North Side Learning Center
501 Park Street
Syracuse, NY

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History

Holy Trinity Church, established in 1891 at 501 Park St., Syracuse, NY, closed its doors permanently in December of 2010. In the ’50s and ’60s, the six parishes on Syracuse’s North Side drew 18,000 or more people to Mass every Sunday but over the years that number has dwindled.

The closing is part of reconfiguration plans being undertaken by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse to address declines in the number of priests and the shifting of population from the cities to the suburbs, diocesan officials said. In 2007, officials announced changes that would ultimately close 40 churches in the seven-county diocese. At least 15 buildings have been closed since spring 2007.

What some parishioners had to say

“My heart is breaking,” said Toni Franklin, 84, a lifelong parishioner at Holy Trinity. Her brother attended the little schoolhouse next door to the church, and Franklin remembers her mother attending 6:30 a.m. mass daily. Fighting tears during an interview, Franklin said, “The church has been such a part of my life, and I don’t understand why they’re closing it. It makes me angry.”

Wendy Malkoske said she’s been coming since the ’80s. “I don’t like that it’s closing,” she said. “There just aren’t a lot of churches like this.”

Anne Angiolillo, who’s been a parishioner since 1956, is part of a core group that appealed the closing to the Vatican in Rome. She is distressed over the closing.

“I don’t think it had to happen,” she said. “We had ideas we wanted to present about bringing more volunteers in instead of paid positions, and we couldn’t get an audience.”

Current

Holy Trinity Catholic Church stood empty and quiet for four years until it was purchased in December of 2013 by North Side Learning Center for $150,000. Dr. Yusuf Soule, who heads up North Side Learning Center, confirms that his not for profit program has bought the campus and will lease the former church to a new Islamic society, which will name it ‘Mosque of Jesus the Son of Mary’ (Masjit Isa Ibn Maryam).

Muslims want to fill the former church with their prayers. But first, they want to remove the six stone crosses off the top of the North Side church. North Side Learning filed with the local Landmark Preservation Board to remove the crosses from the steeples and grounds.

The reason, in the petitions, “Due to new usage of the church as a place of worship for other religious group than used previously, where crosses on the building are not in line with the worshipping practices.”

The petition also requests permission to put a 6-foot chain link fence around the property ‘to increase security’.

Former parishioners and neighbors of the century-old historic church can’t fathom the building losing its crosses. And the mosque-builders won’t have a mosque with crosses on top. In Islam, religious symbols of any kind are barred from places of worship.

The petition for the cross removal and the fence installation went before the Landmark Preservation Board at its April session and was successful.

The North Side Learning Center and the new mosque opened a few months therefter.

About North Side Learning Center

The stated mission of North Side Learning Center is “to aid in adult and youth literacy development, and to be instrumental in teaching self-sufficiency and self-actualization to newcomers in our community.”

The vision of North Side Learning Center is to “be an example for constructive neighborhood development, community bridge building and empowerment through education on the north side of Syracuse, New York.”

According to their website, their stated core values are as follows; We understand the value of investing in our future by investing in the parents, who, if empowered, will empower their children, who are the future of our world. Our children deserve our very best, and we have a large responsibility to motivate, inspire and empower the parents with education and knowledge. What we do every day matters, and we hold ourselves accountable for living out our Core Values with the children, families, and clients we serve, as well as with each other.

Although they go by the innocuous name of North Side Learning Center, the full name of the organizations tells a larger picture…North Side Learning Center Abdulilah Al-Dubai of Syracuse. We’re not sure why they hide that fact. What do you think?

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