By Julie A. Miller
Catholic Herald

Three-part series held in anticipation of Cathedral enhancement

SUPERIOR -- In July Bishop Raphael M. Fliss announced that the Cathedral of Christ the King was going to be repaired and renovated over the next few years. As one of the first steps in the process a series of meetings was held at the cathedral Nov. 12-14.

At the beginning of the first session, project consultant Fr. Richard Vosko explained that the events were educational opportunities for the people of the diocese before any decisions are made or any plans are drawn up for the cathedral interior. Vosko, a nationally recognized designer and expert on worship environments, conducted the sessions.

Vosko explained that church buildings are reflections of who the people are and what they believe. He said in the cathedral renovation project, "ultimately what we want to do is breath new life into this building. It is the symbol of the Roman Catholic Church here in Superior."

Throughout the first session, Vosko tried to reassure the audience about the planning process. He said, "My role in this project ... is to work closely with (the core) committee and to help them carry out whatever it is that Bishop Fliss ultimately will decide is best for the cathedral building."

He later added that any proposals for the cathedral will not be based on trends but will be based on church law and on instructions written by the U.S. bishops. "No one is going to propose or do anything to your cathedral that is outside the law, outside the norms."

Vosko also urged people not to pay attention to rumors about the renovation, but to search for the facts by listening to the priests and bishop.

The topic of the first evening was the history of Catholic places of worship. Vosko said the challenge in a renovation project is to make a church that was built in a different time in church history, for a different kind of liturgy, work in the church today.

"We're going to take a look at the role of the cathedral in the modern world today and in doing so we're going to compare this cathedral building to other cathedral buildings around the world," he explained. "And you'll have an opportunity then to see and to imagine some of the possibilities for enhancement of this very beautiful Romanesque structure."

Regarding the Cathedral of Christ the King, Vosko said, "I think you'll be surprised to find that as you look at this beautiful architecture you will come to know that it is pretty incomplete in terms of its beauty, in terms of its esthetics, in terms of its art. It's pretty bare."

By means of a slide show, Vosko took the group through the history of places of Christians worship after the first Eucharist in the Upper Room. He said that Jesus taught his followers to share the bread at a table of fellowship, but did not ask them to build any house of prayer.

People mistakenly believe the early Christians used the catacombs as churches, but Vosko said they were places of burial and because of the persecutions would not have been safe. People celebrated the Eucharist in their homes. For the first 200 years, Vosko said, the Christians survived and flourished without any buildings. Buildings were not set aside for worship until the third century, when liturgies were beginning to get more organized.

To illustrate the importance of knowing the history of worship and of church buildings to help sort out what is important, Vosko told a story: The guru of an ashram in the East had a pet cat that disrupted worship services. To solve the problem, he tied the cat to the leg of a holy table. When the cat died of old age, the guru got another, which he also tied to the table.

When the guru died his replacement thought about how the old guru conducted his worship and remembered that he always had a cat. For centuries after that there was always a cat tied to the holy table. Students wrote learned papers about the importance of having a cat tied to the holy table during worship. Vosko asked, "Do you think it is possible we have a lot of cats tied to the legs of our own tables?"

Vosko pointed out similarities in the architecture of the Cathedral of Christ the King to Romanesque churches on his slides. He added, "We are going to be examining tonight, tomorrow and on Wednesday night the Romanesque style buildings and art. And the question that we need to discuss is: What would be the appropriate embellishment or enhancement to this cathedral in order to turn it into a wonderful, beautiful building?"

Some of the interiors he showed had a lot of art and decoration. He compared that to the Superior cathedral noting that there is little iconography to tell the story of Christianity. He said, "Our religion depends on symbol systems in order to understand the truths of our faith."

Through his slides Vosko showed the various forms of church architecture and the changes in church interiors that had been made over the years. In many cases the changes moved the people further away from participating in the celebration of the Mass and made them observers.

In talking about changes in liturgy over the years, Vosko said the Second Vatican Council aimed to return the focus of worship to Christ's passion, death and resurrection. Other devotions, such as eucharistic adoration, had gained too much prominence.

"All these beautiful theologies over time were passed over by more private devotions. People saw the popular devotions as ends in themselves," Vosko said. Private devotions should be maintained, but everything should point toward the Mass.

At the end of the session Vosko answered questions submitted by members of the audience. On Nov. 13 Vosko talked about contemporary places of worship and on Nov. 14 covered the place of music and art in the liturgy.

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2001