New Jesuit Bishop In Oakland Will Shepard The Jesuit School Of Theology At Berkeley

The Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, California

Said to be a "low-key, humble" cleric, the Gregorian-trained pick – Fr. Michael Barber S.J., a Navy chaplian before taking up the Boston post in 2010. chaplain who likewise studied at Oxford – previously served as a spiritual director at the San Francisco seminary, St Patrick's at Menlo Park,

With the appointment, Barber – the fourth diocesan head named by Francis on these shores – becomes the first US Jesuit named a bishop by the first-ever Jesuit Pope. Ordained for the Company in 1985, the nominee professed his final vows in 2005. 

For purposes of context, the last time a simple priest was named to a Stateside post of this size came at a similarly early point in the last pontificate, when Msgr Kevin Vann – then a pastor in Springfield, Illinois – was tapped in May 2005 as coadjutor of Fort Worth, then a 400,000-member fold, which nearly doubled in size over the subsequent decade due to migration, birthrates and, well, just being Texas church. Yet while Vann was intended to have a period of apprenticeship under Bishop Joseph Delaney, the long-reigning prelate died the day before his successor's ordination, suddenly placing the provided ordinary-in-waiting on the cathedra with no prep. Back to the Bay, as indicated yesterday by the Oakland's apostolic administrator – Seattle's retired Archbishop Alex Brunett, who was parachuted into the diocese's reins amid the intensity of Cordileone's transition to "The City" – 

Barber will be ordained in an astonishingly short timeframe, the rites set for Saturday, 25 May at 11am in the postmodern Cathedral of Christ the Light, dubbed by locals on its 2008 opening as the "Space Egg." The diocese carved out of San Francisco in 1962, the fifth bishop of Oakland will be the first appointee to the post who requires episcopal ordination before taking office. 

A wildly diverse fold with a long history as a progressive bastion – not just among the secular clergy, but given the presence of institutions like the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley – beyond the challenges of the fold's broad ideological and cultural spreads, a notable hurdle Barber inherits is the remaining debt on the cathedral's $190 million construction cost, which is still said to extend into significant eight figures.

Link (here) to the full blog post at Whispers in the Loggia

St. Claude la Colombiere Jesuit Community Residence

The Jesuits of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus recently completed a breathtakingly modern new building on their northern Baltimore campus which marries the outdoors with the steel and concrete structure -- bringing nature and light into and throughout the 60,000 square-foot residence. This new residential community is designed to offer senior Jesuits assisted-living services while also enabling them to continue their ministries in and around Baltimore and throughout the Maryland province. The new St. Claude la Colombiere Jesuit Community Residence, designed by the architectural firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, replaces the previous residence on the property which was built in 1961. Designed around a stone entry courtyard, the two-story chapel is the central design feature and the heart of this Jesuit community home. The facility provides rooms for the 38 members of the community along with a dining hall, commercial grade kitchen, living room, library, office and work space as well as recreational facilities. In the video piece, created by Halkin Photography, Jesuit Father William Rickle,superior for the Colombiere Jesuit community, and James Casciotti, socius for the Maryland province, discuss how the building ties in with the spiritual elements of Jesuit community life and, in turn, how the building fits into the landscape of the property.

Link (here) to Youtube

Mass Of Celebration For The Re-opening Of St Peter’s Church

Stonyhurst College in Lancashire celebrated the re-opening of its church, St Peter’s, last month, after its year-long closure for extensive restoration and conservation work. A congregation of 900 pupils, parents, staff and alumni from Stonyhurst College attended a Mass of Celebration for the re-opening of St Peter’s church. The principal celebrant was Fr Dermot Preston S.J., Provincial of the Jesuits in Britain. The choir sang Vivaldi’s Gloria, accompanied by the Stonyhurst Orchestra, which also played the opening hymn, Vaughan Williams’s arrangement of “All creatures that on earth do dwell”. The head boy, head girl and headmaster read the readings and pupils of all ages read the bidding prayers. St Peter’s is a Grade I listed building constructed by the Jesuits for Stonyhurst and its parish in the early 1830s. One of the first Catholic churches to be built after Emancipation in 1829, it is an important example of church architecture in the Gothic Revival Perpendicular style. Masons have replaced large expanses of stone eroded by wind and rain. Stained-glass windows have been re-leaded and cleaned. Stencilling from the 1850s and 1950s, previously covered by whitewash, has been painstakingly re-painted, and the magnificent ceiling has been restored.
Link (here) to The Catholic Herald

