Monday, January 15, 2007

'Down Under' possible Church 'Wreckovation'

Bendigo Catholics rail over Cathedral renovations

Altar plans upset devout catholic
Sacred Heart Cathedral debate stirs emotion


After reading this one I felt a tad better that we were all in the 'same boat together' although it is quite unfortunate to be in the 'boat'...period!

Thank GOD for 92 year young, Miss Molly Brennan. Ya' gotta love her as she did not mince words!

"People who find the altar rails are interfering with their worship of God are already well served in Bendigo," she said.

"They have no justification, other than they claim it will promote a greater sense of community.

"That is quite childish and naive, not to say ridiculous. "Sense of community has very little to do with physical proximity."


Her best line...(this one line should reverberate around the Internet...forever!)

"I don’t think you can turn a catholic cathedral into a community hall. You can only turn it into a vandalised cathedral."

GOOD GOLLY, MISS MOLLY!!

Picture of the Aussie -Sacred Heart Cathedral on the right side of article.

I know that this is 'old news' (I just found the tour and pics. of the renovated church)...but look at their sister cathedral here in the U.S.- Rochester, N.Y.-Sacred Heart Cath.

Diocese Director of Communications Doug Mandelaro narrates a tour of Sacred Heart Cath. here.

(Whoa-how 'bout the 'coincidence' that her last name is Brennan....hmmmm...Michael Brennan was the Rochester resident-parishioner that took up a campaign to stop the Rochester- Sacred Heart renovation from taking place. He had a lot of documentation too. I wonder if they are distantly related...one could hope.)

Unfortunately, it looks like 'they got community' now!
Listen to the Intro. with the pictures -"it's an intimate place","a place where we can all gather"-because that's what it's all about!

*Notice the 'before' pics. inset with the new views of the interior of the church.

Look at the altar-a 'before' pic. shows the glory of GOD, but what does this altar display?
Listen again to 'tour guide'-Doug Mandelaro as he provides info about the "brand new altar"-
"something mandated by the church -bring the presider amidst the people"..."to bring the Word of God amidst the people"...again "creates an intimate worship setting". Is this written down somewhere in a church document? Nah...I never saw that info in my research. Never saw it in the Vat. II docs.either!

"Now put your right foot in,Your right foot out,Right foot in. Then you shake it all about. And then you do the Hokey Pokey Turn yourself around,That's what it's all about."

More room to dance...a Liturgical dance...you can move all the chairs.
Notice the most of 'before pic.' in lower left corner.

Sacred Heart Time Line-Archbishop Fulton Sheen's pulpit 'was once' located in this church, but
no mention is made by Doug Mandelaro ...gosh isn't there a canonization process started? Wouldn't you mention that in your description of the ambo?

I wonder if Fr. Vosko has been contacted yet? Hmmm? Miss Brennan loooook out!
His book of 'renovation'-Fr. Richard S. Vosko-God's House Is Our House: Re-imagining the Environment for Worship His bio. NCR did a piece on him here
His projects here.

1 comment:

  1. The debate is raging. It's also raging about the changes to St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney - home to Cardinal Pell. The changes proposed to the sanctuary (besides the proposed pelican ambos) mean than Mass on the high altar would be nearly impossible, regardless of which rite.

    ReplyDelete