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Thursday, December 29, 2011

A TALE OF TWO SIMILAR CHURCHES AND TWO UNSIMILAR RENOVATIONS, YESTERDAY AND TODAY

Saint Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina looks remarkably like the Sacred Heart Church in the Archdiocese of Chicago, but it took a different route toward renovation, thank the Lord.
The 1904 look for Saint Mary in Greenville, SC:
Pre-renovation Sacred Heart (looks similar, no?)
Saint Mary's 1970's Renovation
Sacred Heart's 1950's renovation:
Saint Mary's look today:
Sacred Heart today:


4 comments:

Templar said...

Te best renovation at St Mary's in Grenville isn't visible in the photos.

Their Masses are ad orientem, 100% of the time. Rumor has it that this practice has spread to Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in the same city.

Joseph Johnson said...

Templar,
Are there any news stories about the (presumably) Ordinary Form ad orientem Masses in the two parishes in Greenville? Given the "norms" that have been discussed on this blog before, how is this taking place in two parishes in that Diocese and not in others?

I would like to know more about the situation there (and their Bishop) and how this is being allowed to take place "100% of the time." I would love to go there and see this for myself! By the way, the church is beautiful--it's just too bad it appears they lost their old marble high altar years ago.

Templar said...

Joseph, the Pastor at St Mary's is Father Newman, and he is (interestingly enough) not an advocate of the EF, however he is an advocate of the OF said properly and in accordance with the strict guidelines of the GIRM. Some years back, I want to 08 or 09, he spent 6 weeks giving Homilies on the Mass and why he would be switching to Ad Orientem; it's history, why it's the proper orientation, what it means for the Priest and the Laity, etc etc. A very thorough Catechism on the subject, then he changed and has not looked back.

Did he have permission from his Bishop? I can not say. I can say that the Diocese was vacant and under the care of an administrator of the time, but someone was in a position of authority of course. More to the point, and a point I have argued many times, it is not only permitted to say Mass in this manner, the GIRM ASSUMES you are saying it in this manner. So what protests could a Bishop lodge against a Priest who wishes to say Mass IAW the GIRM? The only protest the Bishop could lodge is because "I say so" and if a Priest is willing to defend himself (As Father Rodriquez in El Paso) did against his Bishop, the Priest can win. It's not like they're asking for something unlawful.

Anyway, you will also find that St Mary's allows no Altar Girls, and as a result has a thriving community of Altar Boys, extremely large for a Parish it's size. I do not know if they also have EMHCs.

Are there news stories on these things? Like everything else these days Mainstream News Sources are Leftist Looney Bins. Get on the websites of trusted sources (like Father Z) and start clicking on his links and find the sources of informatiion that way.

Anonymous said...

And also ad orientem OF Masses at Prince of Peace in Taylor, SC (just outside Greenville), the third and largest Catholic parish in the Greenville area (new Romanesque church seating 1200).

This Christmas their parish Christmas midnight Mass was a solemn high EF Mass, and it was announced that, starting after Epiphany, their daily noon Mass would be changed to EF, giving them both forms 7 days a week.