Town of Elvas And Its Fortifications

Elvas, Portugal

The site, extensively fortified from the 17th to 19th centuries, represents the largest bulwarked dry ditch system in the work. Within its walls, the town contains barracks and other military buildings as well as churches and monasteries. While Elvas contains remains dating back to the 10th century A.D., its fortification began when Portugal regained independence in 1640. The fortifications designed by Dutch Jesuit Padre João Piscásio Cosmander represent the best surviving example of the Dutch school of fortifications anywhere. The site also contains the Amoreira Aqueduct, built to enable the stronghold to withstand lengthy sieges.

Link (here) to the UNESCO website

Fairfield Chapel And Rectory Win Architects Award

A community of Jesuits required a home and a center for their religious mission. The architecture reflects their commitment to simplicity, spirituality, and intellectualism. Aware of their role as teachers and spiritual guides, the Jesuits sought a building that would serve as an exemplar of ecological architecture. This residence and apostolic center sits at the heart of a campus and houses Jesuit priests, offices, a chapel, community dining room, great room, and library. The site is prominent and lovely, a steeply sloping hillside bounded to the south by mature European beech trees that frame distant views to Long Island Sound. The building rests on the shoulder of the slope, organizing its community spaces beneath the low plane of a garden roof, uninterrupted except by the monitor that lights the chapel, the spiritual heart of the building. All design decisions promote the smooth function of a combined social center, religious sanctuary, and home and optimize the building’s environmental performance. Operable windows promote natural ventilation, reduce mechanical loads, and admit winter sunlight onto dark concrete floors that absorb and radiate solar energy. Natural daylight floods the interior. Renewable materials line the building’s surfaces. The building overhangs its foundations, protecting the root systems of the giant beech trees that surround it and that shade the building’s southerly windows during hot summer months. The garden roof filters storm water, reduces heat loss, and increases the durability of the roof membrane. A closed-loop geothermal heating and cooling system provides energy to the building without fossil fuels. Both traditional site and building design best practices and innovative environmental technologies serve to reduce short-and-long term impact on the local and global environment, helping the Jesuits to achieve their goal of acting as “good stewards of the Earth.”

Link (here) to the AIA 
Go (here) to read previous post on this subject. 

This buildings cost $10 million to construct, 12 Jesuits live in this facility, divide 12 by ten million dollars, that equals $833,000.00 per Jesuit

Alta Gracia

The Jesuit Church, Alta Gracia, Argentina

The Jesuit House of 1730

The Jesuit House of 1730 is for the adventuresome. Even in Cebu, few know of the existence of this house located between Zulueta and Binakayan Sts. Permission is needed to see the house presently owned by the Sy family, owners of HoTong hardware. Though not open to the public, with advanced notice the house can be visited. But visitors be warned that it is now a warehouse, and will require some walking over cables, reinforcing bars and other construction material. The house can be dusty and the air stale. The house was once the residence of the Jesuit superior in Cebu. To coordinate work in their Visayan missions, the first Jesuit mission superior, Antonio Sedeño opened a residence in Cebu in 1595. The site of the 16th century residence is uncertain. This residence which is still standing is believed to have been built in 1730. A relief plaque inside the residence bears this date. The Jesuits were in possession of this house until 1768 when they were expelled from the Philippines. Upon their expulsion, Jesuit properties were put on public auction. A Spanish family, the Alvarez, acquired the house. The house passed through various owners until the Sy family acquired the residence. At one time, the residence became an exclusive club for Cebu’s elite. Early in this century, the existence of the house was first documented by Fr. William Repetti, S.J., seismologist and archivist of the Jesuits. He noted its existence in a book he published in 1936. In the book, a reproduction of an old painting of the house indicated that a tower stood beside it, probably built as a watchtower for seafaring raiders.

