Feast of St. Stephen and the death of his namesake, Father Stephen Auad

The Martyrdom of St. Stephen

In the southwest corner of Toronto is the old Village of Long Branch and the Parish of Christ the King. Toronto, originally known as York, is essentially a city of towns and villages amalgamated over the years into one city. Long Branch was a village in its own right until 1967, when it was amalgamated into Etobicoke, meaning “where the alders grow,” which was eventually amalgamated into Toronto.

Parish of Christ the King and Shrine of St.Anthony of Padua 

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Long Branch was a summer resort area for the wealthy of Toronto, eight miles away, they would come on a ferry for the cool lake breeze. With cheap available land and the Canadian National Railway, it would later become an industrial community with companies such as Chrysler, Pittsburgh Paints, Castrol Oil right beside the church, Gabriel Automotive and Neptune Meters, all of which are now gone along with the good jobs and many of them, to Mexico. Long Branch had become a prosperous and pleasant community and it was to this little village that the Pastor of the Maronites, Father Stephen Auad, would come.

French postcard of Maronite militia, c. 1860

As with all immigrants at the time from Mount Lebanon, including my four grandparents to Canada, life in the old country was hard. My grandparents, along with Father Auad, were born just after the then latest wave of Islamic persecution. It was known as the Mount Lebanon Civil War or the Civil War of Syria, as Lebanon was officially part of the Greater Syria Province of the detestable Ottoman Empire. It began as an uprising by the Maronite Christians of Mt. Lebanon against their Druze overlords and culminated in a massacre of Christians at Damascus. Nearly 400 Christians villages and 500 churches were destroyed in a battle by Islamists which eventually spread even to the south of Lebanon. The British backed the Druze for economic reasons and political reasons, the French came to the rescue of the Christians at the urging of the Pope and the Ottoman's took advantage and fomented the strife. It included the Massacre of Aleppo, yes, that Aleppo, when over 5000 died as Mohammedans rose up against its Christians. It seems all too familiar now, no doubt and they may live quietly as your neighbour but as in Mosul, it was the Mohammedan neighbours that pointed out to the ISIS butchers where the Christians lived.

A year after my father was born in 1919 and only a few short blocks from the tenement on York Street where the Toronto Stock Exchange now stands, a Maronite Qurbono, literally "Offering" or Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated at St. Michael's Cathedral by the Rt. Rev. Shakralla Khoury. Khoury was the Maronite Eparch, or Bishop of Tyre and delegate from Mount Lebanon to the Paris Peace Conference following The Great War. The Qurbono was in Thanksgiving to God for the "virtual independence of Lebanon” from the defeated and vanquished Ottomans -- an independence that would not be totally realized for another thirty years due to the mischief and machinations of King Faisal.

Remarkably, the Qurbono, or Mass, at the Cathedral was reported on September 6, 1920, in the old Toronto World; and the earlier referred to "Pastor of the Maronites in Toronto," assisted at the Divine Liturgy.

Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church, Toronto

Sadly for the Lebanese of Toronto and in spite of Father Auad being termed in the secular press the "Pastor of the Maronites" there was no Maronite Church in Toronto. The closest was in Buffalo with the result of most Lebanese, my family included, becoming assimilated into the Latin Rite. 

In 1980, Toronto Archbishop Emmett Cardinal Carter assisted the new Lebanese immigrants with the purchase of the former Anglican Church of the Epiphany on Queen Street in Parkdale, now Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church and the Maronites finally had their home. Pope John Paul II had just established the Eparchy of St. Maron in Canada (Montreal). There is now a second Maronite Church in the region with St. Charbel's in Mississauga and given the more recent strife and suffering of Middle Eastern Christians, we also see Chaldean Catholic, Syriac Catholic and Coptic Catholic and Orthodox churches being built throughout the greater Toronto region.

While studying in Rome, Father Auad was able to offer the Holy Sacrifice e in both the Latin and Maronite Rites. He would learn Italian which would prove helpful to his future in Canada. The Church in Toronto was an Irish Church and these first Catholics in Toronto suffered many indignities in what was known as the Ulster of North America. The Church here was hardly prepared for the next waves of immigrants, particularly the demanding Italians.

The old parish of St. Patrick's, built in 1867 the year of Canada's Confederation, had a new church built behind it on McCaul Street with the former becoming Our Lady of Mount Carmel and assigned to the Italians as their first parish. Because he could speak Italian, the Maronite Lebanese Father Auad became their pastor. It still stands today serving Chinese Roman Catholics, the Italians having long since moved on from that community. It didn't seem to go to well. Professor John Zucchi of McGill University who specializes in immigration history wrote in 1983 that:

"In the late 1920's the Parish Committee of Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish filed a complaint in Italian with the archbishop regarding their pastor, Father Stephen Auad."

