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One of Bucks County’s two Catholic shrines will be sold.
The 44-acre St. Katharine Drexel Shrine on Route 13 in Bensalem and 2,200 acres in Powhatan, Virginia will be sold by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, according to a press release. The Bensalem property houses the remains of St. Katharine Drexel, a Motherhouse and various other facilities that the Catholic group says are “extremely underutilized.”
The remains of Drexel will be moved from the catholic order’s Bensalem property to the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia at a time in the future.
“It is both an honor and a blessing to accept this responsibility,” said Archbishop Charles Chaput, who leads the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He added that the archival records of the order will be maintained by the archdiocese.
“On behalf of all the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, I am announcing today our Congregation’s decision to divest itself of two of our largest properties,” said Sister Donna Breslin, president of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. “We know the time is right to make this decision.”
The worship site, which was a huge draw when the pope visited Philadelphia in 2015, will continue to be open to visitors through 2017.
In July, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament will celebrate their 125th anniversary. Drexel was the first American-born saint and committed the order to help impoverished and minority people.
“We rededicate our resources to our mission serving some of the most vulnerable people in the United States, Haiti and Jamaica. We also will use proceeds from the sales to challenge, in new ways, all forms of racism as well as the other deeply rooted injustices in the world. A portion of the proceeds will support the care of our retired Sisters,” Breslin said in a statement.
The order has gone from more than 600 members to just 104 Sisters today. More than half of the members are retired.
The order has also retained Plante Moran REIA to manage the sale of its properties.
The National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa outside of Doylestown is Bucks County’s other Catholic Shrine and popular draw.
