Nun Recovering After Staten Island Convent Fire Being Probed As Hate Crime
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A somber mass was held Sunday at a Staten Island church where a suspicious fire was being treated as a hate crime this weekend.
Two nuns were hurt in the fire, which broke out early Saturday in the convent at St. Joseph Hill Academy on Hylan Boulevard on Staten Island.
One of the nuns – identified in a New York Daily News report as Sister Regina Gegic, 45 – jumped from a second-floor window to escape. She remained in stable condition at Staten Island University Hospital Sunday evening.
Timothy Cardinal Dolan talked about Gegic on Sunday.
"We're certainly remembering Sister Regina," he said. "All of our prayers are intensified as we recall what happened Friday."
Dolan said he visited Gegic in the hospital.
The second nun declined medical treatment for minor injuries, the newspaper reported.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told the newspaper the fire has the "potential" to be classified as a hate crime, since it was suspicious and started at two separate sites in the convent building.
This was the second attack on church facilities. In August, vandals trashed the new convent days before the nuns were set to move in.
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