The Montfort Spiritual Center, founded a century ago as a seminary for the Montfortian Missionaries of Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, will cease to be a Catholic center and become an Islamic boarding school. The property, located in Bay Shore, in the state of New York (United States), has been sold for 5.2 million dollars to the United American Muslim Association (UAMA), which plans to adapt the historic site for its new educational use.
The complex was inaugurated in 1926 as a seminary for the Montfortian congregation and for decades also housed a Catholic boarding school, which remained in operation until 1972. In recent years it had been used as a residence and retreat house for priests of the congregation, extending a Catholic presence that lasted nearly a century.
An Islamic boarding school for 120 students
The purchasing organization intends to restore the educational use of the site by creating an Islamic boarding school for 120 male secondary school students.
Founded in 1980, the United American Muslim Association carries out religious and educational activities aimed at the Muslim community in North America, including the creation of places of worship and Islamic training programs for young people.
The project also faces neighborhood opposition
The transformation of the former seminary has sparked opposition from some residents of Bay Shore, grouped in the platform «Saxon Says No», who reject the opening of the boarding school. Signs with the slogan «No Boarding School» (“No to the boarding school”) have already appeared in the neighborhood.
This is not the first time a project for this site has encountered resistance. In recent years, an initiative to convert part of the property into an assisted living residence for seniors also failed, following intense neighborhood opposition.
With this sale, nearly a century of Catholic presence at the Montfort Spiritual Center comes to an end. The site, which began in 1926 for the training of Catholic priests and young people, will now, if the project receives final approval from local authorities, house an Islamic educational center.