A few days ago, I was told that the sanctuary in the parish of St Catherine Laboure in Balornock, Glasgow, where I grew up, was about to be demolished by the current parish priest, Father Angus MacDonald. I checked out the parish website, and, sure enough, in the “Church Projects” section, there was a picture of the proposed new sanctuary. Click here to view
In case you missed it, here’s the text with the picture:
A Possible Vision of the Future? We continue to reflect on the arrangement of the Sanctuary of the Church and on how to make the best use of our gathering place of worship. Please view this treatment and let Father MacDonald know of your opinions.
I wasted no time in letting Father MacDonald know my opinion of this “treatment”. No time at all. He took his time replying, though, and it was an insulting reply. More on that in a moment.
Firstly, I can’t pretend that the sanctuary is perfect right now. It’s not. They removed the high altar years ago, but two key things remain which need to be protected: (1) the Blessed Sacrament in the centre of the sanctuary with a wooden backdrop and hood, with lighting, to highlight the Tabernacle; (2) the marble altar rails. As you can see from the proposed changes, both the backdrop/hood and the altar rails are set to disappear.
Unconfirmed rumour has it that Father MacDonald intends to remove the Tabernacle to a side altar, as he did in St Roch’s (oh yes, he’s got “previous” on this) and the reason the rumour is unconfirmed is because Father MacDonald is playing silly games and not answering my emailed questions. Instead, he replied to my first email by telling me how privileged I was to have St Catherine Laboure parish as part of my “faith story” (whatever that means) and that the people are the salt of the earth, or words to that effect. Calculated insult, I thought, but then, that’s me. To date, no reply to my follow up email.
Well, having failed to obtain answers to my simple questions, I went up there yesterday evening, to the Sunday evening (6.30 pm) Mass and after observing the usual novus ordo debacle, spoke to some parishioners, all of whom were adamant that the Blessed Sacrament would not be consigned to a side altar or side worship space or whatever it’s called. Innocents abroad.
Anyway, it got me thinking. I’d got it into my head that this sort of “re-ordering” was a thing of the past, that the revolutionaries had settled down with their hollow victory. They do have the churches, after all, albeit empty or with congregations easily mistaken for a Senior Citizens’ sing-a-long. But no. Here’s two parishes, within inches of each other (St Roch’s and St Catherine Laboure’s) victims of the “re-ordering” frenzy that is, after all, alive and well. Blow me. And here’s me thinking that, what with earthquakes and recessions, increased unemployment and a pensions crisis, the Archbishop of Glasgow would be warning his priests not to waste money on unnecessary projects. But then I remembered that other unnecessary project – the “refurbishment” of the cathedral, with its accompanying Italian Garden. Sigh.
The dishonesty,though! This proposed vandalism is being sold to the parishioners as a “restoration” – the notice in the bulletin said so and the big box with the words “Vision for the Future” and the website mock-up plastered over it, is billed as the “Restoration Fund” and placed in a prominent position at the front of the Church. None of the parishioners I spoke to realise that what Father MacDonald proposes is bulldozing, destroying, not “restoring”. They trust him. Yet, the fact is that if he wants to restore the sanctuary, he needs to reinstate the high altar – not remove the altar rails. One lady explained that the seating would be semi-circle (when the pews have been removed) because “that is more friendly”. Ridiculous? Did I say so? Don’t put words in my mouth…
If you know of any other churches in Scotland where this kind of ecclesiastical vandalism is being proposed, please let us know – and send photos. I took some photos in St Catherine’s which we hope to publish in the March edition, to highlight the “before” and “after” scenario, but right now the key thing to discuss is what to do now that we are faced with yet another set of perfectly good altar rails being chucked out with the garbage. And that, at exactly the same time that the Pope is making it very clear, by his own example, that he wants the faithful to kneel to receive Communion and to receive Communion on the tongue. This, I put it to you, is wicked. Wicked. Wickedly defiant. It is, in effect, telling the Pope to blankety blank off.
Click here to see some real restoration and then click on ‘comments’ to tell us what you think we can do about this uniquely Catholic crime.
What – if anything – does this destruction of the sanctuary tell us about the faith of the priest? And don’t gimme “judgmentalism, lack of charity” and other such nonsense, for asking the question. A church is a public place and a priest is a public figure. Better that we ask the questions now, than he is faced with them, cold, at his Judgment.
In any case, our first duty of charity is to God Himself; that is, in fact, by definition, what “charity” is – it is the love of God. And St Paul teaches us that if we have faith to move mountains, and knowledge to die for, it is as nothing unless we love God because if we truly love God, we will love – in a right-ordered way – everyone else. Thus, a priest who wishes to rip out the altar rails, to make it virtually impossible for me and others like me, to kneel for Communion, to demonstrate our love for God, to worship Him as Catholics have always worshipped Him – on our knees – begs the question: why?
I’ll be absolutely clear: I cannot believe that any priest involved in ripping out altar rails and demoting the Tabernacle, holds to Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist and Real Presence. I simply cannot square that circle. If you can, tell me how. I’d love to know your secret.
“I would like to ask forgiveness – in my own name and in the name of all of you, venerable and dear brothers in the Episcopate – for everything which, for whatever reason, through whatever human weakness, impatience or negligence, and also through at time partial, one-sided and erroneous application of the directives of the Second Vatican Council, may have caused scandal and disturbance concerning the interpretation of the doctrine and the veneration due to this great Sacrament.”
John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, Dominicae Cenae, 1980