It is horrible what happened to this urban church in Louisville. But it has brought attention to this gem of a church and parish.
It appears they celebrate the Ordinary Form ad orientem having removed the free standing altar that cluttered the sanctuary and was in the way. Way to go!
They offer perpetual adoration 24/7. In fact there was security when the vandalism occurred and prevented it from being much worse than it was, the damage happening in a seconds.
They allow the poor/homeless to be in the church if they behave properly.
They have ministries apart from adoration to assist the poor and homeless.
And, by the way, they also offer the Extraordinary Form Mass weekly. How cool is that?
This is from their pastor this morning:
Dear parishioners,
I am pleased to announce that the church will reopen today at 11:30am, that noon Mass will occur, and Adoration will resume immediately following Mass. Let us all join in thanksgiving for our police, for healing of those who suffer from mental illness and addiction, the clean up crew and all the others who were able to get the sanctuary usable in short order. Join me and Fr. David today in prayers for peace and swift restoration of our beloved church.
In Christ,
Fr. Paul Beach
Pastor
11 comments:
Can we assume the black/white photo is more recent given the lack of altar cards?
Beautiful church. I wish them well with its restoration. It just makes so much visual sense how properly ordered this church is. No clutter, little tables all over the place, a chair marathon, weird/ugly banners, screens, no mostly useless sanctuary archipelago jutting out into the nave etc. The Roman Church is quite beautiful when its allowed to be Catholic!
One of the times I was in Louisville and had the good fortune of attending Mass at St Martin's I recall Father Beach's sermon on the proper teaching of our Catholic faith in regards to God's grace as our means of salvation as opposed to our misunderstanding that our good works get us into heaven. I don't want to misrepresent anything he said and I believe it is a subject could use regular spiritual direction by priests from the pulpit. But, the way I understand it is that we can do nothing without God's grace and therefore it is not our works but our acceptance of His grace that allows us to perform acts that are in union with His will and desire for us. I talked to Father Beach after mass about the subject because even at about the age of 50 at the time it was something new for me. He graciously gave me more direction about God's grace and our works. I love being in the company of good priests; nothing better than that and Father Beach is one of them.
"This is an unacceptable step backward imposing an outdated, preconciliar ecclesiology upon the faithful which promotes a false pietism that results in a toxic, rigid churchview that accepts a male-dominated praxis and distracts the faithful from the Active Presence of the Eucharist by a competing Passive Presence at the same time. In the interest of moving forward as the People of God who create vibrant liturgies as a welcoming community, we demand that the sanctuay be restored to its postconciliar order that accepts ALL of the people of God and does not promote racism, sexism or anti-Semitism. We must continue on the path of new evangelization to accompany ALL, because ALL are part of His kingdom."
See, I've read this BS so many times, I could get a job in a chancery writing pastors who do this!
Tom M
It is very good NO rhetoric. I would only add in closing: Black Lives Matter! and genuflect, of course. Secular liturgy, very effectively making a political point in a few seconds. A gesture started movement repeated by thousand of athletes all over the wold. Genious!
What else will it replace? I would not be surprised if it were routinely added to the bidding prayers at a NO liturgy. I can see it either at the beginning but some might argue for adding it at the closing of the prayer. Will it happen? I do not know, I am just saying that it would not surprise me if it happened at say, the installation of some newly appointed North Eastern or California ex-Jesuit auxiliary bishop.
Romulus Augustus here, we are under attack more than ever it’s sickening to see what he did to this church and now ANOTHER Islamist terror attack in Nice France Four murdered and one be headed after leaving Mass in Nice France, Macron is finally cracking down on the Muslims but there are already 10 million yes 10 million in France! Way to go Pope Francis keep bringing them into Europe buddy!!!! This man has to go and it must be said so and I don’t care what anybody thinks.
Tom Marcus forgot we at the USCCB need our illegals as they provide us millions in taxpayers dollars that we no longer get from pewsitters that now despise us as sodmite heretics.
We have corrupt priests and bishops in the US who support Marxism.
I have to say that the criminal vandalism shown in the first picture is small beer compared with the wholesale vandalism of sanctuaries in the 'spirit of Vatican II'. Sadly, no-one has been prosecuted for it.
The b/w photo is the 'before' picture. There are no altar cards as it is a Novus Ordo solemn Mass with only a deacon assisting (this has been allowed since 1964).
The post-Vatican II vandalism by liturgists is a scandal beyond scandal and yes deserves prosecution ( a bit of hyperbole). You can only imagine how the parishioners of this Louisville church must feel seeing their beloved altar damaged in such a way. Then think back to the 1970’s when vandal priests and liturgy committees ripped out “works of art” high altars and did the same type of destruction only to replace it with a table like free standing altar with two rinkey dink candles on it and the priest’s chair dead center behind it.
My father’s parish church in a little hamlet of Judique, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia which was built in the 1920’s had a beautiful high altar and reredos imported from Italy. This a small farming community. The church and altar were the pride of this tiny Catholic community. In the 1960’s it was ripped out, cut into pieces and reoriented for the post-Vatican II Mass. There was heartbreak in that community and those old enough to remember it still harbor a grudge against the priest who did it, he long dead.
Romulus Augustus here, my question has always been WHY did parishioners allow their priest back in the late 60's and 70's to rip out high altars, statues, communion rails, kneelers, confessionals, works of art and do nothing to stop this utter wholesale destruction??? My only thinking is they were told Rome wanted this done and so they prayed, payed and obeyed.
Kudos to the Louisville pastor for putting the blame where it belongs -- mental illness -- instead of trying to score political points or turn this into a racial issue. We need leaders, in both the secular and church worlds, who will heal instead of divide.
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