These Italians were villagers and more accustomed to a more active involvement of the laity in the parish than Toronto Catholics were accustomed to. The Irish were different; they had to escape persecution to forests and cliffs to find a rock to hear Mass. They were quiet in their Masses. Their history was different of course being persecuted on their own soil by the British, it was a different situation and they never questioned the priest or made demands. Given the prevailing climate in Toronto one can understand the Irish mentality. Their ancestors were persecuted in Ireland by the English and Scots and they came to York - later Toronto, and got it good here too in what was an English and Scottish protestant paradise dominated by Anglican, Presbyterians and Methodists.

The Italians were bolder and had their own customs and devotions and made demands unknown by the locals then. Father Auad had clearly adopted the prevailing official Irish culture of liturgical minimalism and flying below the radar for the reasons noted above and this conflicted with the Italians under his care. Professor Zucchi continued; 

"The committee was highly critical of Auad; he was too busy to hear confession; it was difficult to find him in the rectory or in the church; he rarely visited school children; his masses were too short, etc."

It wasn't only the local Italians that criticised the poor beleaguered priest unbelievably, even American Evangelical Pentecostals chimed in.  It was August 5, 1933 at Springfield in the state of Missouri and the Pentecostal Evangel displayed its bigotry and ignorance writing:

“The  following item  taken  from  the Toronto  press  will  show  how  it  is  possible for Christianity to catch the diseases of  the  old pagan religions:  "What  has become  an annual  public religious  function in Toronto will take  place tomorrow, when Rev. Father  Stephen Auad, pastor of  Mount  Carmel Church (notice that they left "Our Lady" out of the title!)  St. Patrick Street,  will bless  motor  cars and  other conveyances  after  the  11  o'clock  Mass. The vehicles will thus be placed under the patronage of St. Christopher,' patron saint of travelers. The time is coming when Christianity will be purged of all alien additions. Matt.13:41.”

It was now 1938 and Father Stephen Auad approached Archbishop James Charles McGuigan, later to be English-speaking Canada's first Cardinal, about building a shrine to St. Anthony of Padua in that old summer resort village of Long Branch now becoming an industrial centre. Finances being what they were at the time, just after the Great Depression and with Canada entering the Second World War, the Archbishop declined the request. Disappointed in the Archbishop's decision Father Auad went home and there he brooded about the situation obviously not happy and still fighting with the Italians until his housekeeper, one Mrs. Maggie Jobin, encouraged him to go back and ask again, but this time, more firmly.

So, he did and did so to the point of pounding on the desk of the future Cardinal. Astonished at the boldness, the good Archbishop, originally from Prince Edward Island, is reported to have laughed until tears flowed down his cheeks and then said, "If you feel so strongly about the church, go ahead, but keep it your responsibility" and on August 4, 1938, Father Auad was appointed the parish priest of the Village of Long Branch and directed to build a church.

Attending one weeknight Mass at Christ the King a few years ago, I noticed a window long overlooked. It seemed an odd Saint in a window here, St. Antony of the Desert. I started to look closer. In addition to St. Anthony of the Desert there was St. Maroun, the great mystic, monk and missionary to the people of Mount Lebanon and Syria who died in 410 A.D.  It is from him that the Maronites are named. The next window was Mar Youhana Maroun, or as we would say in English, St. John Maron who died in 707 A.D., the first Patriarch of the Maronite Church. Then a little further along, there she was, Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon whom the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and All the East declared in 1908 to be "Queen of Lebanon." Knowing that the people of Long Branch would not know these Saints, each one has a little banner with their name under their image and quotes from scripture about "Libanus." Here was a little parish, built by a priest who came from the land named so often in the Psalms, who procured these windows to the greatest of Lebanon’s Holy Ones including the Mother of our Redeemer whose birth we celebrate.

Father Auad had a great personal devotion to St. Anthony of Padua and wanted this new parish at Long Branch to be named the Shrine of St. Anthony. Given that there was already a large church on Bloor Street dedicated to this much-loved Saint, the Archbishop did not agree. It was named Christ the King and a small grotto was built to house an Altar. “Shrine of St. Anthony” remains today engraved in the terrazzo flooring just below the plaque in memory of Father Auad. The first Mass offered there was celebrated by Father Auad on September 17, 1939, and on Sunday, May 26, 1940, the church was blessed by Archbishop McGuigan.



