Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Churches may close, but resilient faith endures
Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan in the "Herald of Hope" column in our Catholic Herald.
I assumed that we are "together as one each Sunday for the Eucharist" without regard to the number of churches or the number of masses at each church. The Archbishop makes it sound like the goal would be to eventually have all the Catholics in Beaver Dam attending a single Sunday Mass.
Update: In the Comments, Karen Marie Knapp and I segue into church architecture, and she asserts,
Consulting my Encyclopedia Britannica (11th Ed.), I see a more or less opposite account of history.
While the practice then changed to a stationary table, the distinction between altar and table remained clear. ¶ 11/08/2006 12:01:00 PM
Three churches have been part of Beaver Dam's history: St. Michael, St. Patrick, and St. Peter. A number of years ago, as part of our ongoing Planning Process here in the archdiocese, those three historic parishes became one, under the patronage of St. Katharine Drexel, but kept the three church buildings.
The painful decision was then made, a couple of years ago, that, given the high cost of keeping all three sites open, with fewer priests, and with the desire to bring all the Catholic community in Beaver Dam together as one each Sunday for the Eucharist, it would be best to close the St. Michael site.
I assumed that we are "together as one each Sunday for the Eucharist" without regard to the number of churches or the number of masses at each church. The Archbishop makes it sound like the goal would be to eventually have all the Catholics in Beaver Dam attending a single Sunday Mass.
Update: In the Comments, Karen Marie Knapp and I segue into church architecture, and she asserts,
That's one of the things that became much more explicit in recent times; there was a period in the 1600-1940's when altars were out of fashion and there was just a ledge or outcropping on the wall that was called an altar (with a symbolic small square of stone to remind one of what an altar was supposed to be.....)
Consulting my Encyclopedia Britannica (11th Ed.), I see a more or less opposite account of history.
At the Reformation, the altars in churches were looked upon as symbols of the unreformed doctrines, especially where the struggle lay between the Catholics and the Calvinists, who on this point were much more radical revolutionaries than the Lutherans. ... orders were given soon after that the altars should be destoyed, and replaced by movable wooden tables ...
While the practice then changed to a stationary table, the distinction between altar and table remained clear. ¶ 11/08/2006 12:01:00 PM
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Not that we will see it return in our times, with the shortage of presbyters and the megachurch sizes of most parishes, but the norm set in the holy tradition is one Mass per priest and per altar per day. Bination and trination, and multiple Masses back-to-back-to-back are exceptional circumstances only permitted due to the current necessities.
All of them who ever enter a Catholic Church. Every Catholic Church and nearly every Catholic chapel and shrine has one. That's one of the things that became much more explicit in recent times; there was a period in the 1600-1940's when altars were out of fashion and there was just a ledge or outcropping on the wall that was called an altar (with a symbolic small square of stone to remind one of what an altar was supposed to be.....)
You can say that what looks like a table is an altar, but that hasn't convinced enough people to make that the word's primary meaning. And if that meaning hasn't been conveyed, then an effort to make it more explicit has failed.
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