While the sheep were away, the (Neo)cats did play.

Attribution at The Philadelphia Inquirer: remnants of the disassemble altar rail at St. Michael's

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

For the last 12 years, Donna Panno, who leads the singing for Sunday Mass at St. Michael Roman Catholic Church in North Philadelphia, sat in the first pew. [...]

But while St. Michael was closed because of the pandemic between March and early June, that pew, along with many others, was ripped from the historic church’s hardwood floors, the altar rails removed. The center-aisle marble floor — down which members and their parents before them had marched to be married — as well as the hardwood floors beneath the remaining pews were covered in bright red carpeting.

Covering over hardwood? marble floors covered with carpet? Have the wreckovators no sense of acoustic? Rhetorical question, granted. Was the choir ever consulted? Probably not, given that the organist was handed a pink slip in the days leading up to the wreckovation.

Little consultation was done, as acknowledged in a somewhat contrite letter by the Administrator of the parish, issued after having his wrist slapped by the Archbishop.

Altar rails were ripped out. Carpet installed. Enough said?

(Fr. Chagala) promised that “some aspects of the interior” of the church would be restored “as much as possible.” Parishioners were told that would happen by Sept. 11, but many have doubts, as changes have yet to be made, said Stuart Brian, the church’s former organist. (Brian retired after Chagala sent him a May 28 email that when the church reopened in June, his services would no longer be needed on a regular basis.)

It seems only fair that, rather than the entire parish having to pay for undoing the damage, those who instigated the changes should pay for the restorations - yes?

It would seem that the wreckovations were instigated or at least welcomed by members of the Neocatechumenical Way. The Neocatechumenical Way that has made modest in-roads into the parish has been known to be quite zealous in the pursuit of its goals. Some might call that zeal mere aggression. It's one thing to move around a bit of furniture to accommodate specific needs, to improve access for authentic liturgical reasons, or to remove sound absorbing carpeting to improve the acoustic of a space. The actions taken to modify Saint Michael's is, as one historian has said, architectural vandalism, to say nothing about the impropriety of taking such actions without regard for process.

And why, oh why does the carpet always have to be red? Is there some misguided attempt to turn churches into Hollywood venues? If that is the case, then the theatrics that take place in such places are likely to be comedies (of errors), tragedies or, in some ultra-modernistic buildings, sci-fi fantasies. Hard floors make it far more difficult for lazy types to arrive late. Hard floors expose noisy footfall and encourage people to develop the discipline of arriving on time (i.e., early enough to pray) and not walking like beasts as they settle in. Resonant spaces, likewise, because they are "theological spaces" designed for preaching and singing, can calm the congregation and foster attentiveness. Isn't it interesting that since a faux-understanding of participatio actuosa has infected Catholics' minds, churches have become carpeted, almost in an attempt to dampen the noise of all the activity instigated by that confused notion? Because we have been told that we have to be "actively participating", churches have become playgrounds and circuses. The true sense of participatio actuosa is actualized participation, NOT merely active participation. The Church has been wise to employ the term actuosa, NOT activa, to describe our participation in the Liturgy, in the action of Christ Who is the principle "actor", not the congregation, in the Mass.

• http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2016/09/participatio-actuosa-in-current.html#.X0NtjchKhhE

Architectural historian Oscar Beisert said his “blood boiled” when he saw pictures of the remodeled St. Michael sanctuary. Although its historic designation by the city only protects a building’s exterior, he called the changes a travesty.

“(Chagala) took a classically beautiful building and vandalized it,” he said. “I call it architectural vandalism.”

The damage inflicted upon the architectural integrity of a beautiful building does not speak well of the character of the priest nor the members of the Neocatechumenical Way. If that is how the Neocats play, then perhaps parishes, or perhaps more precisely bishops, should think twice before allowing them access to parishes and parish resources.

If the Neocats' mission is to reclaim something of the early Church's manner of mission and prayer, they have only succeeded, in this instant, of reclaiming not the Church's love of truth, goodness and beauty, but of having reclaimed the vices associated with another destructive movement in and around the Church - i.e., the manner of the iconoclasts.

With regards to their highly questionable actions, to Fr. Chagala and the Neocats we say 'boo!', 'boo! hiss'. To the Neocats at Saint Charles Borromeo parish in South Philly where many parishioners are feeling marginalized by their misguided zeal, we also say 'boo his!'

If members of the Neocatechumenical Way consider it "necessary to make Christian communities like the Holy Family of Nazareth that live in humility, simplicity and praise", as claimed on their official website, they may then be surprised to learn that humility does not mean bullying one's way into parishes nor bullying others into accepting what could be considered an antiquarian vision based on a  caricature - not an authentic Apostolic and Traditional vision - of Christianity. The worst form of that truncated understanding of the early Church projected itself into the Church as it transitioned out of the Second Vatican Council, a vision of the early Church as a bunch of toga wearing anarchists gathered for lunch around a picnic table altar. Groups that subscribe to that stunted vision of the early Church tend to produce liturgies made in their own image. Actions that result in massive rupture, i.e., a loss of continuity, should not be part of the Church which is, it is still hoped, moving away from the temper tantrum that emerged in the mid-1970s.

It seemed that parishes had been moving away from such stupid changes. Tearing up carpet to expose beautiful flooring, or at least revealing flooring that enables music to better resonate, is one of the first restorative acts a parish can do to rescue buildings from willfully tone deaf Catholics, i.e., people who have little or no sense of the liturgical music space, and misguided attempts to "improve" a space. 

Uncovering murals painted over for who knows what reason is another testament to a trend of reclamation of sanctuaries from iconoclasts.

Further Reading

• https://southernorderspage.blogspot.com/2020/08/what-in-name-of-god-and-all-that-is.html
• https://southernorderspage.blogspot.com/2020/08/this-is-saint-patricks-church-near.html