Marriott ‘Visitation Hotel’ Hosts Liquor Bar in Former Chapel – PETITION!

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According to press reports, this past Christmas season saw the opening of a “65-room boutique hotel on the former site of Visitation Academy, the Catholic all-girls school on 2nd Street in Frederick, Maryland.”

The Academy opened in 1846. “The site was used as a hospital during the Civil War, and nuns lived on the property until 2005.” The Academy closed in June of 2016 “citing low enrollment.”

In 2017, Catholic real estate developer Mr. James O’Hare purchased the former Academy, which included a full-sized chapel. For the final opening design, Mr. O’Hare settled on having the Catholic school’s former chapel used as a bar and restaurant.

Tell Mr. O’Hare that serving liquor in front of a sacred altar used to celebrate Holy Mass offends God!

He believes renovations to the Visitation Academy facilities honor their history and respect their previous uses.”

Having consulted with the Archdiocese of Baltimore about six weeks before opening on December 19, 2024, Mr. O’Hare had the chapel deconsecrated by Father John Williamson of Saint John Church in Frederick.

“‘Because we wanted to be respectful of the prior use of the chapel, we went well beyond just de-consecration,’ O’Hare said in an email. ‘And we very purposely have constructed the bar to be separate from the historic altar.’” [Separate by about six ft. – Ed.]

“They could have put the bar anywhere,” said Elyssa Koren, a 2000 graduate of the former boarding school …” “They chose really the most sacred spot to place the bar. You don’t have to be Catholic to find this offensive. There is something very jarring about the placement they chose.”

“O’Hare wrote … that it’s not true that the bar could be put anywhere.”

“In order for the investment to work, we need the renovated space to be usable and generate income. We could not afford to spend millions on the chapel's restoration and have it sit idle.”

It seems likely that the new chapel layout is especially unseemly to God and right-ordered sensibilities. Thus, the aged, glorious, and SACRAL HIGH ALTAR has been allowed to serve as the backdrop and shelving for the many liquor bottles required to serve the alcohol-imbibing guests in front of the magnificent old altar.

Is it respectful to allow this altar consecrated to Our Lady, with all of its graces from the past 171 years of sacrosanct Consecrations, ‘forced’ to endure the probability of drunkenness and the like of a public bar?

De-consecrated or not, this is too much to accept for any Christian of good sense.

If you have Facebook, go here to view a couple of posted pictures and click on each one. For those of you without, see the first picture in this Fox News article down below the top video.

The bar itself could easily have been placed in one or more of the other available and adjoining spaces in the hotel – similar to what we’ve all experienced in innumerable other bar-restaurant combinations.

Sign the petition.

Mr. O’Hare should have considered the words of He whose Altar and house he seeks to profit from: “Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” [Matthew 6:33]

Many former students have started their own petition asking for a more dignified use of the chapel space and the removal of the bar to another location on the property. We appreciate their good sense and join them in our prayers. Please sign this petition.