St. Agnes Church, St. Paul, MN

After venerating St. Paul's relic at the Cathedral we headed over to noon Mass at St. Agnes, only a stones throw from the dome.  We attempted to make it to the 10 am solemn Mass, but I94 was half shut down, and it didn't work out.  It is hard to believe that more places do not celebrate ad orientem.  Mass was primarily in English, Sanctus and Agnus Dei in Latin plainchant.  But during the Liturgy of the Eucharist the priest faces with the people toward God.  Even in English it was beautiful.  This is the ideal Catholic parish.  There were lots of young families, children in the pews.  Fr. Ubel mentioned he will be done at St. Agnes and heading down the street at the end of June.  But before he does Abp. Nienstedt will be coming to St. Agnes for Mass and a Eucharistic procession.... they don't have their latest bulletin out on the website yet, maybe someone can help.  Was it June 10th for Corpus Christi I think?  I was in the back for the most part with a cranky baby. 

St. Peter's Church, Ashton, WI - celebrates 150th anniversary

St. Peter Parish is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year and held a Mass and dinner November 5 to mark the occasion.

Bishop Robert C. Morlino came to the parish, located in rural Dane County about 10 miles outside Madison, to celebrate Mass. Concelebrants included Fr. Brian Dulli, pastor of the parish, Fr. Laverne Meier, Fr. John Meinholz, and Fr. Henry Kalscheuer.

The parish has grown considerably since it was founded by 20 families as a mission church of Cross Plains and Martinsville. It currently has over 300 registered families.

“Many other people have been positively impacted by the Holy Spirit’s generous outpouring in Ashton,” said Father Dulli in his homily during the Saturday evening Mass which packed the church’s pews.

continue at MadCatHerald

more photos at madisoncatholicherald.smugmug.com

St. Peter's Catholic Church, Stevens Point, WI

Flickr: gambleg42

By the way this was also the church that then Cardinal Wojtyla visited back in 1976 before becoming pope.

Altar Rails; not just for ignorant, illiterate peasants anymore!

Guadalupe Shrine altar rails

In Tiverton, R.I., when some parishioners suggested returning altar rails to the sanctuary of Holy Ghost Catholic Church, Father Jay Finelli gladly accepted, little knowing shortly thereafter the Pope’s 2007 motu proprio letter Summorum Pontificum would follow and he would be interested in learning how to celebrate the extraordinary form of the Mass.

In Norwalk, Conn., when a groundswell of parishioner support encouraged pastor Father Greg Markey to restore St. Mary Church, the second-oldest parish in the diocese, to its original 19th-century neo-gothic magnificence, he made sure altar rails were again part of the sanctuary.

Altar rails are present in several new churches architect Duncan Stroik has designed. Among them, the Thomas Aquinas College Chapel in Santa Paula, Calif., the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wis., and three others on the drawing boards.

Altar (Communion) rails are returning for all the right reasons.

Said Father Markey: “First, the Holy Father is requiring holy Communion from him be received on the knees. Second, it’s part of our tradition as Catholics for centuries to receive holy Communion on the knees. Third, it’s a beautiful form of devotion to our blessed Lord.”

James Hitchcock, professor and author of Recovery of the Sacred (Ignatius Press, 1995), thinks the rail resurgence is a good idea. The main reason is reverence, he said. “Kneeling’s purpose is to facilitate adoration,” he explained.

When Stroik proposed altar rails for the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, “Cardinal [Raymond] Burke liked the idea and thought that was something that would give added reverence to the Eucharist and sanctuary.”

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/altar-rails-returning-to-use/#ixzz1RKb1GbBQ

Thought I'd share an interesting background about the La Crosse Cathedral built in the early 1960s and her communion "tables." 

The communion stations were designed by the liturgy committee of the Cathedral.  Edward Schulte was much more into ornate buildings than he was into sacred space enhancing the participation of the laity in the Sacrifice of the Mass. 

A consultant to the bishop said that the reason a church was built was threefold:  to proclaim the gospel,  increase participation in the sacrifice of the Mass by bringing the laity closer to the altar, and protect the congregation from the elements.  He went on to say that the criticism of Schulte's architecture was that in his churches you couldn't hear the Word proclaimed, the Altar was as far from the laity as it could be placed and the congregation was surrounded by elements. 

