Greater than 3,000 folks have signed a petition urging the homeowners of a chapel-turned bar in a Maryland Marriott property to abstain from serving liquor from the previous excessive altar.
Catholics are asking the Wye Oak Tavern within the not too long ago opened luxurious boutique Visitation Lodge in Frederick, Md., to revive the dignity of the chapel. The restaurant encompasses a bar across the former excessive altar, which is flanked by giant stained-glass home windows and statues of kneeling angels.
The restaurant, which opened on Dec. 19, is situated within the former chapel of the Visitation Convent and Academy, a Catholic all-girls college that was established in 1846. It shuttered its doorways in June 2016 resulting from low enrollment and was then bought in 2017 and opened as a resort in 2024.
Elyssa Koren, lawyer, mom of 5 and alumna of the Visitation Academy’s class of 2000, launched the petition on December 15 on Change.org, asking the homeowners of the Visitation Lodge to “restore the dignity of the chapel by relocating the bar.”
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Wye Oak Tavern. (Lance Jaccard of OTJ Architects)
“Though the chapel was properly deconsecrated – for the ladies of Visitation, for Christians, and for folks of goodwill in every single place, that is an evident and painful misuse of the house,” the petition reads.
“We, Visitation Academy alumni, involved residents of Frederick, Maryland, and others dismayed by means of this house, request you to make the mandatory modifications as quickly as doable to revive its dignity and respect its holy heritage – both by eradicating the altar and tabernacle or relocating the bar to a different location,” the petition provides.
Koren advised Fox Information Digital the petition was delivered to the resort on Thursday morning and {that a} assembly with resort administration had been requested, however she mentioned they haven’t heard again.
The Visitation Lodge notes on its website that following its sale in 2017, the location was now not consecrated.
“The sale stipulated that the property and chapel be used for non-religious functions,” the resort web site states. “Sacred objects have been faraway from the chapel. Any remaining gadgets are current solely to keep up the constructing’s historic character, as required by secular authorities.”
Jim O’Hare, co-developer of the Visitation Lodge, mentioned he and his crew paid the Archdiocese $2.75 million {dollars} for the property in 2017 and took each step requested by the Archdiocese, together with having the chapel formally deconsecrated, in addition to returning the tabernacle and the relics which have been discovered within the altar.
“As a result of we needed to be respectful of the prior use of the chapel, we went nicely past simply deconsecration,” he mentioned. “We eliminated the post-Vatican II altar which was used for mass and sacraments. We donated stations of the cross and crucifixes to native church buildings. We moved statues of Virgin Mary and Joseph to our courtyard backyard. And, we very purposely have constructed the bar to be separate from the historic altar.”
Father John Williamson of St. John Church in Frederick deconsecrating the chapel. (Derrick Erwee, supervisor of the Visitation Lodge)
However, Koren advised Fox Information Digital that as an alumna, it was vital for her to launch the petition with a view to “arise for the historic and sacred integrity of the previous chapel.”
“The response to the petition makes clear the extent of shock and ache that the developer’s resolution has brought about many alumnae and different members of the group,” she mentioned. “The chapel turned tavern nonetheless carries the appear and feel of a Catholic Church with most of the holy objects remaining. This has brought about many to specific severe discomfort with the situation of the bar instantly on the excessive altar.”
“They may have put the bar wherever, however the option to put it there reveals an evident disregard for the holy heritage of the house,” she added. “Others have commented that whereas they aren’t spiritual, they discover this extraordinarily disrespectful – you don’t must be a Christian to see this as deeply offensive. And, many have left feedback that they may keep away from Marriott properties till that is remedied.”
Koren famous the 150-year historical past of the Catholic college, together with serving as a cloistered convent, all-girls college and Civil Battle hospital.
“Probably the most cheap resolution is to easily relocate the bar to a different place,” she mentioned. “Nonetheless, the homeowners might additionally contemplate working with the native historic society to take away the marble excessive altar.”
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Left to proper: Sister Francis Therese Leary, V.H.M, Sister Mary Paula Leary, V.H.M., Mom Marguerite Therese Leary, V.H.M. and Sister Mary Joseph Sander, V.H.M. (Virginia Leary)
“High Chef” star and James Beard semifinalist Bryan Voltaggio, alongside along with his brother Michael Voltaggio, are main the cost at Wye Oak Tavern. “We’re right here for the drama. Welcome to Wye Oak Tavern,” the restaurant posted on its Instagram two days after the petition was launched.
“Respecting a former place of worship isn’t drama,” Koren mentioned in response. “It’s fundamental decency.”
Virginia Leary, who had three aunts who served as nuns on the Visitation Convent and Academy for many years, together with one aunt who served because the Mom Superior, advised Fox Information Digital that the chapel was the center of the convent.
Due to that, she mentioned the altar bar is personally offensive to her and her household due to what it symbolized to her aunts and the opposite nuns, who devoted their lives to their religion, group and the varsity’s college students.
“The understanding was all concerned would ‘honor and respect earlier makes use of,'” she mentioned. “That was my expectation till a Visitation nun from a unique monastery contacted me to inform me in regards to the petition.”
“How does changing the altar to a bar signify honor and respect?” she requested. “I consider one thing is lacking if we now have to elucidate why changing an altar to a bar is flawed and offensive.”
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O’Hare defined that he himself is a Catholic and that it was crucial to him that the design honor and respect the nuns who lived and taught at Visitation, in addition to the ladies who studied on the college.
“I consider that we now have completed that,” he mentioned.
“The alumni that began the petition haven’t seen our efforts in particular person,” he mentioned. “They’re reacting to photos within the native paper. I encourage them and anybody who has issues to return see for themselves the nice care we now have taken to respectfully repurpose the chapel.”
In 2024, the Baltimore Archdiocese introduced the closure of 31 church buildings within the Baltimore space. O’Hare mentioned if the church buildings can’t be adaptively reused, then they are going to be demolished, they won’t generate income and their historical past and people who worshiped there can be misplaced.
“That will be a foul outcome for everybody,” he mentioned. “We’ve got been open for 10 days and, fortunately, demand for the restaurant and the resort has been very robust.”
“Our visitors have expressed no issues about the usage of the previous chapel,” he added. “In truth, folks love listening to the tales that make up the historical past of Visitation. We inform these tales all through the property, and on our web site.”
When reached for remark, the Archdiocese of Baltimore advised Fox Information Digital he’s sympathetic to those that have raised issues in regards to the scenario.
Trustworthy stroll by the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, after it was opened by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve, marking the beginning of the Catholic 2025 Jubilee. (AP Picture/Andrew Medichini)
Richard Griffin, the financial growth director for the Metropolis of Frederick, advised Fox Information Digital that town is “delighted” to have the Visitation Lodge as the primary resort in Downtown Frederick in 50 years.
“The historic constructing was left vacant after the Visitation Academy was closed almost a decade in the past,” he mentioned. “It takes nice imaginative and prescient and personal funding to renovate and adaptively reuse a big vacant historic construction just like the Visitation constructing which now not met up to date constructing codes for handicap accessibility, life security, and utilities.”
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“If not for his or her multi-million-dollar funding, it’s seemingly that the constructing might have remained vacant and languished for years,” he added. “Because of their funding and imaginative and prescient, 1000’s of holiday makers will be capable to see the totally restored constructing and lots of can have enterprise and household occasions on the facility. This ends in jobs, tax base, and customer spending that’s helpful to the revitalization of historic downtown Frederick and the area.”
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