TOWN OF CHENANGO -- A cross, pews and even candlesticks from the former St. Rita's Church in the Town of Chenango are heading south to New Orleans to help refurnish a church damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
"It's the closing of one church and the opening of another," Patty Ellis, a parishioner at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Hillcrest, said as she watched movers carry out pews Wednesday.
St. Rita's Church, on Route 12 in the Town of Chenango, closed last July after the bishop could not assign a priest there. Since then, the church has stood empty and remains for sale.
July was also when the Rev. Timothy Taugher, who serves as pastor of St. Catherine's and St. Christopher's of Castle Creek and oversees the former St. Rita's Church, led 17 volunteers from the Roman Catholic parishes to New Orleans. They worked on gutting a convent, part of a school and a house, Taugher said. St. Rita's also donated $15,000 to St. David's, a Catholic church located in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
Taugher and some parishioners came up with the idea of donating St. Rita's furnishings to St. David's church. The church's walls and ceilings survived the storm but 15 feet of water swept through, destroying everything from pews to the altar, said Sister Teresa Rooney, pastoral assistant.
"We're just tremendously grateful," Rooney said.
On Wednesday, workers from Dimon & Bacorn Co., an Endwell moving firm, donated their labor and truck. They removed pews and chairs as longtime St. Rita's parishioner Don Schaffer watched with tears in his eyes.
"It's a sad day," he said. "I hate to see it go."
But he, Ellis and Taugher said they were pleased to help another church in need.
"Just to have St. David's come back to life and show resurgence will be a boost for the neighborhood," Taugher said. "It will be a real sign of hope and new life out of a dark period."
Many of the 600 families that used to attend St. David's before the hurricane have moved away, Rooney said. The 146 or so people who remain have been worshipping in another nearby church, St. Maurice, while sitting on folding chairs instead of pews. Both parishes decided to repair St. David's and combine the two churches.
Parishioners look forward to receiving the furnishings early next week and hope to start worshipping there again sometime in April, Rooney said.
"We will look like a church again," she said. "It's going to be an exciting day when we have Mass again inside St. David's."
As I read this article, my thoughts gathered to the local church back home and to the many instances I've heard of old furniture being disposed off or being stowed away is some forgotten corner of the parish house or sacristy.
And I wondered if this would not have been a nobler thing to do, to accord respect to those items or at least to give them to those who will give them proper accord and have better use of them.
For example, when my previous school, The International School of Penang (Uplands) shifted to their current site in Batu Feringghi, they left the old premises which was once St. Joseph's Novitiate belonging to the de la Salle brothers.
The library which I used to study in was the old Chapel and the computers were placed on the sanctuary, lining the altar rails and the altar. It was a fantastic place for me, a catholic, to study in, and a privilege. This picture may not be the best, but here is what it the library looked like...
There were the stations of the cross still hanging intact with the words in French,
the mosaic panels of various saints (which sadly, not many students knew about, or even cared about)
The stained glass of the Nativity, which I admired the most, especially when the sun shone through it... it was featured on the cover of my church Sunday Companion magazine once...
Of course not to forget the high altar made of marble depicting Jesus working under the supervision of Joseph, and the tabernacle. For the full structure, I think it can be seen from the picture of the library above.
Also, the statue on each side of the altar. One, of the Immaculate Conception
and of St. Joseph, the patron of the Novitiate.
What has become of these works of art, leaves everyone guessing, the land itself and the building was sold for RM100mil, part of the main building is Heritage, which means it cannot be torn down, but all the rest of it can and has been. See for yourself...
A few years before that, the large crucifix which hung in the chapel was brought to the Chapel of St. Xavier's Institution, another former school of mine, where the bottom of the horizontal bar was sawed off as it was too tall to fit in it's new residence.
Quietly, little by little, smaller statues and bits and pieces of religious articles were transferred over to our school chapel.
One of the more significant statues, the statue of St. John Baptist de la Salle teaching children, which it customarily found in most schools run by the brothers, sitting in the front of the school field of Uplands was relocated to the front part of St. Xavier's and you can see this as you past by it today. If I am not mistaken, it used to sit on the balcony of the school before they shifted it to the Uplands location, so it was a homecoming of sorts...
The statue was given a makeover, coated in gold and put on a new stand and given an official unveiling ceremony (of course, this involved a significant amount of money which was donated by the Old Xaverian's Association). I clearly remember that glorious day, when all the staff and students of the school, complete in their ties, gathered around it, awaiting the arrival of the guest of honour and the Brother Visitor to unveil the statue. Since then, this statue has been featured in the local newspapers, become a landmark for tourists visiting Penang, and featured on the cover of our school magazine. Here is one of my most memorable pictures taken under this statue.
Now then, most of this people know about, but what shocks me and many people when I tell them about it is that the St. Xavier's chapel, many many years ago, was in possession of many many relics, some of which were very rare... What has happened to this? The answer is... it is still there, stowed away in the cupboard of the sacristy in a musty old plastic bag. Not many people nowadays who go there will know what it is... I feel really sad whenever I go back and still find it there... Half my mind is made up to "steal" it and give it to the correct authorities to check for authenticity before displaying it in a proper place of reverence (but then again, it is wrong to "steal", which is what prevents me from doing so). Every time I visit the Sacred Heart Chapel located in Mariophile, I think of the possibility that those stashed away relics could one day be displayed and venerated by the faithful...
Then, there are those stories of churches who have bought or acquired bigger and better statues and then keep the old ones in some forgotten place in saecula saeculorum... How about those vestments or sacramental? There are parishes which I have visited who do not even have a sacramentary or a lectionary, those which do not have relics other than those interred into the altar... If only people read this article and did something this lent for those parishes...
Anyway, I'm off now for the St. Patrick's weekend, and the uni internet service willbe disrupted so I will not be able to access the net during the weekend... Hopefully I'll wake up on Monday morning alive...
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