Former Tucson monastery begins taking in asylum seekers

[DesertRat]

Tucson’s iconic Benedictine Monastery opened its doors to Central American asylum seekers ahead of schedule due to larger numbers of families arriving at the border and being released by immigration officials.

Catholic Community Services, which is running the shelter inside the monastery, received the keys on Friday and weren’t planning to open for another two weeks to get the space ready, said Teresa Cavendish, director of operations. But on Saturday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement called them to ask how many people they could take.

“They had 130 who needed to be released,” said Cavendish. The Inn Project, run by the United Methodist Church, could take between 40 and 50, so she told the officials the Casa Alitas network of shelters could take the rest.

Within six hours, Cavendish said they had the monastery ready and started to receive families vetted by ICE. And it hasn’t stopped.

https://tucson.com/news/local/former-tucson-monastery-begins-taking-in-asylum-seekers-sooner-than/article_995f772a-9d21-546f-afda-4ad50bda738f.html

[MLAA]

1. Thanks for sharing, I hadn't seen this.

It says they need linens, towels, etc. I will go through my closets and then go get some of the items they need new and drop them off in the next day or two. 🙂

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Benedictine Monastery?

I think that is actually the Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoration.

My cousin was the pastor there in the 1960s. By the early 1960s, when we were first living in Tucson, not enough young women were becoming nuns to make it a viable concern. I know that among the things they did was making the hosts for churches in Tucson.

The cousin was actually a cousin of my mother's, who'd become a priest in Ireland and was sent to America more or less as a missionary, and ended up in Tucson. He was the reason we wound up in that city when my mother decided to leave my alcoholic, abusive father, behind in northern New York State in 1962. She was a nurse, with five children still at home. She knew she could find work anywhere, and wanted to leave the snow and cold of NYS behind. She chose Tucson because of the family connection, as tenuous as it wa.

I have fond memories of attending Christmas midnight mass at the Convent in the mid 1960s. The convent is a gorgeous building, and it ought to be preserved in some way.

Calling it a monastery rather than a convent is to get its entire history wrong.

[Ptah]

3. Thanks for that bit of Tucson history, PoindexterOglethorpe

The Monastery was recently saved from demolition.

Iconic Tucson monastery spared as agreement is reached in apartment deal

Tucson’s iconic Benedictine Monastery will remain and apartments are expected to go up around the structure under a new agreement between the project developer and a city councilman.

Councilman Steve Kozachik and Ross Rulney gave final concessions on height and the project’s footprint Thursday night.

The agreed-upon height is 55 feet for three structures around the monastery, 800 N. Country Club Road, and a fourth structure of up to that height on the north-adjacent residential parcel.

The exterior of the monastery will be preserved and made into a public venue. And, the apartments will be market-rate, not student housing, Rulney said.

https://tucson.com/business/iconic-tucson-monastery-spared-as-agreement-is-reached-in-apartment/article_cb9e5aec-0f06-5dcb-a9e1-7c3167ac5da2.html