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Friday, April 1, 2022

STUNNING RENOVATION OR RESTORATION BUT DANG! THEY HAVE TWO DANG ALTARS, ONE IN FRONT OF THE OTHER—THAT SHOULD NOT HAPPEN IN A NEW RENOVATION OR RESTORATION!

 It is stunning, but….

Before:

And after, stunning but two dang altars, no!!!!!!!!



8 comments:

TJM said...

Whomever tore out the original high altar should be whipped. I agree, Father McDonald, they could have made this work with one altar for both ad orientem and versus populum celebration

Fr. Michael J. Kavanaugh said...

Told ya, we should have bought stock in the company that makes stencils.....

TJM said...

In Chicago, Old St. Patrick's Church (uber liberal) when the parish did its renovation they went stencil crazy. But it is lovely, nonetheless.

Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidt said...

This was originally a Protestant school chapel, so no original high altars were harmed in any past renovations.

ByzRus said...

I like it despite that heavy wooden look not being my favorite. I don't mind the altar arrangement either. Hopefully, makes easier the reintroduction of ad orientem on the high altar easier down the road.

ByzRus said...

Fr. why is this altar arrangement so "bad"? I don't see the "confusion" and they certainly aren't competing with each other given the clear separation and leveling. True, the table altar isn't 'high' like the true 'high altar', but, it would, at least to me, always be a ringer anyhow. Like I said, easier to restore the high altar to its intended usage down the road. That's my take, anyhow. Maybe this won't happen in my lifetime, but, given how the church is shrinking, I truly think the day is coming where the minority traditionalists will become the majority and things will be returned to how they were.

TJM said...

ByzRus,

I think Father McDonald is reflecting the view there should only be one principal altar. The sanctuary could have been arranged for there to be one free-standing altar to permit both ad orientem and versus populum celebration.

I agree with your last comment. My 32 year old pastor would as well. He views, Traditiones Custodes as I do, a desperation measure by the out of touch

Tom said...

The pictures are from the Mother of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chapel at the new east coast campus of Thomas Aquinas College in Northfield, Massachusetts, at the former Mount Hermon School for Girls. They are the "immediately" before and after pictures to fill the space in the apse where there was (in typical Protestant church style) a huge pipe organ in the previous Russell Sage Memorial Chapel, removed to another building on campus. There is another pipe organ in the choir loft in the rear of the chapel sufficient for musical needs. I could not find an online picture of the previous interior of the nominal Protestant chapel showing the organ.

The new high altar is more than minimally functional to reserve the Blessed Sacrament. The daily traditional Latin Mass is offered there "ad orientem," while the daily Novus Ordo Latin Mass is offered at the free-standing order "ad populum."

You can read more about the chapel at https://www.thomasaquinas.edu/a-catholic-life/our-mother-perpetual-help-chapel and its dedication on March 7, 2022, by Springfield, Massachusetts, Bishop William Byrne, at https://www.recorder.com/Chapel-rededicated-at-Thomas-Aquinas-College-in-Northfield-45395586