The liturgy committee felt very strongly that a communion rail was a barrier to the sanctuary and the Sacrifice of the Mass.  The stations were designed to be direct extensions of the altar, thus the white marble which is the same of the altar with the bronze inserts of the birds being sustained by the wheat and grapes, thus bringing the Sacrifice, Eucharistic sustenance and the congregation together in unity without barriers.  This symbolism is carried out in the canopies of the choir stalls and on the ceiling of the blessed sacrament chapel, as well as the lights in there, although difficult to see on the lights.

The cathedral was designed before Vatican II and the stations were lauded as foresight into some of the changes that would take place.

The Spirit of Vatican II existed even before Vatican II I guess.  It is just so strange to me that folks were preempting the Council.  Nobody had any idea what the documents might say so they just went ahead and guessed...  Can you imagine if folks had done that prior to the Summorum Pontificum?   Interesting the "tables" were created in a way which prevented receiving communion while kneeling.  *sigh*

Does anyone else day dream about building their own church from scratch?

Blessed Sacrament Church, Madison, WI

Even the modern churches back then looked nice.

Blessed Sacrament Church, Madison, WI - May 18, 1947

Interior view of altar at Blessed Sacrament Church, 2119 Rowley Avenue, which has been redecorated in honor of its silver jubilee.

Wisconsin Historical Society

Today's church:

Sing us a song, you're the piano man. Sing us a song tonight!

St Peter's Catholic Church, Tilden, WI

When my great grandfather immigrated from Austria, he settled in Tilden, WI.  I still have a great deal of family in the area and around Chippewa Falls.  I had never been in the church although I had been there before for my great aunt's burial in the cemetery behind the church(a Traditional Requiem Mass btw).  I should have got a shot of the servers vestments which were fantastic.  I've never seen them so well done.  A nice church, ordinary form of the Mass, it's been a month or so but I don't remember much else.  I think everything was pretty standard, 100% English, ect.  This is where we were when the announcement was made about the big priest swap.  By the way, that begins July 1st in the Diocese of La Crosse.  A whole lot of new faces for Masses next Sunday. 

The rest on Flickr:

Signs I might be looking elsewhere

This is from my vacation in Chetek, WI, of the ...Northern Diocese...  Um, "Pastoral Team Ordained Clergy"... you are sending me the wrong ... vibe.  

My wife and I did actually attend a daily Mass there.  They had a sort of adoration time after Mass so I didn't take pictures afterwards.   But the inside is bad, real bad...  Not like pews in circle bad, but well... I'll go early and get pictures next year.  It clearly was gutted from the original.  Chetek is within driving distance of some La Crosse diocese parishes we also attended. 

The plus side was this view.  And I think the reason God did not call me to be a fisher of men is that I am a terrible fisherman. 

St. Mary's of the Lake Catholic Church, Westport, WI

Photos from 1948, courtesy of Wisconsin Historical Society:

Exterior

Interior

And then I found that St Mary's of the Lake had their 1966 centenial parish directory available online.  Great idea!  But we find this tragic story.

Sunday, July 8, 1951 -- a bolt of lightning in a fierce early morning storm -- and the cherished little home of God was reduced to ashes.  All day and into the next, the fire smoldered -- like a gasping organism unable to die.  All day heavy gray clouds rained down their sorrow onto the glowing embers, joining the warm tears of the parishioners who realized the end of an epoch, the severance with the historic past.

And... a story in pictures....

Exterior today....

Where's that lightning when you need it?

I am struck by when these changes happened(as I've found in my other research as well).  This style is not the result of the Vatican II Council as some often propose, it is the result of the culture within the Church decades before the council even began.  Vatican II didn't happen in a vacuum.  The reality is that there was a crappy liturgical movement present far before the council from which we finally in our time have hopes of recovering.

