The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who run a school in Richmond, New Hampshire, are in trouble.
They belong to the Roman Rite and were founded in 1949 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Although
they have been actively seeking the approbation of the Novus Ordo
bishops for many years, they have so far been unsuccessful, certainly
not because they are not Catholic enough.
The monastery was
originally built for Franciscan friars, but was eventually bought by the
late Dr Robert Hickson and his wife Maike, the well-known Catholic
journalist.
The Hickson family donated the building to the
sisters in 2009. They lived happily in it until July 2024, when they had
to make an emergency evacuation due to a severe mould infestation that
was seriously affecting the health of several sisters.
They squeezed into the upstairs guest rooms of their main school building. There are four sisters in one room.
When
a sister is ill, she has to move a cot into one of the classrooms at
night to avoid waking the rest of the community, as there is no
infirmary.
Barely a week after evacuating their convent, the
sisters received a new postulant. Even if St Philomena's were habitable -
with nine sisters and only eight cells - the order has outgrown it.
The convent was built without step-flashing. The mould inside the walls is now between one and two metres high.
One wing of the attic is covered in black mould due to poor ventilation.
Repairing
the convent would be very complex, costing about $500,000 for interior
and exterior work, plus replacing all the beds and furniture in the
entire building.
There are several solutions on the table: build a
new convent; expand the old building, assuming the mould can be
thoroughly remediated; complete the expansion of the sisters' school; or
purchase a nearby house and convert it into a convent.
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