Mater Christi School in Burlington purchases Sisters of Mercy convent

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - An old convent in Burlington is getting new life thanks to the Mater Christi School.

The Mater Christi School is attached to the Sisters of Mercy convent and used to lease the space from the sisters.

Now, the school owns the building.

Tim Loeschner, the head of the Mater Christi School, says the final sister left in 2019 and the building is no longer needed as a residence.

But they aren’t yet sure what they’ll do with the entire 20-acre property.

Right now they’re getting the chapel up to code to use it for Mass, and Loeschner says they want to continue education and support the growing enrollment in the school.

“We’re thinking more about what to do with this, and we don’t have building plans and so forth. And I think it’s critical to understand that this has been, obviously, this has been the mother house of the Sisters of Mercy. We know where we are right now to us is a miraculous answer to prayer that we own this, and where we are going will be an answer to prayer,” said Loeschner.

In the 2017 to 2018 school year, there were 215 students. Every year more have enrolled and now they’re at 265 students.

Loescher says they will be planning for the next two to five years and expect to use the building incrementally over the years. He said it’s too early to know if it would be used specifically for the school or for the public, but he says this purchase guarantees the continuation of their education at the school.

“We would love to be able to use it and have all sorts of ideas to be able to continue education to augment or to support the growing enrollment that we have here at Mater Christi. So we’re always thinking about what kind of educational opportunities will this bring but beyond that, we don’t have anything concrete,” said Loescher.

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