The Holy Moly Doors at Toronto's Our Lady of Sorrows Parish

Nestled on the main road of the Kingsway, Bloor Street, in what was Etobicoke and now part of the City of Toronto is one of the more beautiful churches in Toronto west of the downtown, Our Lady of Sorrows. In my view, the prettiest one is a little further along, Our Lady of Peace, but the church to Her Seven Sorrows is a real gem. It was built in 1940 in the Lombard style and has one of the finest tracker organs in Canada, a Casavant. The ceiling is wonderfully coffered and the apse and clerestory have over 1,000,000 marble tiles forming a stunning mosaic which was completed in 1962.

Below is a picture of the church after the completion of the most "ambitious and extensive mosaic production in the New World north of Mexico." 

http://www.healthheritageresearch.com/alexvonsvoboda/Connaught/AvS-SPCmosaic.html

THE CANADIAN REGISTER, Kingston, Ontario. Jan. 7, 1961
REBIRTH OF MOSAIC ART IN ETOBICOKE CHURCH TORONTO - An art form begun by the Sumerians of the Euphrates Valley in BC has planted firm feet in Canada. Mosaics have been installed in Toronto's Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, as part of a renovation program. The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin are portrayed in larger - than - life - size reproductions complemented by highlights from the life of Christ.
The mosaics were executed by the Svoboda Studio under the direction of Count Alexander von Svoboda. The work began on March 21st 1960 and seven tons of tiles, in 150 colours, were used to make up the mosaics, which cover about 10,000 square feet of the clerestory walls and the apse of the church. The cutting and placing of the tiny individual tiles were done in a studio by 13 mosaicists. As major segments were completed they were transferred to the church for installation by the craftsmen. Installation in the church began on May 1, with artists working five days a week and, on Saturdays, clearing away materials and tools so that services could be conducted as usual each Sunday. Count von Svoboda was born and educated in Vienna and for the past ten years has been identified with the creation of several murals in Canadian buildings.
This effort is realised, in what is perhaps the most ambitious and extensive mosaic production in the New World north of Mexico.

The parish is in a privileged community with homes in the multi-millions, money is no problem, that is to be sure. A few years ago the original altar cross was removed and relegated to a side wall to be replaced by a painting of Christ Pantocrator. Not that the painting is in itself a bad thing, but to remove the original altar cross on an already reconstructed High Altar, was not helpful. Nor was it necessary. It is a beautiful painting with much colour. It is an iconographic and unsuited to the rest of the mosaic and if there was anything not needed, it was more colour. It was controversial at the time and you can clearly see why! Taking down the historic and original Crucifix was wrong and without any justification.

It certainly seems that this parish has more money than it knows what to do with and looks for ways to spend it and it begs the question, "when is more, too much?"

Now, I am all for beauty in our buildings and our liturgy. I abhor modernist church buildings and would support the raising of funds to restore and maintain our ecclesiastical architectural heritage. That includes the Cathedral of St. Michael in Toronto which suffered a century of neglect to the point where tens of millions are necessary to restore and save it from literal collapse. It was a pretty "poor" building to begin with built with pennies of poor Irish immigrants.

Getting back to Our Lady of Sorrows.

The original doors can be seen in this wedding photo

Did I write that sometimes, a parish has more money than it knows what to do with? I would think if they were looking for something proper and worthwhile a restoration of the marble sanctuary floor from that filthy brown carpet and the marble communion rail and the mensa of the High Altar might have been one option.

Now to the holy-moly doors. The Church had beautiful, powerful oak doors with a coffered design which suited the structure and reflected the ceiling of the interior nave.

A few months ago, a friend asked me if I'd seen the new doors of solid bronze with the relief of St. Michael the Archangel, I had not but made it a point on my next trip by. Well, what can one say? To say they were out of place with the original design would be an understatement.

Yesterday, I arrived home to find my free copy, since I don't subscribe but someone does for me, of The Catholic Register. There, on page 4 was a picture of the doors from the inside and the price - $400,000.00. That's right, you read that correctly. The Holy-Moly Doors were $400,000.00. The Catholic Register was not wrong and that was not an added a "0", as I confirmed the accuracy of the number with the Editor. 

Four. Hundred. Thousand. Dollars. For two doors.

Let us not compare this to Our Lord and the ointment where Judas complained about the cost of it. The ointment was what was of value, not the vessel it was in which was probably clay and the action of the anointing was the point. It is what is inside the church and our hearts. The fact is, there could have been nothing wrong with the old oak doors that could not have been fixed. Even if one argued that they needed to be replaced they could have been reproduced for perhaps ten, or twenty thousand. But seriously - solid bronze doors which required modification to the walls to be supported for $400,000.00 - this was necessary? One can only recall Cary Grant in The Bishop's Wife (Episcopalian, of course) and his admonition about "tough times for the world."

Now, lest any of my fellow Etobians or anyone from the parish be upset at Vox for reporting this, you might first direct that to the Catholic Register. They made public your nearly half a million dollar expenditure on two doors, so don't blame me.

Oh, and by the way, what happened to the originals?