At Midnight Mass on December 25, 1944 and whilst delivering his sermon, Father Stephan Auad suffered a stroke. The next day, December 26, 1944, on the very Feast of St. Stephen, his name-saint, Father Stephen Auad went on to his eternal reward and a little bit of Lebanese history in Long Branch lay hidden.

On this anniversary of his death, may this little Christmas story serve as a tribute to this early and long forgotten priest of the first hundred years of the Church in Toronto. 

May Father Stephen Auad be rejoicing on this day with St. Stephen in the presence of the LORD whom he loved and served.  

Rev. Stephen Auad

You see St. Michael, I see St. James, let's call the whole thing off!

This is St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto, the Seat of the Cardinal Archbishop of Toronto.

This is the Anglican Cathedral of St. James, the residing place of the Anglican Archlayman of Toronto.

This is the congratulatory advertisement taken out by Novalis on the back page of Toronto's Catholic Register special edition celebrating the 175th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Toronto.

That is all.

On this Feast of St. Michael, St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto is rededicated

To write a history of this Cathedral of St. Michael, in Toronto, would take much time; I will be necessarily brief.

Early painting of cathedral interior

Bishop Michael Power

Toronto was a city of Irish immigrants from the famine. Michael Power was appointed our first bishop. At that time, there was one Archdiocese from Kingston, at the eastern part of Lake Ontario, all the way to Windsor, across the river from Detroit. Bishop Power commissioned the new gothic revival cathedral and laid the cornerstone on this date in 1848. He died of typhus after attending to the suffering Irish and did not live to see it completed. Toronto was known as the Belfast of North America. Catholics were hated. A good, brief history is written by the Bear over at the Spirit's Sword.  It was the "gangs of New York" on a smaller scale. Even back then, Toronto, or York as it was known, was always trying to emulate the Big Apple.

Those familiar with the recent renovations at St. Patrick's in New York will note quite the difference here.  There was little money when St. Michael's was built, the population of Irish was dirt poor, having just arrived. They may not have been much better off in New York but they had a few more years to establish and a many, many more faithful.

Msgr. John Edward Ronan

The Cathedral became the home of the renowned St. Michael's Cathedral Schola, now literally Choir School. Founded by the late Monsignor John Edward Ronan, pictured at left, the school, throughout the liturgical insanity of the last fifty years still maintained Gregorian propers, sung Latin polyphony Masses and motets, every single Sunday. The school was founded in 1937 and is one of the few in the world affiliated with Rome's Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music. 

Whether they have or not, usually not, liturgical musicians in Toronto are always able to look to the choir school for the standard they should follow. Msgr. Ronan stove to raise the liturgical arts in the Archdiocese to fulfil St. Pius X's vision as articulated in Tra le sollecitudini and to break out from the Sunday Low Mass mentality, something which still presents a problem in more than one Sunday "EF" Mass community, right?

In the 1930's, the Cathedral underwent a "wreckovation" of sorts. That's right. A few decided then that the vision of the original gothic revival should be replaced and the ceilings were painted in rather gauche faux mosaics with saints appearing bursting on vaulting that actually covered and preserved the original. The area over the altar was given a romanesque touch with paintings of the life of Our Lord as if taken from some quite dated holy card. The rest of the ceiling was stenciled murals. 

The high altar was lowered to not block the incredible east window some time in the 1950's. Alas, the the rector, or "wrecker," the late Auxiliary Bishop Pearce Lacey who told me himself, as I was driving him home, "I think we went too far," to which my response was, simply, "Yes, Your Excellency." 

Lacey was responsible for the removal of the communion rail destruction of the 1950's era simply gothic reredos and altar  and installed a concrete hulk. If he could have, he would have whitewashed the rest. Lacey was empowered by then Archbishop Pocock to transform Toronto's churches into Vatican II "compliance." He was described to me by one who would know, as "ruthless" in his zeal to destroy that which came before, but I can tell you as he told me himself at the age of 94, "I think we went too far."

A rector that undertook some sensitive restoration of sacred things, Altar, font, pulpit, tabernacle and a few other additions was the late Monsignor Kenneth Robitaille. He was also a great supporter of the Choir School unlike some who came after him who would opine, "what am I supposed to do while they're singing that Gloria!" Oh, I don't know, sit and pray it? Sheesh!

