Mike Long's vision of the future --- “What would Bay Ridge look like without a Catholic school?” --- Still votes to close the school for OLA parish

Go to Fourth Avenue between Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Streets  ---  Get on the east side of the avenue and look across at the great tapestry brick behemoth that is OLA  ---  Church, Rectory and School.....  "Upon this rock I will build my church....  And the gates of hell will not prevail against it...."

---  NOT SO FAST !!!  ---

Now think of all the Catholic Schools and Rectories and  Churches in all of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn  ---  and picture them all gone  ---  that's what the former NYS Conservative Party Chairman,  Mike Long,  sees coming.....

Admittedly, Long's quote in "The Tablet" was intended to be limited to  >>> the schools <<<  ---  but his vision could not rationally be limited to only that

Also admittedly, Long's quote was an attempt  >>> to put lipstick on a pig <<<

What's happening to the schools is certainly going to happen to the churches and rectories and convents and friaries and parish halls,  and anything else worth a buck  ---  This is probably not what Godfather Bishop Nicky Mars wants everybody thinking about,  but it's obvious that the Catholic Church is  "Getting out of Dodge" in all of Southwest Brooklyn  ---  and closing [merging] the former parish schools is just the start.

Don't forget that the very same Godfather Bishop Nicky Mars announced several years ago his plan to reorganize Catholic Education in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens called "Preserving the Vision.”  At the time here is how it was pitched in  "The Tablet" and elsewhere  ---  “ 'I am committed to ensuring that our Catholic Schools are accessible geographically and financially to the people of our Diocese. When we determined that our schools are operating at only 85% of capacity it became clear that we had to consider why this was happening and how we might reverse the trend' said Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Diocese of Brooklyn...." (See "Preserving the Vision"  Press Release,  [https://dioceseofbrooklyn.org/press-releases/preserving-the-vision/];  see also "The Future of Catholic Schools: Preserving the Vision Calls for Transition to Academies"  by Gail Donovan,  1/5/2012,  The Tablet/ Uncategorized  [https://thetablet.org/the-future-of-catholic-schools-preserving-the-vision-calls-for-transition-to-academies/]).

The original "Preserving the Vision" release is a sort of Rosetta Stone for all of the rest of the double talk and gobbledygook related to the Brooklyn Catholic Schools and Brooklyn Parish reorganizations. 

It's all there hiding in plain sight right up front for all to see in the Diocesan press release cited above:  "As president of each parish corporation, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has asked that a diocesan wide strategic planning process, that would ensure the long term stability of Catholic schools in the diocese, be undertaken. The Diocesan Reconfiguration Committee (DRC) submitted its twenty-nine (29) regional proposals to ensure the long term vitality and strength of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn....  The process entitled “Preserving the Vision” was initiated by the (DRC) in the beginning of September [2011?]. It has involved the unprecedented collaboration and input of parents, teachers, principals, Parish and community leaders, pastors and Diocesan employees....".

So it's clear that it really is part of the "Jesus Christ Our Hope" parish reconfiguration process,  which had been announced in 2010 and talked about before that,  but then submerged like a U-boat stalking a distressed convoy for targets. 

If anybody might doubt that,  then look at this 2011 article in "The Tablet"  (See "Christ Jesus, Our Hope – Reconfiguration Has Brought New Life to Neighborhood Schools"  by Jay Akasie,  10/12/2011,  The Tablet/ Uncategorized  [https://thetablet.org/christ-jesus-our-hope-reconfiguration-has-brought-new-life-to-neighborhood-schools/]).  Be careful, don't get lost in all the love and lollipops about "saving" a few schools just a few years ago;  look at it as background, context and prologue for what also happened in Bay Ridge just a couple of years ago and what's going on NOW.

Keep all of that in mind when you go looking for the Mike Long and John Quaglione quotes in the recent "... Tablet" take on the closings of the parish-based schools in OLA and St. Anselm's  (See "Bay Ridge Schools Plan for Combined Academy" by Andrew Pugliese,  11/7/19,  The Tablet/ Diocesan News  [https://thetablet.org/bay-ridge-schools-plan-combined-academy/]).

There will be plenty of Pollyannas and other sheeple out there that will tell you that I'm just weaving a tall tale to cause mischief,  and that none of this will come to pass.  But just remember  ---  ".... Istanbul was [once upon a time] Constantinople...." and many of that city's great mosques  were once glorious Christian shrines.

Has Godfather Bishop Nicky Mars been spotted talking to any oil sheiks lately ??? 

After all  "...the great tapestry brick behemoth that is OLA..." should soon be available thanks to Mike Long and his board for the old parish school in OLA and John Quaglione and his board for the old parish school at St Anselm's.