Reccomended Blog.... and I think I cannot reccomend it enough

I was looking into Cincy area churches for a photo trip I may soon take,and stumbled upon a wonderful resource...

 The Catholic Telegraph photography Project has just sky rocketed up the list of my favorite websites.... With photos and details of things long past, it is a window onto an older Cincinnati of which I can only dream... I am probably going to link to this and other blogs for some photos and a post on the splendid German churches that used to dominate the old Cincinnati... Some of these demolished in the name of "urban renewal" or to build an interstate....What in the hell were people thinking?   Did they really make the neighborhood better by destroying such beauty?

Old St Bernard's

So I have been derelict in my web posting..I am trying to get back to speed.  Today's subject is a dear subject, perhaps one that ultimately inspired this site.  I have never been to Mass at St Bernard's and have only been in the building once, after it ceased to function as a Catholic Church.   As is apparently more common in rural Illinois, the church served a township, as opposed to being attached directly to a particular town.  The building still sits along Illinois 17. The Church was a home to the people of Sunbury Township. From anecdotal evidence, second and possibly third hand, I heard of stories of this church in its livelier days. Though the account was limited, it is quite striking.  Imagine this church rising out above snow covered fields on Christmas Eve, the bells peeling for the midnight Mass.  In the distance, bells on the sleighs of the approaching parishioners answer back to church bell....  wonderful thought isn't it.. On first considering the fate of St Bernard a poem started to take shape in my mind.  Here it is

She came to this by practical men
Swift with the paper and nimble with pen.
A dishonest scale has left her alone
Paper and coin outweigh spirit and stone.

Her altar, her very heart, sadly now lost
Few the living souls who tend to her repose
Green steeple red bricks, scoured by wind
Grey roof, a tombstone on which lichen now grows

Old St Bernards by the roadside is left
Of all affections, save memories and ghosts, bereft
She stands solemnly still among Sunbury fields
Forgotten by men, to times advances she yields

Oh that she might yet reply to wandering bells
on a holy and white winter's eve bloom  again.
Yea that we would favor the fiery folly of faith
Not the  pale providence of practical men

Now churches must be closed on occasion I suppose... but their loss or worth just cannot be measured by mere economics  Being "practical" is often confined to  precisely to economics.  Men who make decisions based on economics alone are often being honest to themselves by the narrow rules of coin, but the scales they use to judge things, which see only economics, are dishonest or at least blind... they simply do not  take into account all the factors.  As is the custom  here are additional pictures, there are few of the inside , which is barren, but being cleaned up.

http://picasaweb.google.com/DocMeadows85/82210StBernard#5512406639266313058

http://picasaweb.google.com/DocMeadows85/82909OldStBernardNearBudIL#
The image of the ship of the church crossing rough seas seemed particularly apt on this visit.

St Mary of Immaculate Conception - Kankakee, IL

ST. MARY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH
Taken from the Church Bulletin, March 5, 1989.
St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church, Kankakee, will close
permanently March 4, 1989. The sacramental books will be transferred to St.
Rose of Lima Parish, Kankakee. In this way, parishioners who were baptized,
confirmed, married, or had relatives burled from Immaculate Conception will
still be able to obtain records of that event with a minimum of inconvenience.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
(Taken from http://www.kvgs.org/theakiki/tkkv19n2.pdf)

 St Mary was the church for the German immigrants to the region, (which, though principally French, had a significant population of Irish, and Poles as well).  The structure depicted her is the 1901 building which replaced an earlier 1900 version which fell casualty to a fire. Kankakee grew up largely due to the arrival of the Illinois Central Railraod (now owned by the Canadian National).

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ilkankak/history/k3hist06/k30615.html 


The source also notes that...

