Workers demolish the church and school buildings at the Immaculate Conception property in Bloomfield. The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh had listed the property for sale at the beginning of the year, but took it oof the market recently and started demolition on the buildings.

By Jamie Kelly, Bulletin editor

Bloomfield residents are upset with how the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has been handling the demolition of the former Immaculate Conception church, school and convent.
The church, which was closed in May 2022, was put on the market late last year. The diocese received a demolition permit in early March and work started to take down the site in late April.

Workers demolish the church and school buildings at the Immaculate Conception property in Bloomfield. The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh had listed the property for sale at the beginning of the year, but took it oof the market recently and started demolition on the buildings.

Linda Vacca, who is a member of the community group that appealed the closure of the church to the Vatican, said she’d had suspicions there was a plan to demolish the church when work started in January to remove asbestos. She’s still a member of the parish and said there had been no communication about the building until April 23 “” after word had spread online about the demolition permit.
In an email to parishioners that was also included in the parish’s weekly bulletin, the pastor said the church was in such poor condition that he believed demolition was the only option.
Nina Sacco, who lives on Friendship Avenue near the church site, is also a member of the parish and was also part of the appeal group, disputes that assessment. She pointed to engineering and architectural studies from 2022.
That report, commissioned by the Diocese and reviewed by the Bulletin, called the church building’s condition poor but listed the roof as the main necessary repair.

A photo taken May 8 shows the aftermath of the partial collapse of Immaculate Conception during the demolition.

That report did criticize the way the building had been maintained, however, saying preventative maintenance appeared to be “absent.”
Sacco pointed out that St. Joseph’s church, which was evaluated at the same time, was said to be in worse shape but was eventually sold.
The lack of notice and the way the demolition has been handled has upset people connected to the church building, Vacca said,
“I want them to be accountable for their decisionmaking and in their lack of transparency and just disrespect for the uniqueness of the architecture of that building,” she said. “People are devastated. People are telling me it’s like a punch in the gut.”
Sacco echoed those sentiments. One of her great-grandfathers had been a founding member of the parish, and she pointed out that local workers had built Immaculate Conception in the late 1950s.
Many of those workers were Italian immigrants or children of those immigrants. Sacco sees the demolition as a slap to their memory, as well.
“So this is an attempt to erase the history of the Italian American community in Little Italy, of all places,” she said.
Sacco’s problems don’t end there, though. As a neighbor of the site, she’s not happy with how things are being handled.
Dust has been a problem, leading to concerns about any particulate matter coming from what’s inside the church.
The noise, which can start with trash containers being delivered as early as 4 a.m. is also a problem for neighbors.
Sacco said the demolition of the building is proving tough.

People watch in mid May as crews demolish Immaculate Conception church, school and convent.

“I don’t think that anybody realized the amount of rebar that was in that church, she said. “To have the diocese make statements that the structure was deteriorating is truly laughable for anybody that’s watching this demolition.”
Vacca has heard complaints from others, as well, and has seen large groups of people inside the fencing scavenging for souvenirs or scrap at night or over the weekend.
“I have pictures where there were like 20 people inside the fence on a Sunday night picking up glass and tile,” she said.
Near the end of May the fencing around the site was reinforced, including cable ties and padlocks being used to secure the fences together.
Another safety concern was a partial collapse of the church building May 8, which also damaged a neighboring property.
“This is really a big gut punch to the community,” Vacca said. “Not just the Catholic community, because everybody that ever lived here went to something in that social hall, or in that church building or in the gymnasium.”