St. Paul's Catholic Church, Bloomer, WI

While on vacation I visited a nice church in Bloomer, Wisconsin.  I think it must be the furthest north you can go before going into .... uh, a different place.  If I recall, every church in that town is named St. Paul's which made things a bit confusing, but if you just stay on the main drag, you eventually get to it.  The priest in his homily was even talking about praying the rosary every day for the conversion of sinners!  Deo gratias!  I really liked this side altar(right).  It had the contemporary thing going on, but it still had a symmetry and beauty that you don't see often in churches that remove their original interior.  I got the sense that this might have been a renovation of a wreckovation.  Another interesting note is that when they put in the choir loft, they had to cover some nice stained glass windows, one of which I think was St. George or St Michael.  You can see the whole set below.

Mystery La Crosse church update

Like God, this church has become an ineffable mystery.

I'm hoping to get some time to post new pictures, but it looks like our mystery church is going back to a mystery.  I verified with my great uncle who lived a block from St. John the Baptist that the photo does not match.  I went through a bunch of possibilities with some friends last night and we came up empty.  That means it's time to roll up the sleeves.  ...  At this point I must find out where that photo was taken.

Background

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, La Crosse, WI

It was suggested that our Mystery church was St. James on the north side.  I knew this was not right per this pre-1950 photo.

St James the Less, cir. 1952

Now I failed to look closer at the address provided in the previous post but it is in the north half of the north side.  Likely in 1939 people lived close to their parish.  So the search continued on the north side.  Thanks to the history provided on St. James website, we find out that there was an ethnic-German parish which was shut down on the north side - St John the Baptist.  

St John the Baptist - La Crosse, WI

Of major importance in the history of St. James was the assimilation of some of the people from Our Lady of Lourdes Parish[oddly enough they combined a Maronite-rite parish with a Latin parish, perhaps some Romanization going on as sad as that is] and from St. John's Parish upon the closing of those two churches.

In 1876, North Side Catholics purchased a former public school building on St. James and Avon Streets[which is closer to the address of emailers grandparents than St James is] to use as their own school. The English and French speaking people sold their share in that building to the German speaking people when they built St. James Church in 1886. These Germans were members of St. Joseph's Cathedral, but overcrowded conditions there forced them to establish a church of their own. The lower floor of the school was renovated for a temporary church, and the first mass in the new St. John's Parish was held there in October 1887 (see photo at right).  [I checked and the grandparents were indeed from Germany and Austria]

St. John's Parish grew rapidly. A neighboring lot was purchased and the old church/school was placed on it to make room for the building of a new church on the corner site. The cornerstone was laid there in 1892, and the church was dedicated to St. John the Baptist on Passion Sunday, 1893. The first pastor was Rev. F. X.  Wilms. In 1928, a new school with four classrooms was built east of the church.

The parishioners were energetic and developed deep spirituality. They celebrated their Golden Jubilee in 1938, and again held a large celebration in 1963 for their 75th Anniversary. In 1960, Bishop John Treacy had begun terminating the national parish status of La Crosse churches in order to establish them as territorial parishes with definite boundaries. The debts at St. John's had become an insurmountable burden, partly because of the loss of parishioners due to the closing of major factories. Since St. James and St. John's served practically the same territory, the schools were combined in 1966, and on the first Sunday of June, 1970, St. John's became part of St. James.

 Now I can't tell for sure but it looks like the center statue is St John the Baptist holding the Lamb of God.

So I'm 90% sure this is St John the Baptist(which makes me even more excited he sent the photo since I've never seen pictures of it).

Here's the full shot again if anyone can confirm.

Mystery La Crosse church

Got this email:

I found you through your blog at http://badgercatholic.blogspot.com/2010/11/happy-feast-day-to-st-jehosaphat-in.html  and thought that you might be able to identify the church in the photo that I have attached.   On the back of the photo in my mother's handwriting it says "La Crosse, Wisc."  In someone else's handwriting it says, "Our Church, Xmas 1937."  My mother's parents did not live in La Crosse at that time, but had lived at 1611 Wood St. until the early 1900s.

Thanks for any information that you may be able to provide.

