Photos by Bethany A. Romanek The Rev. Julio Giulietti, S.J., president of Wheeling Jesuit University and Sister Joanne Gonter, V.H.M., superior of the Visitation Sisters at Mount de Chantal, take part in a news conference Thursday at the former girls’ school.

WHEELING — In what the Rev. Julio Giulietti termed a glorious, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for two groups of people, officials from Wheeling Jesuit University and the Visitation Sisters at Mount de Chantal are in talks regarding the use of the Mount property by the university. With the historic Mount de Chantal building as a backdrop, Giulietti and Sister Joanne Gonter, superior of the Visitation Sisters at Mount de Chantal, made an announcement during a news conference Thursday. Both parties spoke about what will happen to the longtime girls school since it closed its doors in May. Giulietti, the president of WJU, said while no formal agreement has been signed, conversations are under way about renting space by Wheeling Jesuit for academic programs at the Mount de Chantal property. According to both Giulietti and Gonter, the relationship envisioned may move toward wider collaboration in the future. “Sister Joanne, in conversation with the other seven members of her community, have accepted to enter into a serious and loving dialogue with Wheeling Jesuit University that will lead to a relationship to sharing of space,” Giulietti said. “The caring between both institutions goes back hundreds of years even before we were born, and will go on way after we are here.