Diocese sold closed church sans stained glass windows, claiming they are "sacred objects"

[Bluebear]

An interesting case. The church itself is not considered sacred, yet the contents can be stripped?

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WORCESTER — The Worcester Historical Commission has asked the city’s Law Department to investigate whether the Diocese of Worcester violated a municipal ordinance that protects landmarks after church officials removed the stained glass windows from the former Holy Name of Jesus Church on Illinois Street.

The action was taken after Preservation Worcester officials complained that diocesan officials should have sought a waiver from the board of the so-called demolition delay ordinance before removing the windows.

Deborah Packard, executive director of Preservation Worcester, told the Telegram & Gazette that the windows were “architecturally significant” to the historical church and maintained that they fell under the purview of the 13-year-old ordinance.

Meanwhile, chancery officials said that the windows are sacred objects and the diocese had the right to remove them for possible installation at another Roman Catholic church. “These windows are religious objects and canon law dictates that we treat them as sacred items,” said Raymond L. Delisle, diocesan vice chancellor for operations.

Holy Name church was one of five parishes closed by Bishop Robert J. McManus last summer. The red brick church, which sits opposite University Park in Worcester’s Main South neighborhood, was sold for $1 million earlier this year to Belmont A.M.E. Zion Church, which had been looking for a new home since 2006.


http://www.telegram.com/article/20090419/NEWS/904190409/1116

[47of74]

1. Sounds a bit odd to me

It sounds a bit odd to me for the church to remove the stained glass like that. The article doesn't say how the incoming Belmont feels about the windows.

The church my great-grandparents were married in was deconsecrated and today is an antiques store. While most of the religious items were removed the glass was left in place. The organ was removed and reinstalled in the other Catholic church in that particular town.

[hedgehog]

2. There's a lot going on here. It's possible that the Belmont A.M.E. Zion

Church didn't want those particular stained glass windows if for example they depicted Catholic saints rather than Bibical subjects.

The real problem is that the Catholic hierarchy is arbitrarily shutting down hundreds of viable, active parishes across the country, supposedly because of the shortage of priests. There is a lot of suspicion that parishes are being closed in order to sell the properties to pay off abuse claims. It's hard to see how dumping dozens of church campuses onto the market can raise much money. Here in my town of 10,000, there are already 2 Catholic Churches sitting empty. The stained glass has been stripped from one of them. In Oswego, St. Louis Church has been sitting empty for years, and it will soon be joined by 4 other church buildings.

[frogcycle]

3. sounds like progress

unfortunately, they will probably be replace with megachurches, an even greater blight

[DonCoquixote]

6. You don;t know the half of it

The worst case is in New Orleans. Now, the excuse is that many churches will not be filled again, however, it does not seem like an accident that many of the closed churches are in the poorer areas.

Of course, the way to get more priests is to increase the demand on those that you have already, right? And of course, that insures that the same incompetent fools who have been driving people out of the church stay in. Not like Pope Schutzstaffel could sell a few church treasures now?

[DonCoquixote]

4. Well

In this case, a Catholic church sold the building to a Protestant one. If the windows had very catholic subjects such as the "Virgin Mary", they would have been out of place in a Protestant Church. Keep in mind, in much of Church architecture, the windows are what set the mood and spirit of the building, especially for the Catholics. Many Protestant denominations make it a point NOT to use ornate windows, because that is a symbol of the break with the Catholics

Now, I admit, the only thing I know about AME Zion is that it is one of the main Afro-American denominations (African Methodist Episcopal Zion), however, I do not know if they would have reacted bad to the Catholic style windows. However, I know many hard line protestant churches would have recoiled at the idea..they probably would have renovated the whole church to get out the Catholic look.

[Bluebear]

5. Being that the building is a Historic Landmark, the City feels it should be protected.

There is certainly a lot going on in this case!

[Historic NY]

7. Its pure BS they will sell them, it was done in my town...

sacred objects. Sacred as in Tiffany most likely depending on the time period. The ones removed here never reappeared locally the last I heard was they were for sale.

[SoCalDem]

8. ebay?.. n/t

[pnwmom]

9. They are clearly sacred objects. Worcester will lose on this. n/t

[Stevenmarc]

10. Sacred, yeah... to the highest bidder.

It really isn't all that unusual for the windows to be removed and sold separately.

[hedgehog]

11. The ultimate insult for Catholics living in the Northeast and the Rust Belt is

the way the hierarchy is abandoning them. It's bad enough to see jobs headed South and West, but when the church your family has been associated with is closed and then stripped to send the furnishings to a new parish in the south or west.......