I was asked to research this building by a friend who attends catholic school near this property. Basic Information: Immaculate Conception Academy was a high school for girls in the US and Canada to go to if they were interested in becoming nuns. Called a precandidacy, the school had its students take the vows of nuns and work in Legion-run schools and programs. It opened in 1991 and closed in 2012. The tuition was $11,500 a year. Reasons for Closing: It closed because of declining enrollment and 77 allegations of psychological abuse by former students. They have eating disorders, stress-induced ailments and depression because of their treatment at ICA. The students were watched by counselors only a little older then them, and they had rules for walking, talking, praying, and even eating. They told the students that if they didn’t follow the rules, they would be violating God’s will. They weren’t allowed to read their mail (the counselors took it and read it), stopped close friendships, kept families and their students separated for 49 weeks a year, failed to provide proper medical care, and insisted that the students only confide in the administration. The alumni have a blog- inactive for years- but it details their stories at the school. www.49weeks.blogspot.com The Legionaries of Christ: The group “Legionaries of Christ,” was a group just making their way into Rhode Island at the time. The founder of the order was Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, a priest who had 3 children and was a pedophile and drug addict, so this group was discredited by the Vatican in 2009. The scandal was a storm in the Vatican because he was looked to like a saint by his followers, and as a model of holiness by Pope John Paul II. He brought money and men into the priesthood- but the Vatican knew for decades that he sexually abused the seminarians. School Administration: The school was operated by a branch of the Legionaries of Christ, Regnum Christi. They run/ran 3 schools in RI- Immaculate Conception Academy, Overbrook Academy, and Mater Ecclesiae College. The building formerly housed Mount St Joseph’s College, and the Sisters Of The Cross and Passion, the sisters that founded Prout. It was the sisters’ administrative headquarters and novitiate. The Close: The school closed in 2012 to make way for its new location in Oxford, Michigan. Their last graduating class in RI only had 14 graduates. That year, a sister school in Mexico merged with the Oxford location, only producing 10 graduates. ICA was on a continuous decline in enrollment, 2007 had 70 students, 2009- 50, 2011- 32. The State of The Property: The building is currently up for sale for around 4.5 million, and Recovery Centers Of America wasn’t allowed to buy the land because the state wouldn’t let them do the zoning changes they needed. Sources:
Providence Journal, The Rhode Island Catholic, Fox News, Boston Globe, and Narragansett Patch
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