Bishop Jeffrey Walsh has announced a new initiative to remodel the Diocesan cathedral, St. Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel during its 50th year. Known by many as one of the ugliest diocesan Cathedrals in the Catholic world, Bishop Walsh and the Rector of the Cathedral, Fr. Matthew Wigton, discuss this remodeling in a video on the Diocesan website. When watching this video, Bishop Walsh seemed excited; not so for Fr. Wigton. The renovation includes a new background for the crucifix behind the altar as well as a new altar and tabernacle.
St. Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral is by far one of the worst examples of Church architecture in the United States. It is a classic example of Modernist and inconoclastic architecture that has infiltrated into the Church. Instead of an architecture that focused on the eternal, the supernatural, the beautiful, and the heavenly, Church architecture, under the guise of the “spirit of Vatican II” church architecture changed its emphasis over the past 60 years to stress the wants and desires of the architect or the celebrant. It dramatically cut its ties with over a thousand years of beauty to produce Church buildings that are difficult to distinguish from, for example, a Michigan Department of Transportation rest stop.
As just one example of this problem, the current Diocese of Gaylord cathedral is not based on a cross, as most Catholic Churches are based. The form of a cross is steeped in rich Church tradition, theology, and worship. The head of the cross is where the tabernacle/Eucharist resides. The body of the cross, representing Christ’s body, is where the faithful sit, stand, and kneel during Mass. This is the location of the mystical body of Christ in the sense that the believers come to be a part of the body of Christ as they worship the Head of the Church, in the tabernacle, when they enter the Church.
The current cathedral is none of that. Instead, it is a theatre of the round with drab white walls. Beautiful statues of saints and events in the life of Christ are lacking. Also lacking are stained glass windows which, from the Middle Ages, have added to the notion of the supernatural and have taught many a child (and adult) basic Catholic Church teachings that remain with parishioners for their entire lives.
In his excellent review of this topic, Michael Rose writes in his book, In Ties Of Glory, the following summary of the problem:
“In short, by applying the principles of Modernism to Catholic church architecture, architects and patrons (bishops and priests, in most cases) failed to address the relationship between the built form and Catholic faith, theology, and worship.”
The current renovation project, although certainly not making the cathedral worse (which is basically exceedingly difficult to do at this point), will unfortunately do very little to nothing to enhance the worship space at the cathedral. Maybe that is why Fr. Matthew Wigton seemed to some to be less than enthusiastic in his video appearance soliciting donations to the project.
Bishop Walsh stated that a donation to the renovation equates to the following: “I believe in the Church. I believe in beauty. I believe in our future.” If that is what a donation to renovate the cathedral really meant, then maybe a donation could go to tearing down the cathedral and building a church structure that really rejects the cold, dull, uninspired building that is now the cathedral of the Diocese of Gaylord. Replacing it with a structure that celebrates the rich and glorious history of Catholic architecture (that thousands of Catholic cathedrals throughout the world represent) would inspire many faithful Catholics and promote conversions to the Catholic Church.
“Lipstick on a pig” is a humorous metaphor that is often used when one is trying to make the ugly look otherwise. We believe it fits here.