Link (here) to read the full article.

This Beautiful Church Is Typical Of Early Jesuit Works

The relics of St. Peter Canisius, S.J.

The website of the Fraternity of St. Peter's apostolate in western Switzerland, centered around the general house in Fribourg, has a nice album of photographs of Confirmations recently held in the Church of St. Michael, part of the former Jesuit college of Fribourg. The sanctuary of this beautiful church is typical of early Jesuit works, very wide, with no liturgical choir, making it ideal for Pontifical ceremonies; under the main altar rest the relics of St. Peter Canisius, founder of the college, who died in 1597. The Mass was celebrated by Fr. Arnaud Evrat, F.S.S.P., in the presence of His Excellency Pierre Farine, the Auxiliary Bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, who performed the Confirmations. These photographs give a good idea of the particular ceremonies of the Missa coram episcopo, in which some of the rituals of the Mass (e.g. the blessing of the incense) are performed by the bishop at the throne, rather than by the actual celebrant of the Mass.

Link (here) to read the full blog post at The New Liturgical Movement

"The Cathedral On The Prarie"

Holy Family Church survived the 1871 Chicago Fire but in 1990 the building was only narrowly saved from the wrecking ball, thanks largely to a stunt that raised $300,000 in five days hatched by a priest and a public relations executive. Since then the church has raised more than $5 million and restored much of the building's original elegance. Now the parish's current administrator, the Rev. Jeremiah Boland, said it is time to fix the front doors. "In the winter, it left such big, open gaps to the outside that we had to shovel out snow from the indoor vestibule," Boland said. "After the snowstorm last Feb. 2, we had three feet of snow to shovel out." Borg Construction has been removing layers of old paint, redoing old joinery and replacing outmoded locks on the doors, which are 12 feet 6 inches tall and nearly four inches thick. Made of Douglas fir, each weighs about 600 pounds. The doors have previously had only patchwork repairs despite their advanced age. That is perhaps a testimonial to the craftsmen hired by Father Arnold Damen after he founded Holy Family Parish in 1857. Damen, for whom the Chicago avenue is named, wanted the best and went looking for Old World craftsmen who had immigrated to Chicago. He found a German-trained sculptor who was carving cigar store Indians for a living and hired him to carve Holy Family's exquisite wooden statuary and altar. A Lutheran sculptor was hired to carve the church's much admired altar railing. Damen also commissioned the first stained glass windows in the city. What they built is sometimes called "the Cathedral on the Prairie." By the late 1980s, however, the church and the neighborhood around it were deteriorating and the Jesuits decided it was time to tear the building down. The Jesuit hierarchy said at least $1 million was needed for renovations, so Father George Lane, a Jesuit and architectural historian, started a fundraising group to meet a Jan. 1, 1991, deadline. By Christmas 1990, the group had only $700,000. Lane called a friend of his in public relations, Dick Barry, for help. Knowing that news editors are frantic for news between Christmas and New Years Day, Barry had Lane organize 30 parishioners to huddle in the bitter cold outside the locked front doors of Holy Family the day after Christmas. A press release said they had started a five-day, last-gasp vigil to reach the $1 million goal.

Link (here) to read the full article

Sacrosanctum Concilium

Main Alter at the Chapel of St. Ignatius

Sacrosanctum Concilium. That document, though primarily about the reform of the liturgy, also spoke about church architecture. Some church designers, though, went farther than the document itself. “People within the various dioceses in the United States seized up on that because they wanted to promote modern architecture in the Catholic Church and said, ‘Well, Vatican II said we have to tear out all this old furniture because it’s old,’” Anthony said. “What a terrible destruction happened.” Duncan Stroik, an architect in South Bend, Ind., said, “The misinterpretation of Vatican II was like Pandora’s box in which architects and clients thought that it meant anything goes. Anything as long as it was not traditional styles.” 

