UPDATED WITH VIRTUAL TOUR HERE AND VIDEO AT THE END.
The Deacon’s Bench blog had a story on permanent deacons ordained on Saturday at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Patterson, New Jersey. This is the photo that accompanied the story:
To me, while far from ugly, it appeared that a modern look was imposed on a classic Gothic cathedral. Thus I googled for more photos of the cathedral and found these:
The original look:
But then, I discovered a 1970’s debacle of a renovation, typical for that period, a very, very, very costly that more than likely alienated and anger a goodly number of laity in that diocese. It is kind of like, but not as bad, as the debacle of a renovation disgraced Rembert Weakland visited upon Milwaukee’s Cathedral: Here it is:
But then, there was a realization how horrible this 70’s renovation was and thus even more money was used to kind of restore it in the last two years or so. The result is more traditional to say the least. This photo, compared to the deacon ordination one, shows the new baldacchino which was not envisioned in the original look of the cathedral, but is stunning:
But which is nicest and would it have been better to leave good enough alone and just worry about upkeep and maintenance of a building of this nature:
Before:
After:
After and After again:
Dear God, how much did all of this cost compared to simply maintaining the original and perhaps tweaking it here and there?
Here is a nicely done video of the cathedral today and you can see the choir loft and organ are restored. The rector is certainly engaging and personable, but at Mass I would find him too distracting. At the Ordinary Form of the Mass, celebrants think they must be charming, good looking, engaging and even in ritual overpower it with all of those "qualities." The rector seems to do this. It comes from the Sulpician late liturgist, Fr. Eugene Walsh. He did more to corrupt the Mass and architecture than most any other liturgist. I knew him personally, and he fit the bill of a liturgist being a terrorist but the difference being, you could negotiate with a terrorist. God rest Fr. Walsh's soul.
The Deacon’s Bench blog had a story on permanent deacons ordained on Saturday at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Patterson, New Jersey. This is the photo that accompanied the story:
To me, while far from ugly, it appeared that a modern look was imposed on a classic Gothic cathedral. Thus I googled for more photos of the cathedral and found these:
The original look:
But then, I discovered a 1970’s debacle of a renovation, typical for that period, a very, very, very costly that more than likely alienated and anger a goodly number of laity in that diocese. It is kind of like, but not as bad, as the debacle of a renovation disgraced Rembert Weakland visited upon Milwaukee’s Cathedral: Here it is:
But then, there was a realization how horrible this 70’s renovation was and thus even more money was used to kind of restore it in the last two years or so. The result is more traditional to say the least. This photo, compared to the deacon ordination one, shows the new baldacchino which was not envisioned in the original look of the cathedral, but is stunning:
But which is nicest and would it have been better to leave good enough alone and just worry about upkeep and maintenance of a building of this nature:
Before:
After:
After and After again:
Dear God, how much did all of this cost compared to simply maintaining the original and perhaps tweaking it here and there?
Here is a nicely done video of the cathedral today and you can see the choir loft and organ are restored. The rector is certainly engaging and personable, but at Mass I would find him too distracting. At the Ordinary Form of the Mass, celebrants think they must be charming, good looking, engaging and even in ritual overpower it with all of those "qualities." The rector seems to do this. It comes from the Sulpician late liturgist, Fr. Eugene Walsh. He did more to corrupt the Mass and architecture than most any other liturgist. I knew him personally, and he fit the bill of a liturgist being a terrorist but the difference being, you could negotiate with a terrorist. God rest Fr. Walsh's soul.
17 comments:
The more I look at the current renovation, I truly love what was done and it would be quite easy to celebrate ad orientem there as well as have the EF Mass. It is quite a traditional look for a cathedral, the cathedra exactly where is should be, the new magnificent pulpit which is nicer than the original which was ripped out in the 70's. and there is plenty of room on a lower level than the altar for other liturgies of the Church apart from the Liturgy of the Eucharist, place for prostrations, weddings, RCIA rituals and the like.
To bad the altar railing wasn't restored and on the first step from the nave. It would have been so easy to do and can still be done in the future.
Good Morning, all I can ask is why o why? It was just stunning as it was in its White Gothic high altar it just makes me get mad and i'm trying not to do that. All that money wasted and the blood sweat and tears of the original immigrants who with little money they had to build that Gothic masterpiece and turn it into a wooden barn looking building not even in remotely Catholic in any sense of the word. I always ask the same question why did the modernists after Vatican II "target" high altars, communion rails and statues for destruction??? Anybody with an answer?
Yes I agree, Weakland just utterly beyond wreckovated his Cathedral for what reason to make a point the TLM and everything pre-Vatican II was bad and outdated? And look what happened to him.
