The town of Fowler, being named after one Moses Fowler, is the county seat of Benton county, a northwestern county in Indiana which is home to excellent farm land, and more recently wind-farms 1. Such prosperous farm country has, in my experience, been a good indicator of a classic rural Catholic church in the vicinity. There is in fact such a church, Sacred Heart, which unlike many rural parishes the church still has an attached school. The church itself, though largely intact with respect to the exterior, has not fared as well internally. A "renovation", no doubt in the post Conciliar period of reckless exuberance, deprived the church of its orignial order (high altar and side altars.) A considerable amount of empty space in the front of the church is conspicuous. What appears to have been all or part of the main altar and reredo has been moves to the left of the later and serves as the tabernacle. The dome atop this tabernacle/altar hints at a much richer interior beauty prior to the renovation. Other interior features such as the vaulted ceiling and stations of the cross are intact and attractive. Residuals of one of the sides altars remains on the right side of the main altar, along with a very ornamental ( though not elevated) pulpit, which is either original or contains parts of an original altar or pulpit. (I will have to seek further information to resolve this uncertainty.) While the parish is still active, the clustering of this parish with a nearby church at Oxford and the nature of the renovations raise the question as to how well Catholics of the golden age, which this blog honors, would recognize and or approve of the present state of the the church building and the Church. It is said that those who saw the second temple in Jerusalem wept over it, in comparison to the great temple of Solomon. I cannot help but think of this when I see "renovated" churches. In fairness, but unto greater sadness, Sacred Heart at Fowler is not alone in this experience, nor has it alas fared the worst.
As always here are photos from the interior... Pay particular attention to the carved dome and to the unfortunate amount of open space at the front of the church.
http://picasaweb.google.com/DocMeadows85/82909SacredHeartFowler#
1) http://www.townoffowler.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=33
Sadly, a very telling example of the lack of harmony that marks "renovated" churches. Harmony is an absolutely essential ingredient of beauty. The old churches, with their interiors intact, were a marvel of harmony. Harmony is especially important in churches, because it symbolizes the calm beauty of God, and conduces to lifting up one's heart and mind to God. Disharmony unsettles and distracts. We need to put the interiors of all churches back the way they were built. It can be done. It's just a matter of will: what we want to do, what we are willing to sacrifice to do the right thing.
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