Under Cardinal Carter, the cathedral had a quick redo in 1984 because Pope John Paul II was coming, just a touching up of the existing paint. But there was something else happening in all of this time that nobody noticed or cared to notice. 

St. Michael's was almost literally falling down. From the foundation to the tower.

Enter Thomas Cardinal Collins.

One day, he complained to the Rector about the condition of the once beautiful front doors. Overpainted, over varnished, neglected by all and beaten down by Toronto weather of damp and frigid winters, and hot and humid summers. 

Ah, if it were only the doors. 

Suffice to say, six years and $128,000,000.00 later, St. Michael's Cathedral will, today, be rededicated. 

There was not a part of the building untouched. From the tower to the foundation. From the slate roof to the windows. Fire systems, water, heating and air, lighting, all the fundamental infrastructure. The best part is the return to the vision of the original neo-gothic design and new bespoke Casavant pipe organ to replace the decayed 1880 Karn. The most challenging and incredible achievement was the complete digging out of a full depth basement to construct washrooms and a crypt chapel from what was once a crawl space. 

Even included were commissioned statues for exterior niches on the east and west facades the tower.

This Cathedral, and the beauty of its windows and the sounds of its choir, were instrumental in my return to the Catholic faith. I had left the Church and out for a jog one Saturday morning thirty five years ago, I entered it for the first time. I was overwhelmed with what I saw. I recalled the invitation in 1963 to attend Ronan's school which I was not able to do. My father, a good man but a bit of a worrier, would not let me travel the distance on a streetcar. Not long before her death, my mother apologised for not insisting on my acceptance of the invitation to attend the then, fully private choir school. Interestingly, and since the LORD does write with crooked lines, I do more in church music now than many of the boys who did go and left it all behind, and I told her that.

The Catholic people of Toronto owe a debt of gratitude and prayers to Cardinal Collins. There were those who wanted it to "burn down." There were those who desired a new cathedral, some modernist hulk, no doubt.  It was this Cardinal Archbishop who fixed the mistakes of the past and made good to repair the literal neglect of his predecessors.

May the Lord bless Cardinal Collins for his vision; and may St. Michael protect him. 

May he be inspired to one day, go just a little bit further.

See also:

New Cathedral webpage
https://www.stmichaelscathedral.com/

Catholic Register features
http://www.catholicregister.org/cathedral-reborn

Webcast of the Rededication tonight at 7:00PM EDT
https://www.stmichaelscathedral.com/live-webcast/

Toronto Anglican Ordinariate parish moving today to Oratory Parish of St. Vincent de Paul - Divine Worship at 12:30 PM

It begins today at 12:30 P.M. - the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter Parish of St.Thomas More begins at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Toronto. 

Since the inception of the Ordinariate, St.Thomas More parish has been worshipping at Sacre Coeur parish in Toronto, a French-language, Dominican run affair, where they were relegated from a ridiculous 2:00PM to an intolerable 4:00PM Mass time. 

St. Vincent de Paul Parish is one of two under the administration of the Toronto Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Masses at St.Vincent de Paul on Sunday include the Traditional Latin Mass (Read) at 9:30AM (Solemn Mass is at Holy Family Parish at 11:00AM). The parish Sung Novus Ordo liturgy will move to 11:00 to facilitate the Ordinariate Mass.

While the Ordinariate Missal includes the new Lectionary, it also features the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, the Tridentine Missals Offertory and the Roman Canon for Sunday use. If there is any hope for the "Reform of the Reform," which this writer highly doubts, this Missal is the way forward. It marks time in the Sarum tradition, "After Trinity," and restores the Gesima Sundays. Mass is celebrated "ad orientem." 

Congratulations to all of those associated with St. Thomas More and the Oratory. This agreement provides an opportunity for the Ordinariate to flourish and ensures the longevity of St. Vincent de Paul parish.

The Member of Parliament as "theologian." - This is the fault of her priests and bishops who failed to teach the faith!

The saga of Catholics in politics voting for abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage (so-called) and other issues against the Faith is very familiar to my readers in Canada, the United States of America and in Europe and really, throughout the broader "Christian" world. 

One of the saddest examples is in the United States with Nancy Pelosi, particularly when she opines on theology from Doctors such as Saints Augustine or Thomas Aquinas. Alas, we now have the same example here in Canada of a politician using warped theology and failed catechesis.

