reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

Forgive Praxiteles for sounding somewhat conspiratorial but it is getting hard to avoid the conclusion that there must be an international wreckers guide to tell vandals how to assuage public fears about acts of barbarism they are contemplating practising on their churches.

Remember the infinitley forgettable Denis Reidy – the real Goetterdaemerung behind the attempt to wreck Cobh Cathedral. Well, he came up with the absurd explanation that it was necessary to demolish the altar rails and dig out the floor so that you could see [what would be left] of the moasic on the sanctuary floor.

Well, believe it or not we have another version of this coming from Kaposvar in Hungary – from the other side of Christendom! The thing runs this way: a small village church in the middle of the Hungarian pusta has Mass celebrated there in June in the old rite by a newly ordained priest. Now it happens that the bishop of Kaposvar is a die in the wool hater of the usus antiquior. So, to prevent a repeat, he orders the demolition of the altar so that the picture above and behind it can be seen!! Are we to believe that it has not been seen since the regression of the Turks?

Here is the relevant link:

http://www.kreuz.net/article.5828.html

@Rhabanus wrote:

The final question: WHEN will the Holy See at last decide that it finally has had enough of this ideologically-driven and relentless iconoclasm? The Holy See has the authority. When will it be used? How many more churches have to be destroyed before such behaviour is halted?

A question I’ve asked myself many times ……. Time for that authority to be used…

@ake wrote:

a bit late in the day for that now.

The state needs to intervene and declare our churches national monuments.

That could well takes us from the frying-pan and into the fire. Can you imagine what the OPW would do?

Better, I think, to encourage private groups or associations to take on the mantle of watchdog and use the law to protect them.

As an example of the state approach to the preservation of churches:

Some Local Authorities and their conservation officers do not seem to realize that the paint scheme of a church (especially a Victorian Church) is an integral part of its overall composition and a major determinant of its character. Not knowing this, no distinction is made by some local authorities between painting the interior of a church and the interior of a domestic building or, for that matter, the interior of a protected cow shed. The result is that paint work is carried out on the interior of churches without planning permission or even a declaration. The results are nearly always awful!

So, if we happened to have something like the Sixtine Chapel in Ireland, there would be nothing to prevent its being painted pink as far as the local authorities are concerned. So……

@ake wrote:

a bit late in the day for that now.

The state needs to intervene and declare our churches national monuments.

The time is ripe for a series of astute episcopal appointments in Ireland. The Holy See can read the grafitti on the walls of the Irish churches still standing and decide to stamp its own signature on some of them. Plenty of room for signs and seals on the east wall – now The Wailing Wall – of Killavullen!

Rome itself has a Commision for the Cultural Goods of the Church. Ireland also should have one – headed up by an intelligent, well-educated, competent, common-sensed bishop who knows how to get things done and who will strive for the honour of God. Surely there must be a few such churchmen left in Ireland languishing, no doubt, in various backwaters or libraries lest their orthodoxy and talent challenge the status quo.

Chivvy them out of their holes and bruit about their excellences. The FOSCC might serve as a kind of clearing house for names of potential candidates for the role of president or chairman of The Cultural Goods of the Church in Ireland.

Such a watchdog organisation might be elevated, in due course and of course through the proper channels, to an ecclesiastical institution entrusted with the responsibility of supervising all sites that form the liturgical and cultural patrimony of the Church in Ireland.

This is far preferable to letting ‘the state’ (i.e. a brood of lawyers, politicians, bureaucrats, technocrats, and scamps of all description) get their hands on something they do not understand and ultimately would trade in for filthy lucre or the vain promise of power or even fleeting celebrity.

Consider a Commission for the Cultural Goods of the Church in Ireland.

@Praxiteles wrote:

Praxiteles is not certain that a commission of this sort under episcopal jurisdiction would be any more effective that something under the jurisdiction of the state.

Praxiteles believes that such a commission would end up as nothing other than the Cloyne HACK writ large. Like the Cloyne HACK it would be probably stuffed to the gills with a crowd of lackies only too willing to bend the subservient forelock to whatever the most vandalistic bishop would want. For instance, Praxiteles could not see them going against or even resigning before the prospect of something like Eamonn casey’s devastation of Killarney Cathedral.

As further proof of the non-viability of the proposal Praxiteles would have to point a very accusing index at what might be termed the protozoean proto-type of such a commission: namely the Liturgical Commission of the Irish Episcopal Conference and its Art and Architectire sub-committee. We are only too aware of the pseudo arty f***y pretensions of these enteties and of their deep antipathy to anything remotely connected to the tradition of Christian art and architecture. It needs hardly be said how much they know about this tradition. Praxiteles thinks that it would take the diversion of Shannon to purgate those particular pigstys.

