We are all heartbroken. I attended Visitation Academy and I sent my girls there. Now Visitation Academy is closing. As seen in The Tablet: "Faced with dwindling numbers in its ranks... the Visitation Sisters confirmed that they are closing their monastery and ending their sponsorship of Visitation Academy in Bay Ridge." What is known as of today
Securely set behind 30 foot stone walls built in 1855, Visitation’s serene and protected 8 acre campus is an oasis of tranquility where generations of girls laugh, learn and played freely. As of 2004, the property, which boasts clusters of trees and a small lake, along with the monastery, the chapel, and the school, is owned by a corporation called "Visitation Sisters of Brooklyn Inc." controlled by the Sisters. Some months ago, a top secret missive delivered from Rome announced a decision by the Holy See to shutter the Sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary monastery. The Academy would need to shutter as well. This is because once the number of sisters living in a community drops to a point where carrying on a full ministry becomes difficult, certain contingency measures must be taken according to the “Cor Orans,” a set of edicts from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. With Mother Susan and Sister Mary the only remaining nuns in this monastery, the Vatican ordered them to shutter. The decision was final. It was a matter only of how it would happen and when.
A working group was quietly but quickly assembled in order to discuss the future of the school and the 8 acre campus, which boasts clusters of trees and a pond, along with the monastery and the chapel, The ad hoc commission included Oblate Father Lewis S. Fiorelli, Bishop Robert Brennan, Mother Superior Mary Berchmans, and Mother Susan from the Brooklyn Visitation Monastery. We know for a fact that the Academy Board did not want the land to be sold to the highest bidder in the marketplace and fought against all odds to save the school from the nuns. Headmaster Jean Bernieri also fought valiantly to save the school and the girls.
"I thought Xaverian or Fontbonne was buying Visitation and taking it over" Now wouldn't that be great and make the most sense? According to several sources intimately familiar with the matter, Xaverian HS and Fontbonne Hall Academy were both involved in joint negotiations with Mother Susan for weeks but the ad hoc commission (without any real reason or justification for doing so) ultimately rejected not 1, not 2, but at least 3 amazing proposals to save the school even though Mother Susan told people she "would like to keep it holy ground". The closure of both the academy and the monastery was then communicated in a letter Mother Susan, the Visitation Board, and Headmaster Jean Bernieri sent to parents on February 5.
What happens now?
As announced to parents on Friday night, Visitation Academy will officially close in June. However no definitive date has been set for the closure of the monastery. Sister Marie said the monastery likely won’t shut its doors until several months after the academy’s closure in June. Auditors will first need to come in to conduct an full inventory and cataloging of all of the religious items in the monastery, including statues and other various artifacts.
"I heard Manhattan real estate developers scooped up the Visitation land for $100 million ... They're going to tear it down to build big fancy condos ... The Mayor is going to convert it into a migrant camp ... etc ..."
I called an old college friend that's a real estate attorney today. He told me the Visitation land is zoned for something called "R3-1" only. The zoning handbook says R3-1 only allows or "semi-detached one- and two-family homes". My college friend real estate attorney advised that it would make little fiscal sense for a developer to purchase this land for $50-100 million dollars if they are only permitted to build here 1 and 2 family rowhouses. My college friend real estate attorney said the zoning can be changed but only by the local city council representative.
This gave me hope because the local Councilman Brannan here has been swatting back at the rumors, stating on Facebook: "Yes the monastery and therefore the school are closing. But some of the rumors people are spreading about the future of this property are not only entirely false but simply not helpful. These rumors are not based on facts and some of them are downright hateful and divisive. The school has not already been sold to evil developers and it's not closing today or tomorrow. It's important that we remember first and foremost the girls and the families who are now forced to scramble to figure out next steps after the rug was pulled out from underneath them and the educators and staff that gave their hearts to this school for so long. There are still girls who will graduate in June. This isn't easy. People are still processing and emotions are high. Indeed, it is hard to imagine Bay Ridge without Visitation Academy."
Why Isn't Visitation A Historic Landmark?
I asked a few people and no one could say why for sure after over 150 years the 8 acre campus was never landmarked but the simple answer appears to be that the Sisters of Visitation just didn't want to and they never applied for it. Perhaps because the Sisters wished to keep option their option to sell the land one day and now that day has come. Historic landmark status makes the real estate much harder to sell in the market because it would prohibit certain uses. Back in 2020, our Council man Justin Brannan got the Angel Guardian Home landmarked. Maybe he can be our hero with Visitation?
The Visitation Sisters, formally called the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, were founded in France in 1610. The sisters came to Brooklyn in 1855, setting up a monastery in Downtown Brooklyn. The Sisters came to Bay Ridge in 1903, establishing both the monastery and Visitation Academy as we know it today. The monastery opened in an abandoned building that had formerly served as a hospital that treated alcoholics or inebriates. Over 150 years later, what will come next ? I really hope it stays a school. I'll be praying or the most positive outcome.