The post, one below, shows our good friend at Contra-Diction outside Holy Family Church in Whitby, Ontario, just east of Toronto in the same Archdiocese. He was protesting the fact that Celine Chavannes, a Liberal Member of Parliament, who aggressively supporting sodomitical "marriage," abortion and euthanasia receives Holy Communion there.  Now the banning of free speech and expression through the use of graphic imagery showing abortion, is on her agenda.

The Pastor, Father Nagy, went so far as to call the Durham Regional Police who harassed our good friend, notwithstanding his Charter Rights and the fact that he fully intended to stop before Holy Mass at 12:30.

Member of Parliament Celine, Cesare Chavannes has tweeted out her response:

Two months ago, I had a brief email exchange with Chavannes, explaining to her the facts of how her activist voting is in conflict with her Catholic faith and that by receiving Holy Communion, she is bringing "condemnation" upon herself. The goal then was to help her understand that her Catholic faith must come before her Parliamentary career. She is my Catholic sister and she is your Catholic sister.

But she is no, theologian!

Celina, you are wrong. On "judgement day" it will be you who will be asked by Our Lord Jesus Christ why you did not listen to the warning that you were given. You were given free will. Contra-Diction did not drive you out of the parish, you chose to leave because you could not stand to hear the truth. You did exactly what those did as recorded in John 6. Do you remember? They could not stand the teaching of Our Lord on the truth of eating His Body and drinking His Blood and they walked away. Just as you have done.

Celina, do not put Justin Trudeau, another badly-behaving Catholic, before Jesus Christ. 

That is what you have done.

What's up with Father Nagy and the people at Holy Family Church in Whitby, Ontario? Why did Father Nagy call the Police?

I've got to hand it to my good friend at ContraDiction. If all of us had his courage we would take back the culture.

Previously, I've written about the Member of Parliament, a Liberal pro baby murdering and pro-euthanasia and homosexualist who attends here and receives Holy Communion on a regular basis. Yet, the Pastor, Father Nagy, does not seem to address this public scandal. 

http://voxcantor.blogspot.ca/2016/08/catholic-member-of-parliament-celine.html

http://voxcantor.blogspot.ca/2016/06/canadian-catholic-members-of-parliament.html

My good friend at ContraDiction has taken it on directly.

If you don't have the time to watch all of it, start around 12 minutes. A few come out to try to take his sign and deny him his Constitutional right to assembly and expression. Then Father Nagy comes out to complain that his name is on the sign.

His name!

Shame on Father Nagy, would that he would deal with the Catholic politician and not be worried about his name.

Shame on Father Nagy for calling the Police. The first shows up at 27:00 the second at 29:34.

Shame on Father Nagy!

And no, Father Nagy, I won't be removing your name from this blog.

The Durham Regional Police think the images are "offensive."

No Law was broken, the Durham Police were interfering with his Charter Rights!

http://signofcontradiction.blogspot.ca/2016/08/holy-family-parish-in-whitby-shelters.html

Toronto parish of St. Leo's Mimico denies Holy Communion on the tongue

All the new marble and art work and beautification of a what had been a dirty, dilapidated, unworthy and terribly wreckovated Toronto church, means absolutely nothing. 

As much effort that was put into this has become worthless. Worthless if the liturgy is not worthy. As worthless as Canon Law and the Instructions from the Church, such as Redemptionis Sacramentum, as when a priest decides on his own what he will follow. His own clericalism, pride and modernist mindset.

"You denied me Communion," said the parishioner, a man known to me for at least a decade. "No," he replied, "I offered and you rejected Communion." 

This after the Communicant, who presented himself at the end of the Communion line with his little daughter in tow, knelt and put out his tongue to receive the Lord. 

This is clericalism. It is arrogance and a violation of the Law to dismiss the rights of the faithful. But with our current Pope, who cares about the Law? This is the Francis effect in the peripheries. The smelly sheep mean nothing to these men.

The renovation above is but a shell and fraud if this kind of abominable un-priestly behaviour continues.

There were twenty people at the Mass this morning and the father and his little daughter were the youngest. He was denied Communion on the tongue and told it was be "his choice," if he never came back. 

This generation of priests have no fruit to show. It is all a facade, just like much of what you see above.

This issue has been addressed previously on this blog, so many times and it keeps coming back. Within the last year, a similar situation happened at St. Pius X Church on Bloor Street, not far from St. Leo's, when another faithful Catholic was harassed over Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling.

Unacceptable!

Fathers, is this what it takes to stop this? Do you have to be publicly "outed" to get it through your heads that you cannot do this?

It is not acceptable. It is scandalous and clericalist.

