For 123 years, the Sisters of the Congregation of Divine Providence devoted their time and money to help young women in Manhattan through the Jeanne D’Arc Residence.
Jeanne d’Arc Residence is dedicated to creating a welcoming and caring environment for women seeking safe, affordable and temporary housing in New York City. Through the ministry provided at Jeanne d’Arc Residence, the Sisters of Divine Providence are committed to ensuring a Christian environment which serves women of all nationalities, cultures and religions. In this setting, the good news of Jesus Christ is lived and proclaimed in the spirit of Providence.”
The nuns, whose order is based in Kentucky, have seen their number shrink and their population age. The cost of continuing to run the residence has become too much to bear as they face caring for their own elderly sisters.
The sisters sold the property to John Catsimidis for $22.5 million. Because the property is part of a registered charitable organization, Letitia James’ office must, and did, approve the sale.
But devoting over a century to vulnerable women in the city is not enough for James. Her office seized the proceeds of the sale and, for two years, has refused to release it to them.
James’ reason? She doesn’t like what the nuns will do with their money.
Per The Free Press:
The attorney general’s office told The Free Press that the religious order never provided “a breakdown of what they plan to do with the funds,” even though Christine Sama, the sisters’ lawyer, had told state officials in a January letter that the money would be used “to carry out the exact same activities as Jeanne d’Arc.”
In an interview, Sama told The Free Press that state officials objected to plans by the religious order to use the money to care for aging sisters at Holy Family Home, the order’s retirement home in Kentucky. They also plan to support their other ministries, which include running a local emergency shelter, supporting immigrant resettlement, and operating health clinics and schools in rural Madagascar.
“They are saying that use is not sufficiently similar” to the building that the sisters sold, Sama said.
James has a history of targeting Catholics.
In July, four orders of Catholic nuns and several Catholic healthcare ministries filed a federal lawsuit against New York, arguing the state’s new assisted-suicide law forces them to participate in ending patients’ lives in violation of their faith.
The case, Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. James, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York against Attorney General Letitia James. The plaintiffs are represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
Four Orders of Catholic Nuns Sue to Block Law Requiring Them to Help Patients Commit Suicide
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