 That spawned what Stroik called the “consistently dull” suburban churches of the late 1960s and 1970s. “Cheaply built, ugly, dysfunctional and iconoclastic,” Stroik said. “If they had been built as commercial or residential buildings they would have been torn down by now. There are some churches designed by famous architects which, though sophisticated, are rather poor places of worship.” He mentions Seattle University’s Chapel of St. Ignatius, 

the Chapel of St. Basil at the University of St. Thomas in Houston and St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. He also cites the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco, which some locals refer to as “Our Lady of Maytag” because its dome looks like the agitator of a washing machine. “Interestingly, they all received awards from the architecture community,” Stroik said.

Link (here) to the full article at The National Catholic Register.

The Jesuits Sacred Heart Of Jesus Church In Havana Cuba

In 1907 the idea was born that the Jesuit fathers in Havana should have Sacred Heart of Jesus dedicated entirely to the exercise of their ministries. This aim emerged under the rectorship of P. Vicente Leza, at the old Belen High School, back when the principal duty of the school’s priests was to see to classes and the functioning of that educational center. The first stone was laid on August 7, 1914, and the building was inaugurated on May 3, 1923 after being solemnly consecrated the day before by Bishop Monsignor Pedro Gonzalez Estrada. The church and the residential annex were constructed in the Gothic style, whose idea and execution was led by H. Luis Gogorza, S.J. The altar, which is a true artistic marvel, was designed and constructed in Madrid by the Father Granda.

Link (here) to read the Havana Times there are plenty of great pictures at this link.

The Jesuit Church Of Saint Paul Saint Louis In Paris France

SAINT-PAUL-SAINT-LOUIS.
(translated into English) 

In the Rue Saint-Antoine is the old church of the Jesuits, gorgeous in marbles, gilding and stucco, as is the wont of the architects employed by those wary fathers. It was built from the designs of Francois Derraud from 1627-41. The remains of the conventual buildings are now occupied by the College Charlemagne. The expenses of the building were defrayed by King Louis XIII. and Cardinal Richelieu, who celebrated his maiden mass there. It was the second cupola erected in Paris, the first being that belonging to the Carmelite church. It is Italian in style, the facade being very similar to that of S. Gervais, recalling the Gesu and S. Ignatius at Rome, and is adorned with statues of S. Louis, by Lequesne; of S. Catherine, by Auguste Preault; and of S. Anne, by Etex. Bourdaloue and archbishop Huet of Avranches are buried there, and in a crypt below lie the Jesuits who have died in the convent from its foundation until the suppression of the order. The numerous monuments were swept away at the Revolution: a rich sculptured coffer for the heart of Louis XIII., and another by Coustou le jeune, containing Louis XIV.'s heart. The tabernacle was of silver gilt, but it is no more. The only contents now of any interest are a picture representing the abbey of Longchamps, attributed to Philippe de Champaigne, and a fine work by Delacroix, Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Although his first known picture, it is an example of his splendid colouring and grand composition. Victor Hugo's first child was born in the parish, and baptized at S. Paul's, and to commemorate the event the poet presented two holy-water stoops, in the shape of shells, very beautiful in design.

Link (here) to the book Churches of Paris

Former Irish Jesuit Headquarters Is Up For Sale

Loyola House, Former Irish Jesuit Headquarters

A RESIDENTIAL site going for sale today at the junction of Sandford Road and Eglinton Road in Dublin 4 will be seen as the best redevelopment opportunity to have been brought on to the market since the industry took a severe hit.  Agents CB Richard Ellis is quoting €2.5 million for the three-storey house, Loyola, owned by the Jesuit order, which was extensively damaged by fire in 2007. It stands on a site of 0.512 hectares (1.25 acres) with frontage on to Sandford Road and Eglinton Road. Large detached houses in this prestigious corner of Dublin 4 – within easy walking distance of both Donnybrook and Ranelagh – were selling for more than €5 million before the market took a dive. Loyola was not listed for preservation but was one of the largest houses in the area with a floor area of 751sq m (8,083sq ft). It served as the headquarters of the Jesuit order in Ireland Only last month, An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission for an apartment development on the site with seven homes to be located in the original building and 11 more in a new block. Eight of the apartments will have two bedrooms, six will have three bedrooms and the remaining four will have one bedroom. If the site is sold at the asking price it will work out at slightly less than €140,000 per unit. At the peak of the market, sites in south Dublin sold for up to €300,000 per unit.

