By Ben Fractenberg DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Angry parents and students protested in front of St. Patrick Cathedral Sunday against plans by the archdiocese to shutter two historic Catholic schools downtown.
Parents from the St. James school, in Chinatown, and St. Patrick's Old Cathedral School, in Little Italy, said they've come up with a plan to raise money and save their historic schools.
But a spokesman for the New York Archdiocese, Joseph Zwilling, said that enrollment has plummeted from 600 students a couple years ago to 120.
"The economy, of course, plays the biggest role," Zwilling told The Daily News. "I think our decisions were sound ones."
St. James opened in 1854 and its roster of alumni includes Jimmy Durante. St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral School opened in 1822 and taught a young Martin Scorsese.
The students at St. James will be allowed to attend the nearby St. Joseph's school, says the archdiocese. Parents will also be able to send their students to Immaculate Conception, on East 14th street, St. Brigid School, on East 7th, and Our Lady of Sorrows, on Stanton Street.
But that’s little consolation for the kids who would have to leave their friends and teachers.
“I feel devastated,” 12-year-old Xavier Lugo told the Post. “I don’t want my school to close.”