Far be it from me to target every priest with this statement, not all of you to be sure, some of you are friends and acquaintances so please forgive me -- but the rot from the Pocock, Carter and Ambrozic eras has a stench to it of effeminacy, modernism, clericalism and Arianism that is nothing more than a pussification of the priesthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It needs to be lanced no matter how putrid the smell.   

STOP IT NOW FATHERS, AND YES, I'M YELLING!

You will be held accountable for these games and you may even end up in Hell for it. 

Catholic people, do not let these clericalists and liturgical fascists manipulate you.

Oh, he'll be calling; you can count on it; and the last memory the little girl will have of this parish is to have this priest tell her father, "I don't care if you here for Mass anymore.

After 50 years of priesthood Father? Surely, you can do better than that.

Postcript.

Neil MacCarthy ‏@neilmaccarthy  1h1 hour ago

@VoxCantoris @archtoronto The GIRM is clear in its instruction. I'd encourage those concerned to speak to the priest or archdiocese.

I thank the Director of Communications, Neil MacCarthy, for the public statement, affirming what the GIRM states. Clearly, the Cardinal and Chancellor, in spite of the many, many problems on their desks, don't need this. 

Priests of Toronto, smarten up! 

The laity do not need your shenanigans!

With everything else going on, does Cardinal Collins or the Chancellor, Father Camilleri really need to deal with this kind of thing!

From the General Instruction on the Roman Missal (Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite)

160. ... In the Dioceses of Canada, Holy Communion is to be received standing, though INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THE FAITHFUL MAY CHOOSE TO RECEIVE COMMUNION WHILE KNEELING.... WHEN RECEIVING HOLY COMMUNION ON THE TONGUE, THEY REVERENTLY JOIN THEIR HANDS;...

161. If Communion is given only under the species of bread, the Priest raises the host slightly and shows it to each, saying, The Body of Christ. THE COMMUNICANT REPLIES, AMEN, AND RECEIVES THE SACRAMENT [EITHER] ON THE TONGUE,or... As soon as the communicant receives the host, he or she consumes the whole of it.

Unfortunate wreckovation of one of Toronto's finest churches - Holy Rosary

St. Mary the Virgin, Huntingdonshire

The recent dust-up over Cardinal Sarah's comments about the already presumed Roman Missal's instruction to celebrate Mass "ad orientem," has reminded me of what we have lost in most Toronto Churches. In many churches, particularly newer ones, the altar is too close to the step to celebrate "ad orientem" in the modernist liturgy. The glorious high altars are mostly gone, yet; in a few churches around Toronto, they still survive.

Alas, Holy Rosary is not one of them. Holy Rosary Catholic Church is on St. Clair Avenue West, near Bathurst Street. It is around the corner from the Basilian owned, St. Michael's College, a private high school for boys. 

There is an interesting fact about Holy Rosary. It is a near replica, though still without the unfinished tower, of the 15th century Church of St. Mary the Virgin in the Parish of St. Neot's, in Huntingdonshire in the Diocese of Ely. The parish was originally founded in the late 1100's and is now, of course, under the Anglican "Church."

Holy Rosary, Toronto

Renovated rectory and kitchen

Until recently, it was staffed by priests of the Congregation of St. Basil. As that religious congregation continues to decline, their responsibilities in Toronto where they once ruled Catholic education, are coming to a quick end. They have only St. Michael's University and St. Basil's Church left and in 25 years, there won't be a Basilian young enough to get out of a walker to manage. 

Holy Rosary Parish now has a diocesan priest as Pastor, a Monsignor and former Rector of St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, who has, thanks to the previous occupants, inherited a rectory kitchen that would be the envy of most of the rest of the upper crust neighbourhood and is a scandal to those that had to pay the bill.

Hardly an example to set in the new Church of the Peripheries, but one imagines, in the peripheries of Forest Hill, it just fits right in. A luxurious rectory kitchen to match the smell sheep there and a unique historical church stuck in a 1970's liturgical distortion and diabolical disorientation.

We went too far

It was "wreckovated" under the watchful eye of the late Bishop Pearce Lacey of Toronto. He was described to me by a senior Toronto priest as "ruthless" when it came to implementing the non-existent "orders" of the Second Vatican Council to destroy Catholic Church sanctuaries. Bishop Lacey told me himself at the age of 92, "I think we went too far," causing me to recall that erudite British comedy to reply,"Yes, Excellency."