This could be Holy Trinity or a parish that has closed like Saint Wenceslaus or the old St Mary's..  Anyone know for sure?  Would anybody like to attend Mass here if this church still existed??  Some of the La Crosse history can be found here.  (Yeah, yeah, I'm still working on the design for the website).

UPDATE: St John the Baptist Catholic Church

When the men were men, and the churches were churches

A view of the altar and murals surrounding the altar and on the arched ceiling at St. Anthony's church. The sanctuary consists of a main altar and two side altars, each with an arch highlighted in stonework. The altar has a covering over its surface, with a tabernacle in the middle; above this is a large crucifix. The left side altar is a grotto devoted to Mary. The right side altar contains two levels and has a tall metal grill in front of it. The upper level contains candles, and the lower level seems to contain an open coffin. A religious brother stands in front of this side altar with a book in hand. Printed in the bottom right corner: Lane. Paterson, N.J."

 Remember to support Wisconsin Historical Society

Just a sign of the great victory that iconoclasts have over our Church today.

St Joseph Chapel, Milwaukee, WI

Thank you to Steve Kuhl for sending in this one.

You have to add the St. Joseph Chapel in Milwaukee as a "Places I need to visit".

http://www.sssf.org/english/intl-aboutChapel.shtml

I stopped in yesterday as I was driving past just to see what it looked like on the inside. I had read something about it last year and always wanted to check it out.

WOW! It looks to be a close architectural relative to the Mary of the Angels Chapel in La Crosse. See attached pictures.

4 pm Mass was taking place so I wandered the Adoration Chapel in the back (just like La Crosse) and went upstairs to look at the balconies. Next thing I know I am in the Relic Room. There was probably over a 100 relics of saints in all kinds of reliquaries on three walls of the room. And some of the relics were very large. Very impressive!

The contact for a tour is Sister Nedine Ferris nferris@sssf.org

And I was told that the expert about the relic room is Sister Mary Alma.

I never did get to see the whole chapel. I will definitely go back for a complete tour.

These nuns there also seem to be the aging, polyester pant-suit "Peace and Justice" sisters that are dying off. The one that I talked to seemed very nice but what a shame.

Maybe the Nashville Dominicans can gain a foothold in these gorgeous convents to keep them alive.

A little background:

St. Joseph’s Convent was established by the School Sisters of St. Francis, an order of nuns originally headquartered in Germany. Forced from their homeland by the repressive May Laws of 1872, which prevented them from teaching, the Schools Sisters of St. Francis established their new motherhouse at New Cassel (now Campbellsport), Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. The order remained there from 1873 to 1885 and briefly established a new motherhouse in Winona, Minnesota from 1885 to 1886. Milwaukee Archbishop Heiss approved of the order’s return to Wisconsin in 1886. Rather than their intended destination of Madison, the School Sisters of St. Francis were persuaded to build a motherhouse in the Milwaukee area. The nuns purchased a private beer garden called Greenfield Park from proprietor Joseph Knurr in October of 1886.

more at City of Milwaukee doc page 12

Sold!  It's now on the list.

St Mary's Church, St. Mary's Ridge, WI Restoration

St Mary's Ridge

Marathon WI Catholic Church - 1913 - update

Wisconsin Historical Society

Was hoping to find pictures of today's church but this is all I could find.

Update: The resourceful Steve Kuhl found me the correct parish website.

Dude, you give up too easily.

Photos of the current interior are at:

http://stmarysmarathon.4lpi.com/

The newly wreckovated church building was dedicated in June of 1994.

Not the worst wreckovation I've seen.  I mean the chairs could be moved.  There are also chairs on the back side?  Maybe a perpetual adoration "chapel"?  The old ambo is just fantastic, how could someone get rid of that?  Looks like the side altars were axed too.  Something tells me I need to setup voting when I do these.  Like 10 is "temple to Gaia," and 1 is "Okay, but could we bring back the communion rail?"

We'll start in the middle. 
+1 for each side altar taken out(x2),
+1 for removing a perfect ambo(I could go +2 but I don't know the details, maybe already removed),
but -1 for leaving high altar(albeit slightly modified). 
I'd say this is about a 7.

Go ahead and vote in the comment box.  I could be swayed a little here.