To my great satisfaction, a journalist has given serious coverage to the religious angle in the ongoing story of old churches being converted to new condos. Kathy McCabe of The Boston Globe does an excellent job of wading into the religious and spiritual significance of sacred places of worship being converted into high-end condo buildings. I have fussed about this twice this year (see Chicago Tribune here and Religion News Service here): the religious and spiritual angle in these stories does not get enough attention. The RNS was a great improvement over the Tribune , but The Globe asks some questions that have gone unanswered until now : When developer Tony Pace had the chance to turn the 100-year-old former Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Ipswich into a luxury condo, he sought the blessing of a parish priest. “I needed to be sure it was OK,” said Pace, 45, who was raised Catholic in Medford. “He told me that if I treated it with respect, there was nothing wrong with it.” Guilt about turning a house of worship into a high-end home isn’t limited to crib Catholics. Karnig Ostayan asked his Armenian pastor to bless the former St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Church in Watertown, before turning the church and rectory into 11 upscale condos. “I want to sleep at night,” joked Ostayan, who attends St. James Armenian Apostolic Church, across Mt. Auburn Street. “Seriously, I know how much this church meant to people.” The article does a go ...
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To my great satisfaction, a journalist has given serious coverage to the religious angle in the ongoing story of old churches being converted to new condos. Kathy McCabe of The Boston Globe does an excellent job of wading into the religious and spiritual significance of sacred places of worship being converted into high-end condo buildings. I have fussed about this twice this year (see Chicago Tribune here and Religion News Service here): the religious and spiritual angle in these stories does not get enough attention. The RNS was a great improvement over the Tribune , but The Globe asks some questions that have gone unanswered until now : When developer Tony Pace had the chance to turn the 100-year-old former Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Ipswich into a luxury condo, he sought the blessing of a parish priest. “I needed to be sure it was OK,” said Pace, 45, who was raised Catholic in Medford. “He told me that if I treated it with respect, there was nothing wrong with it.” Guilt about turning a house of worship into a high-end home isn’t limited to crib Catholics. Karnig Ostayan asked his Armenian pastor to bless the former St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Church in Watertown, before turning the church and rectory into 11 upscale condos. “I want to sleep at night,” joked Ostayan, who attends St. James Armenian Apostolic Church, across Mt. Auburn Street. “Seriously, I know how much this church meant to people.” The article does a go ...