Pizza Making Nuns Evicted

A pizzeria run by Roman Catholic nuns will have plenty of help when it has to move soon.

Sister Judy Tensing said Power Inspires Progress, a nonprofit agency, received nearly 80 phone calls from people who heard that Venice Pizza was being evicted and told to move within 10 days.

Power Inspires Progress was founded by the Dominican Sisters of Hope, and provides jobs for hard-to-employ people. Venice Pizza had as many as 12 part-time workers, paid up to $7 an hour.

Through a deal with the landlords, Venice Pizza can stay put until the end of January. But the lease was not extended, Tensing said.

The Greater Cincinnati Foundation offered an emergency grant to cover debts and pay for moving expenses, and a food bank said it would store food and equipment.

There were other offers too, including one from a downtown businessman to pay the difference between the $400 rent the pizzeria had been paying and the $600 rent being charged by the new landlords.

Sister Barbara Wheeler refused to pay the higher rent because she had signed a long-term lease with the previous owner. That lease turned out to be invalid because it had not been registered or renewed.

“This community provides strength when people are down,” Tensing said. “We feel like there is a lot of hope and a lot of support behind us.”
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I guess these nuns were rolling the dough but not rolling in dough. It looks like the community has stepped in to help out from these major-scrooge landlords. I know I wouldn’t want to have to face St. Peter after evicting a group of nuns helping the poor.