Built in 1918, St. Casimir's is another Cleveland church that is scheduled to close in 2010.
Designed by Cleveland-born architect William Jansen, the red brick and stone trim exterior is classified as Romanesque with its rounded entrance arcade, two symmetrically-placed open bell towers, and corbeled gable. The exterior is classic and beautiful ... the interior is STUNNING ... and worth seeing in person. This church is truly authentic inside. It hasn't been marred by senseless updates to modernize it by ripping out its altars and covering up its murals with white paint. As my 82 year old father said to me when we stepped inside this church to look around – "this is what a church should look like." Let me say it again ... THIS IS WHAT A CHURCH SHOULD LOOK LIKE. A one-of-a kind Cleveland treasure that must be saved.
St. Casimir Church | 8223 Sowinski Avenue | Cleveland , OH 44103
GASP!!! Second only to closing treasures such as this, is the widespread effort to "modernize" them by ripping out all their ornamentation and artwork, and coming in with sparse furnishings, plain freestanding table-altars that look like they were bought at Ikea. Some people have seriously misread Vatican II, or something like that!
ReplyDeleteThis church is fabulous! If there was ever a jewel worth preserving, it's this one. Here are some links to DIY preservation efforts in Detroit and Buffalo, just to show how they did it:
http://www.stalbertus.org/
(19 years strong!)
http://buffaloreligiousarts.org/home (recently acquired two splendid closed churches, one of which was purchased by some wealthy anonymous benefactor and presented to them outright!)
Some people may have misread V-II, but the clergy who were ordained the mid-50s to mid-70s, aided and abetted this serious mis-reading. They are the ones reponsible for bring this whole show to near extinction. Mercifully, little by little, they are going to their reward in heaven: as a Cleveland friend uttered recently, where there will be "orange crates on wheels, masquerading as altars".
ReplyDeleteWho needs the Apocalypse, when we've already lived through it? Unspeakable crimes, all in the name of Church Renewal. ABSOLUTE HORSESHIT, in a word.
You all are so right. The high Altar to be forgotten, in favor of a little table, for Holy Mass. This is WRONG Watch on u tube a Mass from SSPX and see what that does to you
ReplyDeleteRead the book "The Renovation Manipulation" by Michael S. Rose. The book explains why Catholic "Liturgical Design Consultants" -- Church liberals -- want to make beautiful Catholic church buildings look like they were indeed furnished by IKEA, and how congregations can stop them before it's too late.
ReplyDeleteThis chuch i already closed ( 8 November) 2009
ReplyDeleteThe congregation was evicted. Every Sunday at 11.35 a.m. they still meet in front, on the street. This Sunday (6 November 2011) will complete two years. Their appeal is still in Rome. Yes, architecturally it was another church built in the grand Polish Cathedral style. Even, if the church was not beautiful, and it is very, it is a mean-spirited totalitarian tyrant that is the cause of its woes, serendipitously named 'Lennon'. He is one of so many bishops who reject the Gospel for American Business school tactics.
ReplyDelete