A @ 9:33 AM. The first renovation could have been much worse, but the reason for ripping out high altars and side altars in order to have one altar is that one of the Conference of bishops in the USA had a booklet on church architecture and renovations come out and liturgists and pastors treated it as though infallible and directly from Vatican II which it wasn't. It was a disaster of a publication, updated a few years later but remaining an absolute disaster. This is how the Conference of Bishops acquiesced to a liturgist or committee of them to put forward something that all dioceses should use and local bishops more than gladly gave up their own authority to allow a committee to run things.
But with that said, the theology of the Eucharist as a meal where the laity and clergy gather around the table and celebrate the Lord's Supper each with his own duties, was the ideology that corrupted the teaching of the Mass and the Liturgy and architecture.
Nothing could distract the laity from the altar and the Eucharist, no artwork, no tabernacle, no anything that would draw the laity's eyes elsewhere save the persons they looked at when the altar is surround on all sides by laity and their distractions.
And of course the choir had to be front and center and so too the organ, as in Protestant churches.
Of course all I just wrote is a crock. But back then we all thought it was infallibly revealed and in a pre-Vatican II authoritarian way, we shoved it down the throats of laity with pre-Vatican II Catholics, for the most part biting their tongues and accepting the Church's mandates, but not all of them and many of them in closets seething with anger and alienation that would blossom further and more publicly later either in protests or disengaging from the Church which meant their children and their children's children would too. And thus we are today where we are.
Although the renovation is an improvement over what was done by the Phillistines in the 1970s, the Baldacin, though quite beautiful, blocks the view of the magnificent stained glass window above the altar.
Archbishop Weakland should have gone to jail for purloining diocesan money to pay off his gay lover
I have never understood why they ever set up these modern vivisection classrooms and tables in churches. Don't they have halls at universities for that sort of thing?
Wasn't weakland told by the Vatican to not wreckovate the cathedral?
Anonymous at 7:25,
Most of the priests and bishops who did this had arrested emotional, spiritual, and intellectual development like their media confreres
Wasting the laity's money seems to be one of the hallmarks of the postconciliar Church (actually, Her bishop's conferences). The Wreckovations are just part of the problem. Take a look at some of the causes funded by the USCCB. Better yet, read a report on the "Catholic" Campaign for Human Development and look at their list of "charities". A more honest name might be "Annual Fleecing by the Flakes".
Re first photograph - what's that woman doing in the pulpit?
Anonymous @ 10:44 AM, yes. Weakland should be in jail for what he has done. What other CEO could use $450,000., plus the cost of the lawyers (people forget to add that in) and get away with it? And he and the auxiliary at the time, Bishop Sklba, both be defrocked. Like McCarrick they were involved in bad things with their priests and others across the board.
Anonymous @ 8:14 PM, yes Weakland was told to stop, but he didn't. His people continue to run the diocese. There has never been any cleansing. Abuses, dissent, immoral living situations continue to abound the the diocese. It is disheartening.
Such a waste of money. The original high altar occupied that space so nicely. The new baldacchino totally obscures that magnificent window. If now there, however, the new fixtures would be completely out of scale relative to the structure that houses them. At least they are no longer worshiping the pipe organ. What was broken here? What was so wrong that the high altar has to be removed? Ego-driven capital campaigns likely soaked those folks several times over the years. The good that money could have been used for....
and another thought, look how much seating was lost to make way for the "show" even after the second "improved" wreckovation
There's a lot of photos of this particular renovation available with just a simple Google search. Where it falls short, to me, is how the tabernacle on its pedestal (heaven forbid we don't have pedestals and shelves all over NO renovations) lines up with the altar. The photos look awkward from a distance, like sightlines weren't well considered. So often, it seems that designers consider how things will look standing directly in front of them and less so from a distance and as one moves about the building. To me, it looks a bit jumbled and less cohesive. If a parish is going to spend the money over and over and over again doing this, consider how this decade's version of the sanctuary will look up close, from the middle, from the back, from the sides and from above in the loft should there be one. Particularly in older structures, how will steps and the various elevations to which they lead effect the sightlines? Is there adequate room for Holy Week liturgies to be celebrated with their embellishments and with a place for everyone who is serving? Is there sufficient room and surface area to decorate for major holidays the way the parish would like etc.?
Also, up close, you can see through the baldacchino to the back window. From a distance, you can't which should have made the designer and those approving the design fundamentally question its presence or, at least it's design.
I would note that those in the pews still have some control over the finances of local parishes. The command to support the Church as a whole does not necessarily extend to abusive practices at lower levels. Of course, when one is in a parish (or diocese) with an entrenched clique of the self absorbed control freaks, the only recourse may be to seek out a more suitable place of worship down the road.
Those renovations look pretty decent to me (though sad they had to change it). Come to some Parishes here in the Richmond Diocese. You'll change your mind quick. Many of the Parishes here formed at the time of Vatican II. Thankfully the Parish where I am the Music Director at was expanded in the 1990s and didn't fall victim. I came from the Arlington Diocese to Richmond Diocese, I swear it's like night and day between the two of them.
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