By PAMELA SEGURA

There is speculation that Shrine Church of St. Ann’s, a neighborhood staple in Norwood, could shut its doors. The church, on Bainbridge Avenue at Gun Hill Road since 1927, serves as the foundation for St. Ann’s School, a middle school located above the church. 

The Archdiocese, having oversight of the church, has been involved in a months-long review of St. Ann’s through its Making All Things New program, a kind of evaluation and restructuring of an individual parish’s administrative hierarchy.

Vibrant Community
Father Frank Scanlon has been pastor at St. Ann’s for eight years now. He first learned about the Making All Things New program more than a year ago at a meeting in Cardinal Spellman High School. There, Scanlon and four other parishioners from St. Ann’s gathered with representatives of all the parishes in the Bronx. “From that meeting, we were given an idea of the scope of this Making All Things New program,” Scanlon said in an interview with the Norwood News.

One aspect of this program involves the forming of so-called clusters that help identify church-related challenges such as attendance, sacrament rites, ministry, and community outreach. Those issues are often passed on to a 40-member advisory board. Scanlon came into contact with his cluster during the spring, which includes St. Brendan’s Church, Our Lady of Refuge, Our Lady of Angels, and St. Philip Neri.

“We submitted much information about the parish and what happens here in the parish,” Scanlon said. “We sent in our recommendations that we wanted to work collaboratively [in the clusters]. When the committee sent it back to us, they said they accepted part of it, but they [also] wanted St. Ann’s parish to consolidate with St. Brendan’s.”

The advisory board told the cluster that this parish would have a new name. It would also be located at St. Brendan’s Church, which is about a 15 minute walk from St. Ann’s. This potential consolidation also means the closure of St. Ann’s. The school, which rests on top of the church, could likely be closed as well.

Scanlon said that the committee gave three reasons for this suggestion. “One [reason] was that it’s only a 15 minute walk from St. Ann’s to St. Brendan’s, which is completely untrue. Most of our parishioners…have a lot of difficulty walking.”

The second reason was financial. “[The committee said] we were not financially stable,” said Scanlon. “And, the third was that the registered Catholics and those who attend mass were dwindling.”

There’s also the issue of retaining membership to the church, which Scanlon said is different in city churches when compared to the suburban towns. The five churches in the cluster, according to the Father, rejected the suggested consolidation of St. Ann’s and St. Brendan’s Church. “There has to be a Catholic presence in this neighborhood,” said Scanlon.

In mid-June, the advisory board made final recommendations to Timothy M. Dolan, Cardinal Archbishop of the Archdiocese, who is expected to review the findings over the summer and make a public recommendation in September.

Challenging Recommendations
St. Ann’s Church has responded by depicting the vibrancy of its community on a Facebook page filled with comments expressing the significance of St. Ann’s Church. “The purpose [is] to dispel the idea that this parish is dead. For some reason, they feel that if a parish is not financially stable, it’s dead,” said Father Scanlon.

Carmen Sepulveda’s comment reads, “I have lived and have been attending this church for over 20 years. I love this church…please don’t close it.” Crystal Tomala writes, “We love this church…please don’t let this community [lose] it.”  Father Scanlon also added that a part of St. Ann’s vibrant community includes Montefiore Hospital. “It’s not only the priests who go there to take care of people,” said Father Scanlon. “Families that have people in the hospital come to church. They bring life to this parish.”

“This parish is very alive [and] very vibrant,” said Father Scanlon. “But, because of the financial [issues], it’s a problem. There are always going to be parishes that are not going to be financially sufficient because of their size, because of their make-up.”

If the parish closed, Father Scanlon said, the status of the school would remain unclear. “No one has said anything [about the school],” Father Scanlon said.

Ultimately, the pastor said, the decision is in the hands of the committee, who have received the cluster’s response to the consolidation suggestion. For now, the toughest part for St. Ann’s Church is waiting, adding to an uncertainty that’s beleaguered the community.

“It’s a lot of heartache, not just here, but also in Manhattan and Westchester County,” Father Scanlon said of the initiative.

Making All Things New
Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, declined to directly comment on St. Ann’s prospects. “I cannot…discuss any individual parish situation,” Zwilling told the Norwood News when asked about the specific status of St. Ann’s. “One, it’s not fair to the parish at this point. And, second, there have been no decisions made.”

Zwilling did break down the process of determining the future of a parish under the Making All Things New initiative.  The Archdiocese’s website says that the program ultimately seeks to rejuvenate the spiritual, religious and pastoral needs of neighborhoods. This encompasses various factors of a parish, including the financial status of a church and parochial schools.

Local Response
Many Norwood residents are aware of this uncertainty. To them, St. Ann’s is not simply a church underneath the Archdiocese’s strength, but a part of their lives as Catholics or neighborhood employees.

Luijany Feliz, who has lived in Norwood her whole life, told the Norwood News about the first time she learned about the church’s uncertain future. She was sitting on the sidewalk a block away from the church as she reflected on this experience. “I felt bad,” she said. “It’s the only church I know.”

Alfan Krasniqi, who works at Marconi’s Pizzeria on East Gun Hill Road, said that he’d heard about the speculation for a while. “It’d be bad for everybody,” said Krasniqi while smoking a cigarette outside his Marconi’s. “I do business there.” Flor Sanchez owns D’Flor Salon, which is on the corner of Bainbridge Avenue. She’s lived in Norwood for over 30 years. Her son attends St. Ann’s School. “I feel so comfortable [and] safe here,” Sanchez said.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.