Link (here) to the full post at An Irish Town Planner's Blog

The Warm Golden Color

This is an interior picture of the Chiesa della Sacra Noma di Gesu (Church of the Sacred Name of Jesus) in Rome.  

It is the founding church of the Jesuit Order, and it is just amazing.  Because the dome lantern contains yellow glass, 

when the sun comes through in the afternoon, it turns the whole interior a warm golden color.  Bellissimo!!

.

Link (here)

Evangelization

Bolivia's Church of the Immaculate Conception

The Jesuit church of Concepcion dominates the town's cobblestone main square. Its orange and yellow images of saints and ornate flower designs painted on the facade glow in the full splendour of 18th century architecture. On a starry night, recalling the days of Jesuit evangelisation a few centuries ago, a sonata for double violin by Domenico Zipoli resonates inside the huge church. A baroque ensemble of young players is serenading international visitors who have come to this remote Bolivian jungle town of almost 19,000 inhabitants to learn what makes the Chiquitania so unique. Here we can feel transported to 350 or 400 years ago, because people in these missions still maintain their original culture. Geovani Gisler Brazilian delegate, Until their expulsion in 1767, Jesuit missionaries spent almost 80 years converting the local indigenous people to Christianity. They also established missions in what is now Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. But whereas the churches in neighbouring countries are just ruins today, the missions in Bolivia have preserved the Jesuit cultural and artistic living legacy. In 1990, six of these missions were declared worthy of protection by the United Nations' cultural organisation, Unesco.

Link (here) to read the full story at the BBC

The Parish Numbers 5000

St. Francis Xavier, New York, N.Y. — This parish had its origin in 1847, when Father John Larkin and three other Jesuits had charge of a church in Elizabeth Street near Walker Street, which was dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus. The basement of the church served as an academy with 120 scholars. The church was burned down on January 28, 1848. It was decided not to rebuild on the old site, so Father Larkin sold the property and rented a house at 3rd Avenue, where he continued the school. 

To quote an appreciative historian of the parish: "Father Larkin having been obliged to make a hurried trip to Europe in order to escape the honor of being 'Bishop of Toronto,'" 

Father John Ryan, S.J., succeeded Father Larkin as rector, and continued the latter's search for a proper location for a permanent college, and after some time, the property in West 15th and 16th Streets, on which the college now stands, was purchased. "The cornerstone of the first church erected in honor of St. Francis Xavier in New York was laid on September 24, 1850, and the church was completed early in the following summer. Archbishop Hughes officiated at the dedication, which occurred on July 6, 1851. At the solemn vesper service on the same day, Rev. P. N. Lynch, D.D., preached and, 27 years later (1878), the same prelate, having since become Bishop of Charleston, preached at the laying of the cornerstone of the present grand edifice, the new Church of St. Francis Xavier in West 16th Street. The college was opened on November 25, 1850. . . . The front elevation is considered to be the best specimen of Roman architecture we have, and the plan of the same was for many years after used by the Building Department of this city in the examination of building inspectors." Among the early Fathers connected with the college were: Fathers Patrick Dealy, Hector Glackmeyer, Henry Hudon, Joseph Durthaller, Theodore Thiry, Joseph Shea, Joseph Loyzance, John Cunningham, Francis Cazeau, Francis X. Renaud, Peter Cassidy, Patrick Gleason, William Pardow, Augustus "Gus" Langcake, Hippolytus DeLuynes, Samuel Frisbee, Thomas Freeman, Maurice Ronayne, Louis Jouin, Isidore Daubresse, Henry Duranquet, John Prendergast, Nilus McKinnon and David Merrick. The present rector of the parish, Rev. Joseph H. Rockwell, is also president of the college and of the Xavier High School. The parochial schools, established in 1857, are conducted by 4 Brothers of the Christian Schools, 8 Sisters of Charity and 9 lay teachers, and have an attendance of 520 boys and 490 girls. Attended from St. Francis Xavier's, are: St. Joseph's Home for the Aged, St. Vincent's Hospital, Nazareth Day Nursery, Sisters of Jesus Mary (West 14th Street), New York Hospital and Ward's and Randall's Islands. The population of the parish numbers 5000, and the church property is valued at $900,000, with a debt of about $130,000.

