St. Francis School alumni say they’re launching an all-out “blitz” to try to prevent the forced relocation of 24 retired sisters who live in a convent at the Manoa school campus.

After demonstrating outside of a Mass at the convent Saturday, the St. Francis Alumni Association is now planning to reach out to more than 4,000 alumni in a petition drive.

“We’re not going to sit back on our laurels,” said Phyllis Leimomi Stephenson, the association’s first vice president. “Our nuns shouldn’t be treated that way at all. Would you let this happen to your parents?”

The Syracuse, N.Y.-based order that operates the convent has indicated it will close the facility in a few months. The Sisters of St. Francis of Neumann Communities apparently wants to make better use of a four-story building that has its own infirmary, chapel, large dining room, library and more than enough private rooms for the retired sisters.

The nuns are being moved in March to the Plaza, a senior assisted-living center next to Pearl Highlands Shopping Center in Pearl City.

But the sisters — retired nurses and teachers mostly in their 70s and 80s — are not happy about leaving their longtime home, a place where they also enjoy interacting with the students of St. Francis.

More than 20 alumni demonstrated and held signs of protest outside the Mass held at the convent. In attendance was the Sisters of St. Francis leadership team that made the decision to move the nuns.

Joan of Arc Souza, head of St. Francis School, said the visitors from New York were surprised.

“I don’t think they expected such an overwhelming reaction,” she said. “I think it was a bit of a shock to them.”

Julia Brown, class of 1954, said she joined the demonstration out of love and support for the sisters.

“They always showed love and support for us,” she said.

Stephenson, who graduated from St. Francis in 1955, said the alumni association board will be working hard to gather signatures from the school’s alumni and then sending petitions to the Sisters of St. Francis headquarters, Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva and Pope Francis.

“It’s heartbreaking,” she said of the move. “They love their Manoa. It’s their base. It’s their comfort zone. Why touch their comfort zone?”

Most of the leadership team has returned to New York, where Souza said she hopes the decision is revisited.

“Whether they change their mind only God knows at this point,” she said. “If they reverse themselves, you’ll probably be hearing us cheering from Manoa.”