Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2007 / Mass celebrates restoration of desecrated church
Mass celebrates restoration of desecrated church
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published November 2, 2007
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Lary Peplin | The Michigan Catholic
Bishop Daniel Flores blesses the holy water held by pastor Fr. Julian Chmura as Deacon Ronald McIntyre holds the book. The Mass of Reparation was celebrated Oct. 26. |
Detroit — Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Flores celebrated a Mass of Reparation last Friday at St. Andrew Church to undo the spiritual damage caused by the theft earlier that week of the tabernacle from the church's old high altar.
The theft of the tabernacle, containing the Holy Eucharist, as well as some candlesticks, the bronze top of the baptismal font, some brass statue stands, and the bronze Chi-Rho (which looks like an X superimposed over a P) from the front of the altar was discovered early the morning of Oct. 24 as the pastor, Fr. Julian Chmura, and parishioners arrived for an 8 a.m. Mass.
The thief or thieves had broken out a window to gain entrance sometime that morning or the previous evening at the church, at 7060 McGraw, near Cecil, on the city's west side.
A reward of $2250 has been offered for their return.
Fr. Chmurra celebrated that Mass and others in the parish social hall until Bishop Flores could arrive to celebrate the Mass of Reparation, also called Public Prayer After the Desecration of a Church.
For the service, Bishop Flores wore purple vestments, as would be used on Good Friday. "The tone of the Mass is very penitential; there is a lot of silence, and the altar is stripped and sprinkled with holy water and incensed before it can be redressed," he said of the liturgy.
He also walked around the church, sprinkling it with holy water. After the Mass, the Blessed Sacrament was placed in a temporary tabernacle Fr. Chmurra had placed on the old high altar.
"It's very sad. It's always a serious matter whenever the Blessed Sacrament has been desecrated," Bishop Flores said.
Fr. Chmurra said Detroit Police are checking with local dealers the thief or thieves might have approached to buy the items. "They took fingerprints, and said they're going to look at every scrap yard and antique dealer," he said.
For Fr. Chmura the incident is the latest in a series of thefts and break-ins that have plagued the parish this year. "In the past, I've had to deal with kids breaking windows, but this is evil. This has been the worst year in my priestly life," the 72-year-old pastor said.
The break-in came just two weeks after another one in which various items were stolen, including large candlesticks valued at $1,300 each, and five months after a major theft that Fr. Chmura said pushed him to decide to retire next summer.
"They stole all my air conditioners in May. The damage came to more then $30,000," he said.
As to how parishioners are taking it, he said, "They're crying, crying – it's very sad for everyone. My people are in their 70s and 80s; something like this is just terrible for them."
Built in the 1950s, St. Andrew Church has large stained-glass windows, but Fr. Chmurra had workmen board them up on Oct. 25.
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Lary Peplin | The Michigan Catholic
The exterior of St. Andrew Church in Detroit. |
Fr. Ed Zaorski, vicar of the Southwest Vicariate, said the thieves who do such desecrations are not the only ones to blame.
"Just as guilty as the thieves are the scrap yards and antique dealers that buy these items from them," he said.
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