Link (here)

A Secular View At Momentous Jesuit Achievements

San Ignacio Mini - Ruins of church entrance

The Guarani townships overseen by the Jesuit order flourished in the area that now borders Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. In 1732, at the height of the Jesuit’s power in South America, there were 30 settlements with a combined population of more than 141,000. Today, the ruins of San Ignacio seem half-eaten by the jungle, lying in a jumble of fractured walls and stone pillars. I wander through the remains of the red stone church that towers six metres above me and it is easy to imagine the grandeur of this former settlement. There is still evidence of the altar and the intricate stone carvings along the wall. Dobrusin says many of the missions have been plundered. When foreign immigrants arrived in the area they discovered the fallen stones in the jungles and, without knowing their significance, they hauled the blocks away. Many of the original Jesuit stones can still be seen in the buildings and homes of the Paraguayan town of San Cosme. After San Ignacio Mini was abandoned, it was hidden from view until 1903, when wandering Argentinean poet Leopoldo Lugones rediscovered the ruins. 

Link (here) to read the full story at the Toronto Star, a Canadian newspaper.

Carved Right Below The Pediment

Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Manhattan

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, Latin for “All for the Greater Glory of God,” is carved right below the pediment on the front of the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan. It’s more than the motto of the Society of Jesus. It describes the interior beauty of the liturgical art and architecture. On a recent visit to New York City, my wife, Mary, and I found the limestone church with its classic architecture looking every bit the solid anchor of its upper Park Avenue neighborhood. It was dedicated in 1898 after replacing the church originally founded in 1851 as St. Lawrence O’Toole Church. But in 1966, the parish was entrusted to the Society of Jesus, and the new St. Ignatius of Loyola has been in the care of the Jesuits ever since. Besides spiritual well-being, the care included a major restoration that was completed a year ago, which again highlights the surprising spiritual drama of the interior. The vestibule is exceptionally beautiful, with intricate gilt decoration, a life-size stained-glass portrait of St. Ignatius, whose feast day is July 31, and subdued gray and pink marble. It’s a heavenly anteroom for the beauty inside.

Link (here) to the full article at The National Catholic Register.

The Church Of Our Lady Of The Immaculate Conception In Baclayon

Baclayon, in the eastern part of Bohol, is the first municipality established by the Spaniards where one can find the historic Baclayon Church, as well as many ancestral houses. 

Originally called Bacayan—because travelers used to detour (bacay) around a rocky cliff along the shore to avoid going over the top of the cliff—the town was founded in 1595 by two Jesuit priests, Fr. Juan de Torres and Fr. Gabriel Sanchez, who also built a stone church, 

which is considered the oldest stone church in the country.

Link (here) to the Business Mirror

Iglesia de la Compañía

The Jesuit began work on their church in Quito in 1605. The co-ad-jutor  (Brother) Marcos Guerra arrived in the city about 1613, and the had been a brillant architect in Naples, before joining the Order. He corrected mistakes what had so far been done, and gave the final overall shape to the construction. When died in 1668, the church and neighboring buildings, including the three cloisters, were it all intents and purposes finished. Work began on the facade in 1772, and was not finished until 1765, on the eve of the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish dominions. The facade is a marvel of the American barroque and plateresque styles. Six columns of Salomon flank the main entrance, and this was the first time that these pillars had been incorporated into American architectural styling. 

Link (here) to Iglesia de la Compañía in Quito