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That seems to be the excuse they are going with. Could be true. That campus does look outdated from what I remember.
Yea; the place hasn't changed that much and is in need of a rebuild IMHO. I mean if the campus hope to attract not just Catholics but to be a major player in the private high school league.
Read in the Advance last week DOB found cracks in one of the buildings. Nothing serious, but never the less, yes the place is showing it's age.
Campus sits on a good amount of land, but much of it is hills (welcome to Staten Island, *LOL*) which makes things not always easy.
OTOH views from up there are fantastic. When (not if) the nuns sell up they likely will get a pretty penny. Think Saint John's Villa has better views than the old Mount Manresa .
NY has been losing all it's Catholic institutions anyway. All the Catholic hospitals have closed. Many Catholic schools are closing. So far only the Catholic universities and Catholic charities are surviving.
I agree with Kefir. Sadly, considering the state of the church (covering up for pedophiles, not to mention the culture it has produced), it's good news that these NYC Catholic institutions are closing. Put it like this, they produced Giuliani's base...........
Truth to tell things have been on a downslide ever since Vatican II. The changes brought about lead to issues and unleashed forces within the Catholic church that are still be sorted today.
One thing at once happened was decrease of men and women seeking the religious life, and a good numbers choosing to leave. For females especially the post 1960's world offered many more options than to be a wife, nun, nurse or teacher.
Catholic hospitals/healthcare systems often found themselves redundant once Medicaid and expanded public/municipal hospital systems began offering other options for "charity care".
You can no longer run a hospital in this country on bake sales and fund raisers. It takes big money to run a major healthcare system and it has to come from someplace, usually the patients. Saint Vincent's and the rest of what was a great NYC Catholic healthcare system died for several reasons.
Insurance coverage including Medicaid allowed Catholics and others to go anywhere they wanted for healthcare. That took away the "cream" and left them with the rest; large groups of patients who were unwilling or unable to pay for their care. Worse the nuns refused to cut back in anyway on their mission; to provide healthcare regardless of ability to pay. It was a well known secret you could obtain care worth thousands from Saint Vincent's then cry poor mouth and not pay. Basically nothing would happen either.
Saint Vincent's was probably one of the few businesses in recent memory that went into bankruptcy and came out owing nearly the same as before. The place was top heavy with "advisors" who bilked the place for every scheme possible that would line their own pockets.
The Catholic school system pretty much suffered same fate. Catholics began sending their kids to local "free" public schools which often took away the best and brightest, along with those who had means to pay. Schools were often left with large numbers of non-Catholic students (often African American or other minorities) whose parents saw the places as a better alternative to local public. The others were from the large and growing Latino/Hispanic communities.
Problems with both of the last two groups is they often couldn't pay full tuition. So schools, parishes and or even the archdiocese gave out scholarships, discounts or whatever to keep the schools afloat. Lately the archdiocese has stopped that and schools with low enrollment and or cannot find ways to be financially self sufficient have been shut down.
In general however what someone said above is true; the large RC populations that once existed in NYC are dwindling. Italians, Germans, French, Irish, etc... moved to Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey leaving urban areas. Hold outs were places like Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, with a scattering in Bronx and Queens.
What also killed many Catholic institutions is the decline of nuns and brothers. Forcing hospitals, schools, etc.. to resort to lay staff that are increasingly expensive. Dedicated servants (as sisters and brothers who work are called on the payroll) either worked for "nothing" or their money was given to the order. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...se_of_New_York
Don't think many realize just how heavily Catholic NYC once was. Greenwich/West Village was once heavily working/middle class Italian and Irish. That is one reason why Saint Vincent's hospital ended up where it did, and also why there are (or were) so many Catholic churches from really Chelsea/Far West Side on down through Little Italy/LES and East Village.
The Saint Patrick's Day Parade up Fifth was once a *HUGE* event. We're not talking just about people who came in by bus, car or train, but local Irish.
The Catholic school system pretty much suffered same fate. Catholics began sending their kids to local "free" public schools which often took away the best and brightest, along with those who had means to pay. Schools were often left with large numbers of non-Catholic students (often African American or other minorities) whose parents saw the places as a better alternative to local public. The others were from the large and growing Latino/Hispanic communities.
Problems with both of the last two groups is they often couldn't pay full tuition. So schools, parishes and or even the archdiocese gave out scholarships, discounts or whatever to keep the schools afloat. Lately the archdiocese has stopped that and schools with low enrollment and or cannot find ways to be financially self sufficient have been shut down.
This isn't surprising when you look back at FDNY, NYPD and other city government/politics you see name after name either Irish or Italian.
Now you see why the Ivy League limits the numbers of Asians. There are plenty of Asians who academically qualify for the Ivy League. They don't financially qualify. Private institutions, if they want to remain financially viable have to focus more on admitting students of whatever race who can pay full tuition or take on student loans, and only admit a limited number who need scholarships or grants.
It's why a strong public educational system, both k-12 and at the university level is the way to go. Of course his orangeness cut taxes, and I'm sure more tax cuts are to follow.
Catholic schools aren't financially viable, and the financing of public schools is under attack. I guess people will have to home school.
Truth to tell things have been on a downslide ever since Vatican II. The changes brought about lead to issues and unleashed forces within the Catholic church that are still be sorted today.
One thing at once happened was decrease of men and women seeking the religious life, and a good numbers choosing to leave. For females especially the post 1960's world offered many more options than to be a wife, nun, nurse or teacher.
Catholic hospitals/healthcare systems often found themselves redundant once Medicaid and expanded public/municipal hospital systems began offering other options for "charity care".
You can no longer run a hospital in this country on bake sales and fund raisers. It takes big money to run a major healthcare system and it has to come from someplace, usually the patients. Saint Vincent's and the rest of what was a great NYC Catholic healthcare system died for several reasons.
Insurance coverage including Medicaid allowed Catholics and others to go anywhere they wanted for healthcare. That took away the "cream" and left them with the rest; large groups of patients who were unwilling or unable to pay for their care. Worse the nuns refused to cut back in anyway on their mission; to provide healthcare regardless of ability to pay. It was a well known secret you could obtain care worth thousands from Saint Vincent's then cry poor mouth and not pay. Basically nothing would happen either.
This isn't surprising when you look back at FDNY, NYPD and other city government/politics you see name after name either Irish or Italian.
The city hospital system pulled broke patients aside and helped them apply for medicaid. Sadly it didn't occur to the nuns to do this for their patients.
Then again more financial help could have come from the church itself, but it was busy liquidating assets to settle pedophilia lawsuits.
All the criminal/pedophile issues, plus the restrictive and punishing nature of the church itself, turned a lot of people off and they don't go like they used to. So people are far less likely to donate to a Catholic church, or even many protesting church. Even a number of protestant churches in the rural South aren't do well in terms of finances and people just don't go like they used to.
Latinos are at least in theory Catholic, and no they aren't all poor. But attendance among them is poor.
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