten: This statue from Our Lady of Loreto Church is now in storage. Eagle file photo by Lore Croghan
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So at least she wasn’t stolen.

The Catholic organization that plans to demolish vacant Our Lady of Loreto Church has broken its silence concerning the whereabouts of a sacred statue that has been removed from its pedestal outside the century-old building.

However, the ultimate fate of the Virgin Mary statue that had stood on the corner of Sackman and Pacific streets in the Ocean Hill section of Brownsville remains a mystery.

The statue “is now in storage for use at a later date,” a spokeswoman for Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens told the Brooklyn Eagle via email.

The removal of the Madonna statue is upsetting to members of the Brownsville Cultural Coalition because it is seen as preparation for the demolition of the neoclassical Roman Renaissance-style church.

The organization has been campaigning to have the church at 126 Sackman St. landmarked and turned into a community cultural center.

Coalition members are engaged in a legal battle against the planned demolition of Our Lady of Loreto.

The Catholic Charities spokeswoman wouldn’t answer questions about where the statue of Our Blessed Mother will next be put to use.

That’s the correct name for this particular statue, the Catholic Charities spokeswoman informed the Eagle.

An Eagle story published on Aug. 1 mistakenly referred to the statue by the name Our Lady of Loreto. That is a different version of the Virgin Mary, however.

As the Eagle previous reported, sources said one option under consideration was returning the statue to the site of Our Lady of Loreto Church after Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development Corp. tears down the church and builds 40 units of low-income housing.

A second option under consideration was sending the statue to Our Lady of the Presentation Church. When Our Lady of Loreto Church was closed several years ago, its parish was merged with Our Lady of the Presentation’s parish.

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