"The Catholics of Kankakee display remarkable activity in their literary and dramatic clubs, and in their social and religious organizations for men and women. The Club Français and the Knights of Columbus are two very thriving societies. The Union of St. Joseph, the Foresters and the Lady Foresters are also successful religious and charitable organizations, and have courts in all of the important parishes of the county. The college and convent education which a large portion of the younger generation enjoy in Kankakee and Bourbonnais renders them amenable to promoting and actively participating in dramatic and musical entertainments of the highest order, as well as keenly appreciative of the monthly lectures in English or French given yearly during the winter season."


One hopes that overall community is still as vibrant, though it is obvious that St Mary fell on hard times. I am trying to give a mix of scenarios in my recent posts: churches that are thriving, churches alive but in peril, churches that are closed, and we shall even  yet see if you will, churches that no longer exist.   I must break from the custom of internal shots, for I have none.  If by any means I can obtain some, I will certainly append them to this post, or revisit this church in a subsequent post. Here are a few external images


http://picasaweb.google.com/DocMeadows85/61109Kankakee#5506765642244534770

Living Faith

Just in case you should think that this blog is a mere exercise in amateur architecture or aesthetics, my compatriots and I who love beautiful Catholic churches also love the practice of the Faith.  Our Parish,danke sei Gott, has just completed its 4th annual Pilgrimage in honor of the Assumption.  No we are not rivaling Częstochowa or Chartres, but we are trying.   Here is a link to some photos thereof....
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73428&id=1357834840

Here, as well, is a snippet of music from our lovely choir.... No I am not it and it ( the choir) probably does not know of this blogs existence just yet... but God be praised, they are good.

http://www.facebook.com/doc.meadows58?v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=1167630475092

Sacred Heart - Fowler, Indiana

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  

Church Closings

Seems important to what my blog is about, and the Papist ( Mr Peters) always has good info

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages&tid=1444630249715#!/americanpapist

for those of you who do not Facebook
http://www.catholicvoteaction.org/americanpapist/index.php

it concerns church closings and their effects I believe (though he has not written the post yet.)

St John the Baptist -L'erable

The town, a very small one at that, derives its name from the French word for maple tree.  A very good (as I can tell) synopsis of the origins of French Catholic settlement in the Kankaee river valley of Illinois is given at the following locations.

 http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ilkankak/history/k3hist06/k30615.html
http://www.lib.niu.edu/2005/iht1220528.html

Much of the early work can be attributed to the work of a Father Charles Chiniquiy, who set about steering expatriated French-Canadians from the towns of New England  (Chiniquy proposed to turn these French-Canadian migrants away from the towns of New England, which were the "tombs of all that is dear to a Canadian: his religion, his language, and his nationality,"  (quote taken from 2nd reference www.lib.niu.edu......etc..) While the unfortunate Father Chiniquiy eventually came to grief over disputes with his Bishop and later became an apostate, laying some ground work for the "Chick tracts" of today ( may God have mercy on them both), the work of French priests in the Kankakee river valley bore fruit. As with German-Americans, the use of the mother tongue is, unfortunately, largely lost.  Still, the Catholic presence remains alive and well.  The Church at L'erable is an excellent example.  One of the oldest all wood structures in Illinois, it is, unlike the Ha'nakcer Mill, not abandoned.   Though it is locked most of the time, the parishioner are proud of and love their church, and it was through their agency that we were allowed a glimpse of the inside.   The reredos and and original paint scheme of the church are preserved and parishioners are making efforts to restore the stained glass windows as well.  The church contains a very uncommon representation of Our Blessed Mother known as Our Lady of the Spindle, likely an allusion to the excellence which would have pervaded all  Our Lady's affairs, even the simplest house work.  There was a school at the site, now derelict, whose name escapes me, and a churchyard full of old headstones which bear witness to the French-Canadian and Belgian roots of many of the early Catholics. Although the loss of the school, and the fall of Fr Chinquiy cloud the otherwise pleasant memory, the Church at L'erable is alive and though perhaps a little more distantly, is still in touch with the glorious age of American Catholicism which this blog holds in memory.  As you may expect, here are some pictures of the location.

http://picasaweb.google.com/DocMeadows85/101009StJohn#