A GREAT VIDEO, ESPECIALLY MY PART IN IT….

 Don’t press the center arrow but the “watch on YouTube” on the bottom left of the video. I don’t know why that is needed now!

NOTRE DAME SEMINARY IN NEW ORLEANS RESTORED IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHAPEL

The before photo isn’t bad. I’ve been in this chapel a few times and it is beautiful. The redecorated chapel designed and executed by Conrad Schmitt and Company is wonderful and not overdone as they sometimes have a tendency to do.

The new free standing altar is lovely, but what a shame that it is politically incorrect to have maintained the old high altar and use it ad orientem for the Modern Mass. A completely ridiculous happening in the post-Vatican II Church. 

While the new look is more ornate, it looks less cluttered than the old look and replacing the marble walls in the nave with wood helps tremendously. Removing the hanging lights helps too. As a disclaimer, I used Conrad Schmitt in renovating and redecorating the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta around 1997.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! WILL ROBINSON!

Am I the only one who sees the danger in this new Notre Dame’s “ambo” more like black music stands used in a high school band class? 

Shall bets be made on who will be the first to fall off this precarious platform and injure or kill themselves. And what kind of settlement will they get from the Archdiocese of Paris when the victim hires Ken Nugent? One call, that’s all!

YES, BUT…

 I like the traditional altar arrangement mandated in the pre-Vatican II Roman Missal and its general instructions/rubrics.

But in the case of the pre-Vatican II High Altar of Notre Dame, the oversized candlesticks and very oversized tabernacle hide the central image and iconic Notre Dame. Smaller candlesticks and a lower tabernacle would have prevented this.

The completely restored Notre Dame, thanks be to God, saved and restored the high altar which is stunningly beautifully compared to the new one, described by some, as a cereal bowl. It is a joke compared to the high altar. 

I’m not sure when Notre Dame will be re-consecrated. I am sure the modern liturgy will be beautiful as well as the singing. I suspect too, that candlesticks will be returned to the high altar in some form as well as around the new cereal bowl altar.