Sunday, November 3, 2013

Battle over Staten Island Jesuit retreat property


One Staten Island priest isn’t turning the other cheek when it comes to “grandstanding” politicians.


The Rev. Michael Hallinan is apparently tired of lawmakers’ efforts to save Mount Manresa, a 10-acre Jesuit retreat in Shore Acres that was sold last year to the Savo Brothers condo developers for $ 15 million.


Hallinan says the pontificating pols should “put up or shut up” and buy the property themselves if they want to save it.


“For 100 years, the Society of Jesus has been exceedingly generous to the people of Staten Island,” Hallinan wrote in a letter to City Councilman James Oddo that was published in the Staten Island Advance.


Most of the proceeds of the Mount Manresa sale will go to Jesuit programs that Hallinan will lead at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Port Richmond.


A judge has temporarily blocked the sale of the bucolic grounds after a bipartisan political protest and a tough fight from residents who want to save it.


Meanwhile, the Committee to Save Mount Manresa has begun soliciting a higher power — beginning a letter-writing campaign to Pope Francis.


The sale “seems to go against everything he [Francis] has been talking about and what is being reported in the news,” said committee member Barbara San­chez.





Yahoo Local News – New York Post




http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=16831

via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info

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