How might our parish churches look like in 2050 #2

 

To look forward we need to look back first.   It appears that most Roman Catholic Churches, in Ireland, were designed, constructed and laid out in the early to mid-19^th Century. It was a time of rising confidence and a thriving but small Irish middle class after the catastrophe of the famine years.  The long persecution of penal times largely ended with the Emancipation Act of 1829.  Some churches, including my own parish church here in Goresbridge, were built some years before official Emancipation.

Typically, rural churches or chapels were simple but functional laid out in a cruciform shape with the sanctuary in a small space at the Eastern end of the central nave or aisle.   There were statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and often of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the side altars to the right and to the left of the sanctuary, that is, in the North and South transepts. Devotional candles were a frequent sight. 

As you entered the church, your gaze was directed to the altar on which the Tabernacle was placed.  This was the Holy of Holies where your gaze and focus lay.  You were and are literally walking into a sacred place where the Lord Jesus Christ resides in an altogether special and unique way in the Tabernacle (or an ornate box-shaped item in metal or marble with two relatively small golden colour doors. Your instincts from childhood were to be silent and, at most, to whisper.  Genuflection towards the Tabernacle was the order of the day and you had a childlike trust that you were in the presence of something much, much greater than anyone.  It was not a place in which to mess, or joke, or chat.  The burning red sanctuary light told you that He was here.  All of this was inbred and came naturally.  On the way in and the way out you blessed yourself at the holy water font.

The sanctuary was a place apart where only the priest, the sacristan and the altar servers went during liturgical celebrations.  An altar rail – very often in marble – cordoned off the sanctuary area.   A pulpit was placed on the left as you look ahead towards the altar.  From here, on Sundays and Holy Days, the priest climbed some steps top off his biretta and gave the sermon.

Around the inside of the Church there were confession boxes numbering anything between 2 and 6 depending on the size of the parish community. 

The Church served a number of purposes:

• The celebration of the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass on a daily basis (In churches of religious congregations ‘silent masses’ might be said at the same time in multiple side altars).
• The celebration of the sacrament of baptism at appointed times and days each month (usually within a few days at most of birth as the small but ever present danger of infant death without baptism was a major concern).
• The exercise of the ministry of confession or Penance every Saturday at least.
• The celebration of Holy Matrimony from time to time (usually but not always in the parish of the Bride).
• The offering of a funeral mass for the deceased preceded by a removal to the church the night before.  Very often, and it is still the case in many rural parishes, that a person was baptised at the same church where they received holy communion, were confirmed, married and where they were laid to rest (a story is told in a parish that I am familiar with that a man once dropped dead immediately after leaving the confession box!).
• The celebration of various other devotions including Benediction (on Sunday evenings or on special days), the ‘May and October’ devotions to Our Lady.
• The recitation of the Rosary at appointed times
• A place for people to pay a visit to the Blessed Sacrament outside mass times and to, perhaps, light a candle and say a prayer for a friend or family member.
• A place for the private devotion of the Stations of the Cross especially on Fridays and during Lent.

How do I know that this was the way things were in the 19^th Century? Strictly speaking I cannot be certain but I am making an educated guess on this matter based on my own childhood memories of growing up in the 1950s and 1960s – not just before the conclusion of Vatican II in 1965 but afterwards for many years because most of the details described above survived for a long time.  I suspect that the vast majority of Catholic-raised children, today, have little or no idea about these things.  Many are possibly completely unfamiliar with the meaning and symbolism of various parts of church décor and furnishings.  It is not uncommon, today, that silence overcomes a packed funeral mass congregation when the priest announces: “The Lord be with you’.

I am reading back into the mid-19^th Century when churches were laid out and the building was ordered, above all, to the reverent celebration of the Mass which had not changed since the reforms of the Council of Trent in 1563.  In broad outline, the format of what is referred to as the 'Tridentine Mass' had not changed that dramatically since the 5^th Century when the first Christians arrived and established themselves in Ireland. Of course, there were very significant variations in liturgical practices and local customs from place to place and time to time but the Mass as celebrated in the West was very much standardised early on.

It is important to be aware of where we have come from and why church buildings are laid out in a particular way.  There is more to it than meets the eye. Hint : the Jewish Temple and how early Christian worship was influenced by Jewish liturgy. More on that later.