I received some edifying email on yesterday’s post about the church closing in Buffalo.
Dear Harvey,
I was saddened to read your post about the Catholic church in Buffalo, NY. This has been happening there for awhile, unfortunately.
I am a native of Syracuse, NY. Small world!
We live in Atlanta, Georgia, and joined our current parish this past January. While not a TLM parish, the new pastor is very reverent and slowly doing what he can to bring elements of it into our Masses. -This is a good step. Keep encouraging him to go all the way! There have been a handful of truly beautiful new Catholic church buildings constructed recently. The new Christendom College Chapel comes to mind. HM
Interestingly enough, our parish is a brand new church “building”, but the elements (pews, windows, high altar, candles, side altars, confessional, etc.) are all from St. Gerard’s church that was closed in Buffalo, NY.
Our parish tried to purchase the entire building, but the local community in Buffalo stopped it. Here is an article all about it:
St. Gerard church and rectory heading for saleMelinda MillerThe St. Gerard church and rectory on Buffalo’s East Side will soon have a new owner, as long as a State Supreme … St. Gerard’s church building ended up being purchased for the purpose of being a mosque, which is horrible. I am glad the major elements were saved. The new church here is built to look just like St. Gerard’s.
Attached are pictures of what the sanctuary looks like here in GA (from Lent/Easter/All Souls):
Thanks for reading! Your post hit close to home in more ways than one!
God bless you,
A
Another reader sends this:
It’s a painful punishment. I’m a fan of beautiful old churches. We have a church still in use in Pittsburg but next to it the school has a big banner on it – Yeshiva School. Probably no one cares. Oh we care… – HM Lord have mercy on us.
S.
This kind of thing is not new since the asteroid hit in the 1960’s. On the one hand, we can be thankful that we have beautiful, old churches from which to draw pieces for our new churches. On the other hand, it is, as I remarked yesterday, another “fruit” of the Council that these churches are being closed.
As for the number of them being sold to become “Islamic centers” or mosques… Here’s what I say.
Burn it down and salt the earth.
I would rather these properties meet that fate than that the altars on which Our Lord came down for the propitiation of our sins be desecrated like this. And for a mere pittance at that…
Today was the feast day of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Ss. Peter and Paul in Rome.
The blurb in the Missal states that these two basilicas were dedicated on the same day – November 18th, in the year 325, by Pope St. Sylvester I. 325! What struck me even more, though, were certain lines in the prayers of the Mass. Take a gander.
Collect:
O God, Who for us bring each year the recurrence of the consecration day of this Your holy temple, and always bring us back safely to the sacred rites, hear the prayers of Your people and grant that whoever enters this temple to pray for blessings, may rejoice in having obtained whatever he sought.
Preface for the Dedication of a church:
“It is truly right and just, proper and helpful toward salvation, that we always and everywhere give thanks to you, O Lord, holy Father, Almighty and eternal God, for you, the giver of all good gifts, inhabit this house of prayer which we have built, and unceasingly sanctify the Church which you founded. For your Church is the true house of prayer signified by these visible buildings, the temple where your glory dwells, the seat of unchangeable truth, the sanctuary of eternal charity. She is the ark which rescues us from the deluge of this world and brings us into the port of salvation. She is the one beloved Bride whom Christ acquired by his blood and quickens by his Holy Spirit. In her bosom we are born anew by your grace, nourished by the milk of the Word, strengthened by the bread of life, encouraged by your merciful aid. With the help of her Bridegroom she struggles faithfully on earth and, crowned by him, is triumphant forever in heaven. Therefore with the Angels and Archangels, the Thrones and Dominations, and all the militant hosts of heaven, we continuously praise your glory in song, and say…”
Catch that? The physical property, the building “which we have built” is the literal dwelling of God among us. He is present in the Tabernacle, He comes down on the altars contained therein, and He sanctifies these places so that we, like Noah and his kin, can be rescued, “snatched from the deluge of this world”, and will be carried safely to our actual home. These buildings should remind us of arks. They should be places of quiet prayer and sacrifice. They should not look like jagged spaceships. Don’t get me started on the demise of sacred art in the Catholic Church (another fruit of the Council). These places are “the house of God and the gate of heaven”. And we’re abandoning them and selling them to the Islamists.
Again I ask, will anyone remember what these places looked like when we have the means and opportunity to rebuild them for God? I shudder to think what will become of St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s Without the Walls in Rome.
Tonight I will go and spend time in my Lord’s house praying for His Church and simply being silent in His presence.
Keep sending me pictures of beautiful churches and artwork. I love to share them so we know we’re not alone.
O Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, make our hearts like unto Thine!
Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad 