Parish Church requests College Demolish Dormitories

TNS News Service

Atchison
The administration of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church in Atchison, Kansas, has requested that several dorms belonging to Benedictine College, be demolished in order to increase options for parking.

The parish leaders of St. Benedict’s Abbey issued a formal complaint with the college, stating that six buildings on campus prohibit parking for the parish, making members of the church have to walk at least a block or two, to get to the church.

Lenny Madison, a parishioner of St. Benedict’s Abbey describes the situation.

“Basically, we are requesting that six buildings on campus be demolished and the remains of the buildings be paved to provide parking for all of the parishioners of the Church.”

“The buildings we want destroyed are the following: Ferrell Hall, Bishop Fink Hall, St. Joseph Hall, Kremmeter Hall, Legacy Hall, and Wolf Halls.”

Mr. Madison noted that, while Kremmeter Hall, Legacy Hall, and Wolf Hall were recently constructed, their presence took up parking for the college.

“If we knew that the college was going to put halls up there, we would have petitioned earlier. However, who’d have thought that the college would just construct buildings without even considering where the parishioners of St. Benedict’s were going to park?”

Every member of the parish attributes the parking problems back to the school. Peggy Crist, another parishioner of St. Benedict’s Church, comments on how the school is interfering with the parking for the parish.

“First they send some of their visible students to Mass there, and the park in our parking lots. Then when we raise complaints they tell the visible ones to attend Mass at the Abbey, and neglect to tell the invisible ones. Then, they decide to write an invisible letter to the invisible students. However, the problem with the invisible letter is that invisible students can’t read the invisible handwriting, and the invisible spelling is atrocious. Therefore, there is only an increase in invisible students, who take up parking spaces. If it weren’t for the college we wouldn’t have been having these problems.”

“In fact, if they just got rid of Ferrell Hall and Kremmeter Hall, things would be fine, because students wouldn’t feel the need to park on the street, and we could increase the amount of parking spaces,” she said.

As of press time, the college was weighing the options. According to a press release, the college has no immediate plans of destroying any of the 6 buildings, but it is being considered as a big possibility. They expect to release a statement on the problem next week.

© 2008 TNS News Service