By Rita McInerney

Three sessions of prayer, teaching and candid discussion on adapting the Cathedral of Christ the King to enhance liturgy drew parishioners to the Hyland Center on May 11, 12 and 13.

More than 100 people came the first evening to hear Father Charles Faso, OFM, a Chicago pastor and authority on Catholic liturgy. They filled the chairs set up so people faced each other. Other people stood around the room.

For most of the first session the Franciscan priest listened as people vented anger and frustration some of which lingered from a proposal several years ago to enlarge and update the Gothic structure to conform to liturgical changes made by Vatican II.

Plans for extensive renovations to the cathedral, including an addition, were proposed in early 1988. Father Richard Kieran, cathedral administrator at the time, initiated the project but said approval would have to come from the current archbishop. Over 500 people attended a parish meeting then to discuss the project. In January, 1989, Archbishop Eugene Marino, SSJ, affirmed the decision of a pastoral review committee which recommended against modifying the sanctuary structure, but approved repair and maintenance work and renovation of the lower level of the Cathedral.

Father Faso’s visit was at the invitation of Archbishop James P. Lyke, OFM, as a follow-up to his pastoral statement, “Preparing the Upper Room,” mailed to all Christ the King parishioners and printed May 7 in The Georgia Bulletin.

To begin, Father Faso asked what those present had heard him say during homilies he gave at the cathedral the weekend of May 9 and 10?

Several people responded, including a woman who was applauded when she said, “I heard you came into a beautiful French Gothic church and want to change it.”

Others said the beauty of the cathedral would be destroyed. To these fears Father Faso said that “the archbishop is not going to destroy the beauty,” but he hopes to make the sanctuary more functional.

One woman stood up to demand, “Obviously there is a plan. Stop beating about the bush. Tell us what your plan is.” Several times over the next few nights, others asked about a plan for the cathedral.

“No decisions have been made,” Father Faso declared. “There is no plan except to look at some of the issues. The question is how can the space better serve us.”

When one man said that change “is going against the majority of the parish,” the priest said the church is asking people to grow, study and reflect on “who they are today” as church. He reminded them the church now is much different than it was for the earliest Christians who gathered in homes to listen and respond, give thanks and praise, and share a meal.

A young woman, self-described as a Folk Mass regular, said, “The community lives. When Mass is over we go out and talk about it. I don’t think it has that much to do with architecture. People talk about the spirit they soak up. If there is to be any change, let it be to enhance the spirit. We have something wonderful now.”

Father Faso spoke of the process of opening up the crowded altar area at his church, St. Peter’s in downtown Chicago. It was decided, after a period of parish reflection, to remove the communion rail of “beautiful Georgia marble.” This marble was then reshaped into an eight-sided baptismal pool and set in place at the back of the church where some pews had been removed. Cost was about $10,000, the pastor recalled.

Response from his congregation was positive, he said. “Why did it take you so long,” people frequently asked him.

During a coffee break May 11, men and women talked together. One parishioner had no problem with liturgical changes as “long as no pews are removed.” She said she was listening with an open mind but had concern about how changes would be paid for. “We should put our priorities in the school.”

Returning to his topic, Father Faso asked everyone “to grab hold of the spirit of the Lord calling us to be church today.” Think back, he urged everyone: “Who could have dreamed 30 years ago that men and women would be in the sanctuary as lectors and Eucharistic ministers?” Who knows what the next 30 years will bring, he added.

“We must allow the spirit to touch us and then move on…if you don’t let go, you don’t move on,” Father Faso said.

A young woman expressed gratitude to Archbishop Lyke for sending parishioners his statement. She spoke of knowing some who are out of work, others without money to pay their children’s school tuition.

“These things are not necessary. I don’t believe Jesus cares about how buildings look. It hurts me to find us spending money…We desperately need a large cathedral,” she went on, mentioning how St. Pius and Marist high schools are forced to hold graduations in spaces larger than the cathedral. “The whole archdiocese could pitch in, rather than divide Christ the King again.”

