Reprieve May Postpone Cathedral High Closing

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a Hong Kong developer who agreed to buy Chinatown’s Cathedral High School are considering delaying the closure of the school from June, 1985, until June, 1987, Msgr. Clement J. Connolly, secretary to Cardinal Timothy Manning, said Thursday.

“The matter is being discussed with the buyer to consider the possibility of delaying the closure of Cathedral High School,” Connolly said in an interview. He said talks on the issue will continue in the next few weeks.

Connolly’s statement signals the first sign of a thaw in the 6-month-old standoff over the sale of the highly regarded Catholic boys’ school at 1253 Stadium Way.

The archdiocese quietly arranged to sell the valuable 6.5-acre site to Wing Ming Properties of Hong Kong in 1983 for a reported $11 million. Escrow is scheduled to close July 1. Wing Ming has drafted plans to construct 460 housing units and a commercial development on the site.

Barrage of Protests

News of the planned sale leaked out last July, prompting a barrage of protests by alumni and supporters of the college preparatory school, which has traditionally educated the sons of immigrant workers. Most of its current 480 students are Latino, and more than 90% go on to college.

Dominic Ferrante, a director of an alumni group called Friends of Cathedral, said he and several other Cathedral supporters were notified of the possible delay in a meeting with Connolly and the cardinal last week.

“It was an amiable meeting,” he said. “I am happy that the position of the archdiocese appears to have changed, and that their position is to try to close the school two years beyond the current schedule.

“But the new position is not satisfactory to us. It only delays the ultimate question, which is whether or not Cathedral will be closed. We want the school to stay open.”

The Christian Brothers, who have run the school since its founding in 1924, also have strongly opposed its sale.

“This represents a significant change of intent on the part of the archdiocese,” said Brother James Meegan, Cathedral principal. “We’re hopeful that any such delay will allow us to work out a permanent solution with the archdiocese that would allow for a continuation of the work of Cathedral High School.”

Asked if current talks with Wing Ming could lead to a cancellation of the sale altogether, Connolly said: “At the moment we don’t have anything to indicate that; we don’t have any indication that the buyer would accept that.”

He declined to say what had prompted talk of delaying the school’s closing date. Representatives of Wing Ming could not be reached for comment.

Arthur Tam, a San Francisco architect hired by the firm to draft plans for a proposed high-rise complex on the site, said in a brief interview that he was told by Wing Ming three or four months ago to put the project “on hold.”

Wing Ming is reliably reported to have invested between $500,000 and $1 million in the project so far in the form of escrow deposits and development costs. But community protests to local agencies have jeopardized its ability to develop the property expeditiously.

Last August, the Los Angeles City Cultural Heritage Board voted unanimously to name the site a cultural monument, a move that puts up possible administrative roadblocks to development. The Los Angeles City Council also imposed a one-year moratorium, prohibiting issuance of city permits to allow the school to be torn down.

If the school closes in June, 1987, the school’s current sophomores would be able to finish their high school education at Cathedral.

“The cardinal has done a lot of listening,” Connolly said. “He is sensitive to, first, the (Christian) Brothers, because they have a long and outstanding tradition of Catholic education in the archdiocese . . . and second to the well-being of the student body.”