Our Lady of Revenue: NYC churches go on the market, leaving parishioners cynical

[hrmjustin]

Rick Hampson

NEW YORK (RNS) Our Lady of Vilnius Church, built by families of immigrant Lithuanian longshoremen, started out a century ago as a beloved worship space. Now, it’s a coveted real estate asset.

In 2013, six years after the church was closed, it was sold for $13 million to one of the city’s biggest developers. The following year, that company flipped it like a pancake to another developer for $18.4 million.

Now the yellow brick church near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel awaits demolition to make way for an 18-story luxury apartment house.

“It makes you cynical,” says Christina Nakraseive, a former parishioner who supported the legal case against the church closing until it was rejected by the state’s highest court. “It seems like it’s all about real estate.”

http://www.religionnews.com/2015/03/03/lady-revenue-nyc-churches-go-market-leaving-parishioners-cynical/