No. Praxiteles believes that any effective watchdog organisation must remain juridically independent of both Church and state. It should have a broad popular base and pursue its activities in accordance with the wishes of its members and supporters. At present in Ireland, there are sufficient provisions of law to ensure the protecteion of the cultural patrimony of ecclesiastical architecture. However, the problem with it is to ensure its enforcement. That is what groups like the FOSCC should concentarte on.

For instance, the enfprcement of the Planning Laws is left to the Local Authorit enforcement officer. It is not inconceivable that a Local Authority planning officer will not want to take action against a parish priest or bishop who sets about wrecking a protected structure. It is not inconceievable that such a planning officer or someone else from the Local Authority will privately contact a vandalistic priest or bishop to tell him to ensure not to wreck anything before the enforcement officer comes to view the site or to have everything back nicely in place when the enforcement officer comes to see what has been reported. A thousand other trickes of half-hearted enforcement could be cited. However, in circumstance such as these, an independent organisation such as the FOSCC could do great work ensuring that the Planning Act is enforced by taking action against the local authority or by complaining the local authority to the Local Authority Ombudsman or merely by publicising the activities (or lack thereof) of the loacl authority!!

Praxiteles utters words of wisdom here. Knowing the local (regional, and national) scene far better and longer than Rhabanus, he clearly sees the shortcomings of the proposal.

I suppose if those who, like the FOSCC, were really dedicated to the cause of preserving Ireland’s churches were to dog-pile on the miscreants, in the fashion of that Celtic Cerberus proposed earlier on this thread, then perhaps some of the more sensitive clergy would pick their way more gingerly around the ecclesiastical patrimony of the Emerald Isle. Nevertheless, the kind of vandalism that just erupted in Balintotis would simply continue, though under the cover of darkness. How to sharpen the teeth of Cerberus? And how to prevent him from succumbing to the sop tossed by the shrewd perpetrator?

The FOSCC needs to develop its muscle and train its eye in order to prevent further losses. Of course with liturgical terrorists and vandals, one never can tell whence the next incursion shall come.

One mantra to be adopted by FOSCC and fellow-travellers: KILLAVULLEN: NEVER AGAIN!!

Ballintotis update (12 September 2007)

Some further pictures of Ballintotis taken in these days and posted on 12 September 2007.

Just notice that the interior is also having work done to it. The radiators have been taken from the wall. Again, no mention of DEclaration, Planning Permission or anything else and more importantly, no action or willingness on the part of Cork County Council to enforce the law. Just imaging what would happen if anyone with a house that was a protected structure went off and demolished part of it? Or, just imagine what happens to people who build houses without planning permission and Cork County Council quickly rushes out to demolish them – even if means putting families out on the road? WHy is it that in the juristiction of Cork County Council we have one suce for the goose and a completely different sauce for the gander when it comes to applying the planning laws? Prhaps it is time to have this situation referred to the Ombudsman for Local Government?

Of course the parish would never have had the money for a bit of stenciling, or a nice marble.

@samuel j wrote:

” Ballintotis is a PROTECTED SCRUCTURE. The sacristy was demolished without planning permission. It also seems to e the case that Cork County Council gave no section 59 Declaration for this demolition. Thus, as far as we can make out, the work is totally unauthorized and unlawful.”

Now if you or I did this we would have enforcement officers all over us like a rash. Take hotel in Cashel, allegedly part of all built without planning…. developer has been told take it down. Unauthorised marina in Oysterhaven…told to remove it. Now where are our agencies when it comes to Churches… very uneven playing field here I think.

Letters of complaint should flood the office of the superintendant over the enforcement officers. Is there an elected representative who can hold the enforcement officers to account?

Turning a blind eye to the Balintotis outrage should not be tolerated. The law has been broken, and those responsible for its enforcement must act.

VERY uneven playing field indeed!

@Praxiteles wrote:

St. Colman’s Church, Ballintotis, Midleton, Co. Cork

For the benefit of the enforcment office of Cork County Councilm in the event that they might stir themselves and get out to Ballintotis, here are two photographs of the interior showing where the radiators of teh heating system wwere and where they are not. Again, work carried out without pkanning permission and without a declaration!

A pity that the Stations of the Cross are painted in such garish colours. They are particularly harsh against such a plain background. Surely that paint job is not original. Some pale salmon, gentle creams, robin’s egg blue, and a hint of green, with a few gold highlights would have been much easier on the eye.

The retro-fitted speakers hanging off the walls are deplorable.

Let us hope that the sacristy situation will receive the proper attention from the authorities.