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Church Restoration, Re-Renovation and the Third Millennium By Michael S. Rose |
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A new trend is emerging. Some of the churches that were drastically altered decades ago are now being “re-renovated” to reflect their original designs.
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When Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan returned to Worcester, Massachusetts after the Second Vatican Council, one of the first ways he sought to implement the “spirit of Vatican II” was by remodeling his cathedral church. No doubt influenced by the spirit of change that swept through Western society during the tumultuous sixties, he oversaw the removal of the sacred furnishings that had come to be universally identified with the Catholic sanctuary. In place of the reredos and high altar, a concrete block wall was erected. A simple freestanding altar table was introduced. The communion rail was removed, and a new, unadorned tabernacle was set upon a pillar in a side alcove.
The parish churches of the Worcester diocese followed suit over the next decade and beyond. Much the same trend occurred throughout...
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