As many already know, the renovation of Sacred Heart Cathedral was designed by Fr. Dr. Richard Vosko, a progressive priest who pretends to be an architect. Most Rochester Catholics would probably agree that Sacred Heart Cathedral post-Vosko is nowhere near as beautiful as it was pre-Vosko. Fr. Vosko, in addition to SHC, destroyed a number of other beautiful Roman Catholic cathedrals. One of his more disgusting efforts was the mess he created out of St. John the Evangelist Cathedral in Milwaukee (the former home of the controversial Archbishop Weakland). Below are two images comparing the destruction which took place in Rochester with what transpired in Milwaukee. I think a number of parallels can be seen upon comparing the two photographs: 1) UFO pad floating altars, 2) giant organ and choir seating in former sanctuary, 3) walk in, unnecessarily large baptismal fonts, 4) chairs instead of pews, 5) shopping mall flooring, etc. etc.
Sacred Heart Cathedral, Rochester NY
The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Milwaukee WI
However, despite the similarities, it is my opinion that the people of Milwaukee witnessed an even greater destruction than we were dealt in Rochester. My reason for thinking this is the following artwork (if one wishes to call it that) which hangs high above their floating altar:
Tags: Bishop Clark, Progressive Drivel
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That Milwaukee church is scary. Had Bishop Clark done that to our cathedral, he would have been chased out of town by now.
DR.K I am wondering was this an actual Sunday Mass.? The few people in attendance is scary!!
vos-ko-to-ri-um (voz?ko t?r’e ?m), n. a formerly beautiful Catholic church that has been renovated under the direction of Fr. Richard Vosko.
"DR.K I am wondering was this an actual Sunday Mass.? The few people in attendance is scary!!"
Well, prepare to be petrified then… this was the ordination Mass a year ago for Fr. Edison Tayag. The attendance was terrible. There are more priests in the picture than laypersons.
The normal weekend Mass attendance for SHC is not too far off from what is seen in the image. The last time I went earlier this year the Church was at far less than 50% capacity.
~Dr. K
Though voskotorium does not appear in the current edition of the dictionary, that's not to say it won't in the next. A picture of Sacred Heart could appear next to the entry.
Take a look at the Vosko website and once there, go to "projects" and click on Corpus Christi University Church. The picture on the right-hand side has the "altar" at the center of a labyrinth. This Vosko character is a scam-artist. This was very will detailed by Mike Brennan when the protests at Sacred Heart were going on.
Truth be known, we have no idea how much Vosko was paid for this wreckovation. Just think of how much fun it will be to put Sacred Heart back together again.
Can somebody call Duncan Stroik, please!!!
Check this out for a true Catholic restoration.
http://www.traditionfortomorrow.com/
or
http://www.institute-christ-king.org/stlouis/
Excuse me, but this Vosko bum gets my squirrely wrath up.
Enjoy
I hope our next bishop will clean up the mess made out of Sacred Heart. Bishop Dolan did not do that, however, with the cathedral in Milwaukee, so I am a little worried that we may be stuck with this barren cattle barn.
Choir and Anon. 3:31,
Sacred Heart is really just a parish church that had the cathedral moniker hung on it in 1952. Eastman Kodak wanted the downtown land occupied by the old St. Patrick Cathedral and apparently made the diocese an offer it couldn't refuse. DOR then needed to either build a new cathedral or elevate a parish church to that status. It chose to do the latter.
That said, there's nothing to keep our next bishop from designating another parish church – a much larger and, most likely, suburban one – as DOR's cathedral and letting Sacred Heart revert back to parish church status.
Given Sacred Heart's current Mass attendance numbers, I suspect it would be closed and sold off soon thereafter.
Mike – You are correct about the old Cathedral. My music (organist) teacher was organist at the old Cathedral and he told me all about it, along with any of the old choir members from St. Patrick's. It was a mess from a public relations point of view.
I believe what might happens is to sell Sacred Heart to the Eastman School and turn it into a concert hall and office for EROI.
So the diocese put in minimal amount of money into the organ (mostly the money came from 2 big donors). All the parishes were assessed for the cathedral wreckovation, so the diocese wasn't out anything there.
I'll bet they pick Transfiguration in Mendon; unless they build a Vosko-style Cathedral. But then again, I don't know. Clark only has a few years left. I don't think he would want to tackle a monster capital job like this. He already bilked us out of enough money. The faithful always end up paying for it anyways.
Any comments much appreciated.
"Bishop Dolan did not do that, however, with the cathedral in Milwaukee, so I am a little worried that we may be stuck with this barren cattle barn."
I share that fear, Anon, but as Mike said, the next Bishop can just designate another parish as the cathedral, and let SHC slowly fade away as a parish church (which almost certainly would happen, since I bet many who go to SHC go there just because of the novelty of belonging to the cathedral church). Sacred Heart would make a nice performance hall with the many chairs, the former sanctuary turned stage, and the giant organ.
"I'll bet they pick Transfiguration in Mendon; unless they build a Vosko-style Cathedral… Clark only has a few years left."
That's true. This Cathedral is his legacy, so he's not going to abandon it. That said, his successor will not have the same attachment to the cattle barn that Bishop Clark has. Transfiguration would need to install kneelers before it could be considered as a possible cathedral. I had to kneel on the floor for the consecration.
Here are a couple of images of St. Patrick's Cathedral before it was demolished: one and two.
Fun fact: The stained glass windows seen above the altar in the second image are now hanging above the main entrance at St. Jude the Apostle in Gates: image.
~Dr. K
The statue of St. Patrick in the center used to be on the ground at the old SSJ Motherhouse, along with the Stations of the Cross. I should find out where they went.
As a kid, when I was singing at Saint Peter and Paul's, there were still about 10 of the old Irishmen from the old cathedral still singing, when I innocently asked about the old Cathedral and what happened to it. Immediately a tirade of anger and resentment spewed from them. Almost 20 years had passed and they still were hopping mad with Bishop Mooney. The called him a "traitor" and worse. I had never seen grown men acted so intensely about anything in my life until then. I, of course, was on their side. I was 9 back then and saw the injustice of it all. I see the injustice again today in the diocese.
The organist, John Paul Bonn, explained it all to me very calmly. I learned a huge lesson about diocesan politics that day.
Mike Brennan's site is still available to view the full detail of the wreckovation. You can visit it at http://community-2.webtv.net/@HH!D0!4A!ACC0A13777B1/crproc/DOMUSDEIANDREAL/
Hope it comes up for you. If not, just search the web with DOMUS DEI AND THE REAL PRESENCE. It is a great site.
I miss Mike. He's in Tampa, Florida, living happily ever after.
Sounds like Mike had the right idea!
He's much happier in Tampa, he said.
God Bless all of the wonderful souls who are fighting to protect our Church. If any of you happen to read these words today, I hope that you have a blessed day.
We have a great team of Parishioners who work on this effort 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Persistence and prayer is the answer.
Bishop Clark's negative actions have also caused the destruction of the "great wall of secrecy" that once surrounded the Diocese of Rochester for 30 years. The wall was as strong as the iron curtain that surrounded Russia.
With the power of the Internet, any Bishop who thinks that he is going to run the rest of our diocese into the ground, better have nerves made of steel.
I enjoyed reading Michael Brennan's site when he was posting stories on it. He had a few sites if I remember correctly. We need him in Rochester something terrible right now. Might he take a vacation back here and lend us a hand in this fight?