I have always enjoyed critiquing various altars and tabernacles wherever I go, but the most entertaining ones are found in . . . any guesses?
Yes! The Diocese of Rochester!
I would like very much to have a bit of a tournament as to which altars/tabernacles are the worst and which are the best. We'll start with which are the worst.
First up: St. Christopher in Chili or St. John the Evangelist in Rochester (not Greece or Spencerport).
St. Christopher's:
St. John's:
To Bishop Clark, From His Humble Servants:
"Prince of degredations, bought and sold,
These verses, written in your crumbling sty,
Proclaim the faith that I have held and hold,
And publish that in which I mean to die."
22 comments:
While both are hideous and obscene, I think that my vote for the worse of the two would go to St. John's. At least St. Christopher's has a sanctuary candle.
Pictures of many Tabernacles in the Diocese of Rochester are posted on this website:
http://tabernaclesofrochester.com/tabernacleintro.html
Go to the title Tabernacles of Rochester and click on the link below, "Photos With Quotations about Jesus' Real Presence", to view pictures of the Tabernacles.
God Bless the wonderful lay servant of God, who constructed this website.
Could you imagine how many new souls we could bring into the Church, if all of this energy was put into evangelizing our neighborhoods, instead of fighting to protect our precious parishes and Catholic schools?
The choices are abysmal. I guess I'd vote for St. Christopher's too because of the sanctuary candle. Notice how all the chairs do not face the Blessed Sacrament. This is just so pitiful and lame.
SHAMEFUL
Who would allow for the construction of such unworthy houses for our Lord? Was it Bishop Clark?
It might have been either Hogan or Kearney, although I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be the current bishop of Rochester.
Correction for above- St. John the Evangelist church.
St. Christopher's was built during Bishop Sheen's reign. St. Jude, another church built during Sheen's time in Rochester, is the complete opposite. St. Jude had a large metal tabernacle that was centrally located in the old church. So I wouldn't place blame on him for the ideas of the particular pastor or committee assigned to building the church (re: Anon 6:15).
I'm not sure when St. John the Evangelist was remodeled.
~Dr. K
Truly a pity.
If any of you have photos of any Rochester parishes before their "renovations" please let me know.
I thought St. John had 24 hr a day adoration in their chapel. This picture does not look right to me?
hmmm... You're right Sister Emily, the picture doesn't look right. Either it's of a different church, or was taken pre-renovation.
Here is a more current image of SJE from their online virtual tour:
Image: http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo46/eldoctork/random/stjohnevang.jpg
~Dr. K
There are three "St. John the Evangelist" parishes in the diocese. This is the one in the city limits. I've never been there, so I will leave it to you to discern.
I know for a fact that this isn't St. John in Spencerport or St. John in Greece. It also doesn't look like St. John of Rochester in Fairport. I think they have a brick wall behind the altar, not wood.
Using the process of elimination, we're left with St. John on Humboldt St. Might be an older image. What little we see of the altar appears to resemble the altar in the image I linked to.
Any experts out there on St. John the Evangelist on Humboldt?
~Dr. K
"If any of you have photos of any Rochester parishes before their "renovations" please let me know."
Here are some pre/post Vatican II comparisons of a few Rochester churches:
1. Corpus Christi (Roch) - 1930s | today
2. Holy Ghost (Gates) - 1930s/40s | 1970s
3. Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Roch)- 1950s | today
4. St. Jerome (E. Roch) 1940s | today
5. St. Louis (Pittsford) - 1950s | today
Just for fun, here's a picture of Our Lady of Victory from the turn of the century:
OLV 1890s
~Dr. K
There are two other SJE in the diocese. One in Clyde, the other Owego (not Oswego, that's Syracuse diocese).
The tabernacle picture identified as ST. John's might actually be from St. James, as the type of wood around the tabernacle looks like that at St. James.
Speaking of Oswego above, an unusally beautiful church is St. Mary of the Assumption, English Gothic. It's relatively untouched and the Tridentine Latin Mass Group in Oswego has Mass there.
Check this link out for old pictures of HOly Ghost. Also notice the School Sisters of NOtre Dame in their traditional habit.
http://www.holyghostrochester.org/photoalbum.html
Here's an image of St. James (click here). The tabernacle is to the right, and not stuck in the wall. This was what it looked like when I went there. I don't think the image is of St. James. The altar is similar, but there is no metal grating behind the altar in the picture on the blog.
Side story- The time I was at St. James, I accidentally sat in the pew reserved for the folks who were to bring up the gifts. Those people, of course, didn't show. When it came time for the gifts to be brought up, the priest began staring at me and there was a long pause. Then an usher came over to me and informed me that I was in the reserved pew, and he had me bring them up.
~Dr. K
HAHAHAHA, that must have been embarrasing, Dr. K. Did you wonder why the priest was staring at you?
"Did you wonder why the priest was staring at you?"
I wondered why the priest, and half the congregation was looking my way, yes, lol.
~Dr. K
Oh man, Dr. K, I would have seriously bust a gut if I was there.
There is a St. John the Evangelist in Newark Valley, not Owego. Newark Valley is about ten miles north of Owego.
For a before after comparison you should get pictures of St. Patricks in Owego. They put the altar on the side of the church...sort of like trying to reproduce the feel of mass in the gym.
Susan Peterson
Oh no :(
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