Lititz Springs Park

[barnhart]

Parks everywhere are struggling with issues. Here is an article about nuns who had to leave their monastery because of the criminal and noisy activity in the park next door. One of their volunteers was murdered as well.
The Nuns Who Left Brooklyn
March 19, 2023

This is walking distance from my house. My wife and daughter run the track in this park. Our church has picnics right behind this monastery. I don't think we were that noisy though, but who knows my young children can be rambunctious... I find it curious they are leaving now, the area is fast gentrifying and the city is putting a lot of money into park infrastructure all around them.

Soon as I saw this article I knew where it was also

I've always found their statues of Jesus with open arms a little at odds with the razor wire and high walls with sharp glass shards embedded at the top.

[MaxPC]

I've always found their statues of Jesus with open arms a little at odds with the razor wire and high walls with sharp glass shards embedded at the top.

What makes you think there were glass shards on top of the high wall? Were you climbing over the wall? If so why would you commit trespass into a private residence of defenseless nuns?

[barnhart]

I've always found their statues of Jesus with open arms a little at odds with the razor wire and high walls with sharp glass shards embedded at the top.

What makes you think there were glass shards on top of the high wall? Were you climbing over the wall? If so why would you commit trespass into a private residence of defenseless nuns?

Try Google image search of Carmelite monastery Brooklyn.

[Ken]

I've always found their statues of Jesus with open arms a little at odds with the razor wire and high walls with sharp glass shards embedded at the top.

What makes you think there were glass shards on top of the high wall? Were you climbing over the wall? If so why would you commit trespass into a private residence of defenseless nuns?

You can see it from the street. This is the wall he is talking about: https://goo.gl/maps/HWFsrr9RY19YwEeC6

In any event, I'm not sure why cloistered nuns would want to be in the middle of a city anyway. It does sound like they will be just fine. According to the NYT article"

Meanwhile, the sisters have ambitious plans for their permanent home, which will include a Spanish-style monastery, a barn and a caretaker’s house, estimated to cost about $25 million. They should be able to move into a modular cloister of about 3,500 square feet on the donated land by year-end, Mr. Pfaff said.

It is 10 nuns. $25 million / 10 nuns = $2.5 million per nun. I think they should be comfortable. This will be their new home.

https://pleasantmountcarmel.org/our-vision/

From their proposed plans:

The design for the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Joseph is informed by the discalced Carmelite tradition, taking particular cues from Spanish cloisters in Avila and Toledo. It is sited on 13 acres at the crest of a hill overlooking the rolling farmlands of Pleasant Mount, PA. The cloister comprises of 70,000 square feet of building space consisting of chapel and supporting spaces, convent, and barns, in addition to gardens, cemetery, and other hardscape. Separate houses for guests, priests, and the porter are also planned. The selection of materials—from stone and lime-washed brick facades to slate and metal roofs—is intended to provide both nobility and durability for centuries to come.

[ohio jones]

Perhaps they’d prefer to be in a place where their volunteers don’t get murdered.

They were. The murder happened in a completely different neighborhood 5 miles away, not in their back yard. From the article:

But in 2017, the sisters become more concerned for their safety when George Carroll, a beloved Oblate volunteer, died in a stabbing in Greenpoint, several miles away.

[ohio jones]

I've always found their statues of Jesus with open arms a little at odds with the razor wire and high walls with sharp glass shards embedded at the top.

BLACK KNIGHT: Nun shall pass.
ARTHUR: I have no quarrel with you, good Sir Knight, but I must cross this wall.
BLACK KNIGHT: Then you shall die.

[steve-in-kville]

What were you in for?

Failure to be in possession of a high school diploma.

[MaxPC]

I've always found their statues of Jesus with open arms a little at odds with the razor wire and high walls with sharp glass shards embedded at the top.

What makes you think there were glass shards on top of the high wall? Were you climbing over the wall? If so why would you commit trespass into a private residence of defenseless nuns?

You can see it from the street. This is the wall he is talking about: https://goo.gl/maps/HWFsrr9RY19YwEeC6

In any event, I'm not sure why cloistered nuns would want to be in the middle of a city anyway. It does sound like they will be just fine. According to the NYT article"

That google photo you posted does not show glass shards nor razor wire as you claimed. It shows a wall with a fence on the outer edge of the property.
Why would you tell falsehoods? Were you in such a haste to gloss over the neighborhhood problems and to continue to promote your angry anti-Catholic biases? I find your words reflect a heart filled with anger which is not consistent with non-resistance nor peace-making. I think you have a lot more work to do on your own attitudes if you claim non-resistance as a part of your discipleship.

Meanwhile, the sisters have ambitious plans for their permanent home, which will include a Spanish-style monastery, a barn and a caretaker’s house, estimated to cost about $25 million. They should be able to move into a modular cloister of about 3,500 square feet on the donated land by year-end, Mr. Pfaff said.

You neglected to read that phrase will include. That budget includes a church which local Catholics can and do attend.

Many convents and monasteries are situated in the cities; their ministry is to pray for the residents of those cities because prayer is the most powerful weapon we have against the dark machinations of satan. Do you resent the nuns praying for you? Then they will pray for you all the more that your heart will be converted to Christ's Way.

Perhaps they’d prefer to be in a place where their volunteers don’t get murdered.

They were. The murder happened in a completely different neighborhood 5 miles away, not in their back yard. From the article:

But in 2017, the sisters become more concerned for their safety when George Carroll, a beloved Oblate volunteer, died in a stabbing in Greenpoint, several miles away.

Oblate volunteers become as family to the monasteries. If you had a family member murdered only 5 miles away, would you be concerned for your safety? I most certainly would, especially if there had been gunshots, drugs, and rowdy parties happening in the park on the other side of the cloister wall.

[Soloist]

What makes you think there were glass shards on top of the high wall? Were you climbing over the wall? If so why would you commit trespass into a private residence of defenseless nuns?

You can see it from the street. This is the wall he is talking about: https://goo.gl/maps/HWFsrr9RY19YwEeC6

In any event, I'm not sure why cloistered nuns would want to be in the middle of a city anyway. It does sound like they will be just fine. According to the NYT article"

That google photo you posted does not show glass shards nor razor wire as you claimed. It shows a wall with a fence on the outer edge of the property.
Why would you tell falsehoods? Were you in such a haste to gloss over the neighborhhood problems and to continue to promote your angry anti-Catholic biases? I find your words reflect a heart filled with anger which is not consistent with non-resistance nor peace-making. I think you have a lot more work to do on your own attitudes if you claim non-resistance as a part of your discipleship.

Max, if those sharp objects are not glass or razer, then what are they? its pretty easy to see something on top of the fence.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6855487 ... 704!8i4352
Here is another view, certainly looks like razer wire to me.

Also, another monastery years before was recorded as using it
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/17/nyre ... -wire.html

At the Corpus Christi Monastery in Hunts Point, a tiny community of Dominican nuns live cloistered behind thick stone walls topped off with a coil of razor ribbon. The coils encircled the 103-year old monastery two years ago after a series of unsettling intrusions. First vandals repeatedly scaled the thick stone walls and ransacked the garden. The final straw came when, in a neighborhood where prostitutes loiter on barren street corners nearby, the nuns discovered a mattress hidden on the monastery grounds, makeup and drug paraphernalia scattered nearby.

The nuns don't like the razor ribbon, but they reluctantly added it at the urging of the local police, said Sister Anna of the Cross, who supervises the monastery's maintenance.

"A mighty fortress is our God," Sister Anna said. "But you have to use your intelligence too. There's an axiom in the contemplative life: Pray as if everything depended on God; work as if everything depended on you. Of course we trust in God, but you have to cooperate."

I would say its clear that Catholics don't object to razer wire nor is pointing it out hateful.

[Josh]

I’m not sure what the point of criticising basic security precautions on that property is. If they weren’t there, the place will get burglarised or robbed regularly.