Phila. Archdiocese Says It Was Powerless To Stop Sale of Latino Church 'La Milagrosa'
By Kim Glovas
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Latino Catholic church in Philadelphia has closed, but parishioners will still have a place to worship.
La Milagrosa, at 19th and Spring Garden Streets, has been a ministry of the Philadelphia Archdiocese since 1976, according to spokesman Ken Gavin. Before that it had been owned and operated by the Vincentian Fathers, but when they could not staff it the archdiocese supplied priests for masses.
"Last September, the Vincentian Fathers informed the archdiocese that they planned to sell La Milagrosa in order to gain funds to care for their retired religious brothers and priests in Spain," Gavin says. "We informed the community at La Milagrosa at that time of this development, and the archdiocese was powerless to stop the sale."
KYW mistakenly reported that the church was closing as part of the archdiocese's merger plan. Gavin says this church closing was completely out of the hands of the archdiocese. However, he says, the Spanish-speaking community will be served by a mass beginning this Sunday at the Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul, at 12:30pm.