Holy Rosary was the only Church in Toronto and maybe in Ontario to have been constructed with a full Rood. It extended from the communion rail to the Crucifixion at the top and still exists at the two side chapels. The crucifixion scene remains but the rail and the screen are long gone but survive, decaying on a dirt floor in part of the basement, perhaps one day to be restored by a future faithful pastor. The high altar that had upon its mensa, the Tabernacle of God has been replaced by the Seat of the Presider - the exalted priest in place of the High Priest. Such clericalism. Such Masonic infiltration. They took this holy space devoted to the worship of God and turned it into a masonic lodge layout to the glory of man. 

The Chair of Man supplants Christ the King

I wonder, do the people know that the marble frieze on the wall of the Lady Chapel is actually the frontal from the marble high altar? Has the rest been used as parking curbs as happened in many places.? 

Lady Chapel with the former altar frontal as a souvenir on the wall

This great work of history and architectural art for the Glory of God is not beyond restoration. This abomination of a Masonic Lodge "sanctuary" could be restored to God and right Catholic worship. The rood exists, rotting away. The altar frontal, now a pointless frieze, could be restored. The masonic chair of man replaced by the Rightful and High Priest, Christ the King. The Mass in this glorious edifice once again be celebrated properly, all turned to God to the sung prayer of Gregorian chant in right worship as was intended in this place. The Mass celebrated according to the Missal in place at the time of this construction.

The financial resources to fix this wreckovation are there, particularly if one can justify a six figure kitchen.

The question is, "is the will, the vision and faith there to do it?

Part the Second on the $400,000.00 "plus shipping" Holy-Moly Doors at Toronto's Our Lady of Sorrows Church

My international readers will pardon a local story, or be amused by it.

A few weeks ago, I posted a story about new doors on Toronto's Our Lady of Sorrows Church. I was told about these a few months ago, their unsuitability on the Church. I drove by to take a look a few weeks ago. The story of the new doors remained pretty quite until Toronto's archdiocesan owned Catholic Register (funded by a "surtax" from the cathedraticum, the parish tax levied on the collection plate, in case one wonders how it survives in the age of blogs) reported on it with a photo and a note underneath, "the new $400,000.00 doors." 

Yes, that is right, $400,000.00 (plus or including shipping)  for two doors.

Now, I am the first to give glory to God through fine things and beautiful churches and art. Yet, the most beautiful liturgy could be celebrated on a rock or in a barn with possibly more edification; given the state of the Church today and the manner in which Her liturgy is celebrated by priests and treated by people, that is more likely the case.

The original doors can be seen on this painting by Toronto artist David Crighton. One is impressed by the symmetry and playfulness between the coffered doors and round stain-glassed windows beside them. 

A commenter is quite annoyed with me for shining some light on the doors and the cost. 

From the combox of the post highlighted above:

"I'm going anonymous with my reply as I live in fear of Vox and his rapier fingertips."

I suspect that my anonymous friend does not like the fact that blogs allow the faithful to stand up to these clericalists. Think of what our parents and grandparents could have done with the knowledge and tools a half-century ago to stop the wreckovators from destroying our historic churches. Here in Toronto, few High Altars survive and only one intact communion rail and it was only a wrought iron affair in a suburban 1950's era church. The fine wood and marble, including the one here at Our Lady of Sorrows were smashed or used as parking curbs. Perhaps my writer should ask how that happened and how the mensa in this fine church was destroyed. 

"Take a look at the last picture. The door (singular) was a gift to the parish from a group of wealthy Catholics within the Archdiocese, including several wealthy parish families."

I am very happy that "wealthy Catholics" contribute to the development and beautification of our churches but there is a larger issue. Did these "wealthy Catholics" specifically ask to spend their money on bronze doors or did someone in the parish go shopping for the bronze doors and seek out the money later to pay for them? Is this money that could have helped other parishes meet their Family of Faith goal? Was it good stewardship to spend the generous gift of our "wealthy Catholic" on two new and unnecessary doors? There was nothing wrong with the existing doors and they suited the building's original Lombard design.

"It was NOT purchased with Family of Faith dollars (The Archdiocesan long-term funding strategy and Pastoral Plan - Vox) and thus NOT by unknowing Sorrows parishioners at large."

Ah, I see, so you have been getting pressure from the little people as to the accountability of the campaign. Then good that I am doing this, you should thank me now as they will know that it was other peoples $400,000.00 that went for these doors. 

"This is fact. More facts: The door was created in Italy by one of the foremost sculptors of our time, Ernesto Lamagna (www.ernestolamagna.it), former secretary for sculpture at the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Letters."

