By Mary Frances McCarthy
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 6/24/04)

Currently in the Diocese of Arlington, there are 13 churches in various stages of construction or major renovation to sanctuaries. Following is the first installment of a two-part series on Church architecture and liturgical requirements.

When you hear the word "church," what is the first image to pop into your head? For many, it is what they were taught as children when they folded their hands reciting: "Here’s the church, and here’s the steeple, open the doors, and see all the people."

In our minds, churches are often buildings with pitched roofs and bell towers, or the more magnificent cathedrals and basilicas with flying buttresses and spires climbing toward heaven.

So what happened? Why do so many churches built in the 1960s and ‘70s resemble boxes, auditoriums or meeting halls?

When liturgical norms were rewritten following Vatican II, Mass was no longer celebrated with the priest facing away from the congregation and everything centering around the "wedding cake" altars protected behind altar rails. There was a new focus on community participation, which led to churches resembling assembly halls so that the entire congregation could not only see the altar better, but also the choir and each other. With central emphasis on the celebration of the Mass, many new churches were built in either the shape of a fan, with pews circling three sides of the altar, or even in an oval or circular shape, with the congregation completely surrounding the altar. The traditional cruciform church was considered almost archaic.

Tabernacles were moved from the front of the church to side chapels, often located near the back of the church. While this gave individuals a secluded chapel to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, it became more difficult for visitors to the church to find Christ in the form of the Eucharist.

Around this time there was also a de-emphasis on religious art. Many asked, Why spend money "decorating" a church when it can be spent helping the poor? This resulted in the "whitewashing" of some churches. The only art that might have remained was a simple crucifix, or sometimes a cross bearing the risen Christ, a more optimistic image than the corpus, the crucified Christ.

Although it is possible for churches built in this "modern" style to follow liturgical norms, this style can confuse church-goers.

When a person enters a church, they should feel like they are "stepping out of the secular world and into the sacred world," said Father John Cregan, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Alexandria, which recently underwent major renovation. It is not that God requires marble altars and golden tabernacles, but beauty — marble, gold, stained-glass and liturgical art — inspires awe. The Catechism encourages signs and symbols of our faith, saying, "In human life, signs and symbols occupy an important place. …man expresses and perceives spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols" (CCC 1146). Without these physical signs and symbols of our faith in our churches, how can a congregation fully identify with their Catholic faith?

Catholics go to Mass to gather as a community to celebrate the Eucharist, Christ Himself. As Father Cregan said, "The tabernacle is supposed to be in a place of prominence."

Before recent renovations at Blessed Sacrament Parish, the tabernacle was located in a small room in the back of the church. Although this room provided a quiet place for prayer and reflection, it only seated eight.

Father Cregan received complaints from parishioners who wanted to pray before the Blessed Sacrament before Mass, but were unable to because the chapel was filled. In order to solve this dilemma and make the Blessed Sacrament more prominent at Blessed Sacrament, the tabernacle was moved to the front of the church, to the left of the altar, and a chapel was created adjacent to the sanctuary. The tabernacle is visible in both the sanctuary and the smaller chapel.

"It has been wonderful to see more people praying in the chapel," Father Cregan said.

And now, upon entering the sanctuary of Blessed Sacrament, the tabernacle is directly in line with the doors, the first thing seen when looking straight into the sanctuary.

When St. Leo the Great Parish in Fairfax completed renovations last year, the tabernacle was moved and centered behind the altar, to put it in a more "prominent" place.

The celebration of Mass centers around the Liturgy of the Word, proclaimed from the ambo, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, taking place at the altar. At Blessed Sacrament the old altar was a wooden table, and the ambo, a movable lectern. Liturgical requirements call for a fixed altar and stationary ambo.

The altar at Blessed Sacrament was also moved away from the back wall to better center it in the church. The raised altar-platform was expanded to make it easier for celebrants and concelebrants to move around the altar table when celebrating the sacraments of the Eucharist, confirmation and marriage. The new platform was tiled with Polish marble. Besides being beautiful, Father Cregan said the marble also helps echo the words of a celebrating minister out to the congregation.

Although the altar at St. Leo the Great Parish met liturgical requirements and was a fixed, marble table, it was narrow and made it difficult to celebrate the Eucharist. The parish replaced the altar and changed the ambo so that it complemented the altar. Part of the original altar was used in constructing the new ambo.

"To see the signs and symbols of their Catholic faith — it speaks powerfully the mysteries of our faith," Father Cregan said.

A statue of the Sacred Heart was moved from a corner in Blessed Sacrament School to where the tabernacle used to be. Another addition Father Cregan insisted on was a statue of Mary to "look over the church."

Blessed Sacrament commissioned the same liturgical artist who also carved the new tabernacle to create larger, carved-wood Stations of the Cross to replace small stations drawn by a student. The smaller images were moved to a chapel used for smaller services, as was the original altar. The first crucifix used in the parish, which is currently hanging over the altar, will be moved to the chapel when the new crucifix is installed. The new crucifix will be made of carved wood, with a corpus seven feet tall.

Since the renovations, people are discovering things about their churches that they never noticed before. Father John Kelly, pastor of St. Leo the Great, was asked by several people if the stone surrounding the stained-glass windows at the sides of the church were new. They had always been there, but renovations made the church brighter and beautiful details more noticeable.

Changes, like the many made at Blessed Sacrament and St. Leo the Great, cannot be made overnight and should not be taken lightly. It requires the input of architects, liturgical designers, the Chancery and the community itself before any changes can be made. Before renovating the church, Father Cregan not only met with consultants and a panel of parishioners, he also invited experts on liturgical requirements to help educate the parish.

While some will always have reservations about change, Father Cregan said he has already seen the benefits at the parish. Making the Blessed Sacrament more prominent and installing liturgical art means "so much for faith formation," Father Cregan said. "There is a real yearning in people’s hearts."