Plans to "Wreckovate" St. Malachy Church in Tehachapi
Chris Zehnder writes in the California Catholic Daily about plans to perform a major "renovation" of St. Malachy's Church in Tehachapi, CA. This is the church that we attend when we're visiting Lisa's parents, so it's sad to see it fall victim to the hippy holdovers from the 60's:
Notes from a Cultural MadhouseBy Christopher Zehnder
McMullan Hall at St. Malachy’s church in Tehachapi was decked out as for a child’s birthday party on the night of Dec. 18. A profusion of gold and white balloons, interspersed with green, gold, and aquamarine stars, hung gaily from the ceiling and along the walls. Gold tinsel, like dangling curls, drooped pendant overhead. Against the back wall, on either side of a large movie screen, Christmas tree tinsel strands – on one side gold, on the other, red – spelled in capital letters the word “WOW.”
Yes, it was the long expected “WOW Night” – the night on which St. Malachy’s parishioners would see what their “consensus” wrought in the renovation of the parish church. I place the word consensus in inverted commas because, somewhere along the line, during the three months of parish meetings on the proposed renovation of St. Malachy’s, the word somehow fell into disuse. We heard less of “consensus” and more of “diversity.” But more on that anon.
To the tender strains of Pachelbel’s Canon, we walked through the virtual St. Malachy’s of the future. It was no surprise to those of us who had attended previous meetings. Having passed through the new “gathering space,” an immersion baptismal font greeted us as we entered the “worship space.” Stepping lightly down the center aisle, we discovered that the current, traditional sanctuary, separated from the nave by altar rails, was gone. Instead, we saw, placed at the intersection of the nave and two new transepts, a raised platform where there was a new altar, ambo, and two, great thrones. Seating surrounded the platform on nearly all sides, and included, halfway between liturgical east and south, a raised space for the choir. Directly on an axis with the altar and the baptismal font, against the eastern wall, was the tabernacle, sitting lonely, obscured by the altar and the two thrones. Above the tabernacle was the current stained glass window showing the risen Christ. On either side of the window hung the $13,000 banners Davadilla had commissioned when he came to St. Malachy’s a few years ago.
Seeing the proposed renovation, one understands why all talk of consensus was dropped somewhere along the course of the planning process. Perusing summaries of parish surveys provided by “Bill Brown AIA Professional Corporation,” one notes that parishioners had not requested the main features of the renovation. Indeed, except for one obscure reference requesting “separation of altar and tabernacle,” the responses directed to the placement of altar, altar rail, and tabernacle indicated the desire to keep these features as they currently are.
There is, however, a sliver of hope. The plans to make over the church in accordance with non-authoritative documents from a generation ago, and contrary to the wishes of the parish, might be derailed:
Whether the St. Malachy’s project will go forward is uncertain. I’ve heard that many parishioners, still upset by the parish’s purchase of a house for Frs. Davadilla and LeDuc, are not in a mood to dedicate their hard-earned cash to another expensive project.[P]arishioner dissatisfaction and California’s looming economic downturn occasioned by the collapse of the housing market, may do what the lack of a Catholic sense is powerless to avert. If not, then St. Malachy’s will join the host of Catholic churches possessed by the spurious Spirit of Vatican II – a spirit, conjured not by the council, but by those slight-of-hand artists who dare cite as Church authority their own, misconceived opinions of what, “today,” Catholic worship requires in the way of church design.
Bishop Steinbock was born in 1937, and thus will reach retirement age in 4.5 years. That's probably too long to hope that stalling the project will allow the parishioners of St. Malachy's to wait him out. I hope Catholics in Tehachapi are able to do the hard work of convincing him that this project is not in their interest.