How wonderful for this sculptor. I am glad that you chose excellence over a Canadian. I visited his website, I'm not terribly impressed though I imagine some are. So what? The point is they were not necessary, they do not suit the building and they were $400,000.00!

"He has created masterpieces for many Catholic churches around the world. The panels, frame (and keys!) are cast bronze and, as one might well imagine, weigh a whole lot (sorry but I don't have a number - suffice to say that the crane and crew struggled). The shipping alone amounted to tens of thousands of dollars. Plus installation."

Yes, it must have been quite the undertaking, I trust the walls can support them. You admit that the cost was "Tens of thousands of dollars" for "shipping alone?" So, is that on top of the $400,000.00? Are we now looking at say, oh, I don't know ... $450,000.00? What the heck, why don't we just say a half million? 

"The door is a piece of fine art. Eye of the beholder, remember? These eyes behold a beautiful work that matches astonishingly well with the architecture of the church."

They don't actually. The wood coffered oak doors designed by the architect were in the Lombardy Style and were designed for the building. They reflected elements of the interior ceiling as the doors did to the ceiling at St. Pius X Church on the same street one parish east...Oh, wait, they spent a few hundred thousand tearing out the original ceiling for angels with faces painted replicating parishioners ... what am I thinking!

"It tells two moving stories remarkably well. It will be something people come to see, study, photograph and write about for generations. And you, dear reader... Have you come to see the door? The parish and indeed the archdiocese, is blessed to have it."

I've seen it from the street, that was enough. Yes, a work of art they are, they do not suit the building, nobody should have spent a half million dollars on two doors! 

"In 1964/65 many cried foul at the exorbitant cost of the pipe organ ($37,500)" 

Indeed as I indicated, a Casavant and the finest tracker organ in Canada. A masterwork for the Glory of God and His praise in the liturgy and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; a thing desirable for solemn worship.

"and many more hated the mosaics and were shocked by their cost."

They are beautiful and tell the story of the rosary and the Life of Christ and His sorrowful Mother. We have been decorating ceilings and walls with biblical stories since the catacombs. They catechise. they inspire, they help contemplate. They keep a daydreaming mind of a simple human being focussed on all that is holy. Doors do not, once you're in, you're in. 

Beautiful things - be they a pipe organ, marble panels, mosaics, a bespoke icon,

Bespoke? My such an erudite word. That icon was not necessary, what was removed for it was necessary, the Altar Cross original to the reredos was relegated to a side wall, no additional art or colour was necessary in this Church, art for art's sake is not what is needed when what is lacking is proper worship and catechesis! Were you ashamed by the crucified Lord?

"or a door - COST MONEY. How much money is reflective of the times in which they are acquired. "

What soul will be saved by sitting and contemplating the doors. If you care so much about St. Michael the Archangel then recite the prayer after Mass. Did you know the Cardinal Archbishop of this place tried to get the priests of Toronto to do this until he was scorned by them as the prayer was "so negative." True story! 

"Oh and the carpet is burgundy, not brown, and is cleaned regularly, thank you very much. It will be removed soon enough in favour of a newly restored sanctuary floor."

How wonderful and while you're at it, restore the wrecked and discarded marble communion rail and encourage people to kneel to receive Our Lord. You might also consider the mensa on what was the High Altar and how about a conference in the parish on the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite so that it might take place there every Sunday. How about the Ordinary Form celebrated "ad orientem" as it was intended and the GIRM calls for if you actually read it? How about homilies by visiting priests that don't undermine the teaching of the Church on the family. (I do have a recording, after all) 

Looking forward to Vox's take on Renovations: Phase Two - 'The Cube'. Should be quite a ride (and read!) 

Is that a hint on what you will do with the Altar? Perhaps you should publish a picture or rendering on the webpage of the plan for the sanctuary.

Original doors courtesy of C.VanderWouden Photography

Should the good people at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish desire to have the Mass celebrated according to the Missal of 1962, the Traditional Latin Mass, that is their right. I urge them to contact Una Voce Toronto at unavocetoronto@gmail.com if they would like to learn more and to speak to their Pastor about Summorum Pontificum. They also have the right to received Holy Communion on the tongue and to kneel to receive the Lord should they so desire. 

As for the next phase, if they do not know now what is planned, perhaps they should make some inquiries about "The Cube."

They should also listen carefully to certain homilies and know that if a priest tells them that the "family" is something other than what the Church has always taught, even should society or the state call it so, it is not the case and know that St. Domenic would not be amused.