Back when the Project visited the most excellent St. Francis de Sales, the pastor, Zachary Navit, recommended an immediate visit to de Sales’ neighboring (and twin) parish, Most Blessed Sacrament. MBS, he said, was a fine specimen of churchiness, and I needed to put it at the top of my list. His sentiments were echoed by the ushers, Harold and Usher X, who praised MBS as a mini-cathedral. Needless to say, the Project was intrigued.
After some research, I discovered that MBS had only three month’s reprieve before…drumroll please…THE BIG CLOSING.
I think you know what’s coming next…
Church Project Theorem #15: The Closer
You know, I never thought I’d accumulate 15 theorems. But it’s fitting that I do so with one of the most important ones yet, and perhaps one that plays the largest role (or it threat?) in church life: closings. We’ve touched on closings briefly before, most notably the Consolidation principle seen with another West Philly church, St. Cyprian.
Closings are an inevitable part of church life. They usually happen for two reasons—either a parish’s physical structures have deteriorated so badly that they are no longer safe (see St. Boniface), or, more commonly, a parish’s population has dwindled so much that it can no longer financially support itself. Of course, as physical deterioration is usually the result of declining attendance, you could argue that ultimately all closings are due to a disappearing congregation. After all, you don’t usually see vibrant, packed parishes shuffling off this mortal coil.
Closings can happen singly, or they can happen in bunches, as with the infamous North Philadelphia Swath of Destruction. A closed parish has one of three possible fates. First, it is the beneficiary of consolidation, in which other neighboring, failed parishes are combined into it. In those cases, it might get a name change, but at least the building stays in use. In the second case, it closes and sits idle until the end of time, rotting away as a broken, crumbling corpse. In the third case, the building gets sold to another group, usually religious, who use it for their own Godly purposes.
In this case, MBS will most likely get put up for sale, and only time will tell whether it follows the second or the third path. It’s quite a shame, too, since MBS is a magnificent church. The largely underatated exterior houses a breathtaking tan, red and white Italian-Renaissance design. There's also masterful mural work in and around the altar, and perhaps the finest stained glass windows the Project has seen. Any discussion of Philly stained glass artwork needs to include these specimens.
It has great size, great ornamentation, and hell, even a still-functioning organ. Father Navit spoke at great length about how buildings are only physical things, and the “church” is ultimately much more. Sage words, but it doesn’t completely dull the pain.
Philadelphia’s church stock has taken a big blow.
Size Rating: 9 out of 10
Ornamentation Rating: 9 out of 10
Overall Design Rating: 9 out of 10 crosses