One man favored changing it “as little as possible and get the job done.” Another man asked the Chicago priest what he would like to see happen. Father Faso mentioned that the distribution of communion takes a long time, and that he would like to see a baptismal pool in view of the congregation. He held up a book, “Shaping A House For the Church,” by Marchita Mauck, which has diagrams showing Gothic churches and how they have been adapted liturgically.

As the first evening concluded, a young woman thanked the archbishop “for making this a democratic process,” and giving her a “chance to meet people whose spirituality differs from mine. I really do trust the process,” she said. Applause greeted her remarks.

As people prepared to leave there were comments: “We all are here to lead – to be educated.” “Obviously, we need some education.”

“Perhaps with some more historical perspective we can move people forward. The effort is important as catechesis,” one cathedral staff member recommended.

Had he planned to let the people do most of the talking, Father Faso was asked? “Yes, because when people are angry they can’t hear what you’re saying.”

“We’re only limited by our imagination and energy,” he went on. “No one has it all together but together we’ve got it all. We have to trust each other in being the wisdom community so that in dialogue we can come to a consensus.”

“We are hierarchically assembled. It’s an archbishop who calls for this conversation. The purpose of the hierarchy is to care for the charisms in the church and to call them forth for the good of the church.”

Two nights later, Father Faso was teaching a smaller, more relaxed and friendlier group. Many had heard him lecture the second night on the ages of the church from 35 AD to the 20th century and the changes each age had brought.

He began the third night by going over some of the questions submitted. Someone had asked about adapting churches the size and shape of Christ the King. He referred to several examples from “Shaping A House For The Church.” Other books he used for reference included “From Age to Age,” by Edward Foley, and “Place For Baptism,” by Regina Kuehn. All are published by Liturgy Training Publications.

One questioner wanted to know what changes the archbishop feels might be reasonably undertaken?

Father Faso relayed a reply from Archbishop Lyke that “we need to work together to study the directives and come to a decision.” He mentioned that the archbishop was hopeful “you continue to study more and come to some conclusions.”

To the question “Why is it necessary to modify an existing structure particularly in view of the discord?”, he replied with another question, “Do you keep the peace at any cost?” Discord, he added, can be good if “you’re open to learning from the other side.”

“Can the other side make a presentation?” asked the man who wanted an assembly for people pained by the prospect of change. He was assured that it could.

Father Faso mentioned some possibilities when asked what his plan would be for the cathedral. He envisioned taking out the benches in the front section of the cathedral, removing the altar rail, moving the altar to where the front pews are now. This would give a sense of one room, he suggested. Chairs would be placed around the altar and could be rearranged according to the rite being celebrated.

Chairs, in his opinion, “allow for action. Pews lock people in.”

Father Tom Kenny, rector of the cathedral, thanked Father Faso for sharing “very honestly from his knowledge.” He said he agreed with what the visitor had said over the past three nights, “except for one thing.”

“He said we don’t have a plan. I think we’ve got something like a plan. We got it in the mail,” Father Kenny said, waving the archbishop’s pastoral in the air.

Father Kenny said liturgical change for him began after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. There were “things we hated. We fumed and fretted. If you think lay people had a difficult time, think of the priests.”

Then he recalled how, as newly ordained priest, Archbishop Paul Hallinan had “slapped me on the wrist,” for having a woman lector at Mass.

“There’s a lot of things in the church that we still have to do…We’ll move gently on ‘til we implement the plan.”

Speaking May 21, Father Kenny said he was pleased at the showing of interested people, many of whom came every night. He called the dialogue and teaching led by Father Faso a “good experience. Good catechesis is something that precedes any major moves.”

What remains, he said, is some adaptation of the structure to accommodate liturgy changes already in place. He doesn’t see the changes as major construction but primarily affecting the baptistry, and possibly the communion rail.