St. Francis Academy, also known as Monocacy Manor, was once home to a Catholic High School for girls.. Situated atop a forbidding hill along Bridle Path Road, it was a fortress guarded by the School Sisters of St. Francis. They presenting many challenges to nearby Bethlehem Catholic High School boys. It's now a retreat center, but the Sisters have more ambitious plans. At the January 14 meeting of Hanover Township Supervisors, they disclosed their intention to establish what they are calling Monocacy Farm. Following the Franciscan tradition, they want to use the land for organic and natural agriculture. They hope that, in the process, they will encourage community involvement, provide educational opportunities and serve the needs of the poor.
The Sisters plan to convert 13 acres of fields and vineyards into community gardens, a production farm and an organic agriculture demonstration farm. The demonstration farm will be used to teach vegetable horticulture to area residents, children and adults in low-income communities. The Sisters also plan to add a "pizza garden", shaped in the form of a sliced pizza, to teach children how to grow many of the basic ingredients for pizzas that children will start making at the end of the growing season. Seventy-five community garden plots will also be made available to area residents.
Local residents and low-income families will be able to purchase "shares" in a community supported agriculture program, after which they will be able to pick up weekly harvests.
In addition, there will also be a "pick your own" program in which excess produce and flowers will be sold to the public.
Finally, the Sisters would like to establish beehives near their natural agriculture farm, to be maintained by a licensed beekeeper. The bees will pollinate the farm's flowers and produce, and will find a safe haven at a farm that uses no toxic sprays or chemicals.
The School Sisters of St. Francis, a catholic religious order that originated in Austria in 1843, have been at Monocacy Manor since 1947.
Though Sister Bonnie Marie Kleinschuster must jump through several zoning hurdles on January 23, Supervisors told her they will pose no objections. Township Manager Jay Finnigan also assured Supervisors that Traditions of America, their next door neighbor, has no objections.
In other business, Public Works Director Vince Milite reported that the Township recycled 1,035 tons of leaves and 470 tons of yard waste last year. He also mentioned that potholes are breaking out all over the Township as a result of several thaws and freezes.
At some point in the meeting, Township Manager Finnigan's skills as a plow truck operator were called into question, prompting Finnigan to plead for divine intervention. Supervisor Jack Nagle looked out at Sister Bonnie, who was sitting in the audience, and told her, "That's your department."
Then Finnigan asked her to pray for Nagle, too. "He's a Moravian, so don't pray too hard," he joked.
The garden sounds like an awesome project. Go, sisters!
ReplyDeletePerhaps they could lead the way for controlled growing and selling of Marijuana?
ReplyDeleteIt would be one of those businesses that you want to be in your backyard, opposite of NIMBY!
These are pro-life, baby cult extremists who shouldn't be encouraged. Time's Man of the Year, the Pope, just returned to being Catholic and declared abortion horrific. They're all in it together. Karen Dolan was right about the fish breath terrorists. This project should be blocked and a halfway house erected on the site.
ReplyDeleteanon 1:412, I hope a good sister gets you alone with a wooden pointer and beats some Catholic into your heathen soul. O'Hare knows what I am talking about as another catholic boy.
ReplyDeleteYou filthy baby killing atheist.
I think we just found a market for the Northampton County Bulldog's shit. If he makes the right moves, it could reverse his certain path to hell. Saint Ron. It has a nice ring to it.
ReplyDeleteWow! I don't expect a story like this, which is positive, to attract many comments. That's just the nature of people. But to see 4 negative comments on a post about a group of sisters trying to make this world a better place is appalling.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea, I'm excited to watch it come to fruition.
ReplyDeleteGREAT!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see the Sisters doing something affirmative to preserve the land. I was appalled when I saw Traditions building along Bridle Path Rd. Like there needed to be another housing development?? One question about the farm, though: they should keep in mind that offering plots to low-income families isn't that helpful unless the families can get there. Transportation out there is difficult and Monocacy Manor isn't located in an area of town where there is a lot of low-income housing. That's not an objection to the project; just an observation about a barrier that I hope they can navigate.
ReplyDeleteOn a scale of 1-10 where to you put your self-loathing? Be honest if you can. The unscientific poll suggested a 9. Given your capacity to self delude we can guess a 1.
ReplyDeleteA obese grotesque pauper who can only gain attention by maligning others. PATHETIC. Fortunately you have a short shelf life. Like a bottle of penicillin.
3:58, aka Tricia Mezzacappa, all I can conclude is that you are so full of hatred that you must already be living in hell. Instead of egging your own house so you can be the center of attention, you need help. I just hope that whatever nurse is assigned to you is nothing like you.
Deleteto 3:36 pm, I heard the Sisters felt they needed to sell some of their land to the developers who are putting in the Traditions housing, because they wanted to invest the proceeds into a pension fund. (Good luck with that, Sisters, with the banksters plucking our income right out of our bank accounts.) Anyway, it is a great day when the top story on Bernie's blog is something so positive. A few years ago, the monks up at St.Tikhon's in New Canaan began keeping bees, and learned to make candles as an associated industry. They also bottle their honey to sell. Every year, the honey crop sells out by Christmas.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of duh Mezz, when is the hearing for damages scheduled? She's been relatively quiet since the troopers showed up in her town - other than egging her own house looking for sympathy.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was this week, but my Att'y has not had a chance to list it yet. I hope soon.
ReplyDeleteLet me add that Mezzacappa accused me of egging her house recently, though she did not directly name me. I believe she did it herself, and this is why:
ReplyDelete1) On several of her previous posts, she claims to have video surveillance set up at her house. If someone other than her egged her house, she could show the video to the police so they could take action. But strangely, there's no mention of any video. I wonder whether she told state police she has video surveillance.
2. In numerous posts, she has bragged about how nice it would be to shoot someone who looks just like me. She also makes it a point to take a gun everywhere. She probably even takes it to the shitter. Given her death threats and violent behavior, I am convinced she is eventually going to hurt somebody. I can think of no sane person, whether it is me or anyone else, who would go anywhere near her house under any circumstances. I would think that, if someone were egging her house, she'd catch it on film and then would try to kill the culprit.
3. Mezzacappa suffers from histrionic personality disorder. She has to draw attention to herself with outrageous claims and behavior. This is part of her sickness, just like the supposed poisoning of her pig was part of that sickness, or the slutty clothing she wears and the filthy mouth she uses. Everything is designed to make her the center.
Now that state police are covering West Easton, I do not think they will respond kindly to her nuisance calls.
I hope the good Sisters of Perpetual Pain get to the haters on this blog. Most of you have never confronted a pissed off nun. You would be wise not to piss of a nun!
ReplyDeleteI would agree. Incidentally, as a grade school student at St. Theresa's in Hellertown, I was taught by the School Sisters of Saint Francis. It was not a pleasant experience for me, and probably less so for them. I was a poor student until I hit high school. I got along with the nuns and brothers there for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI was taught by Dominican Sisters in elementary school. Without exception, each one was the spawn of Satan and disciplined viciously and violently. They specialized in creating fallen Catholics. Later experiences with Immaculate Heart of Mary and Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco nuns were more pleasant. But the damage was largely done by then.
ReplyDeleteMezz is a devout catholic, she needs your love O'hara
ReplyDeleteI don't care what religious label you put on her, she is a vicious hater who is already in hell.
ReplyDeleteDevout Catholics do not tell lie after lie, threaten to kill people, torment the victims of domestic abuse, impersonate people, use vulgar language or dress like tramps.
ReplyDeleteThey need to get the farmer dude Karl Hirsch out there to lend some expertise on how to max out production and variety.
ReplyDelete