ARTICLES

More Genuflect

Happy to Fix This Church

By Robert Kumpel

As two local parishes (Queen of Angels and Our Mother of Confidence) struggle with renovation plans that seem to run contrary to the wishes of parishioners, one North County parish offers an example of renovation done right. St. Mary's in Escondido has managed to expand, modernize, and renovate their church yet make it more traditional in the process.

Dick Faulkner, 72, served as project manager for the renovation and was at the site nearly every day since May 27, 2000, supervising each step. A parishioner since 1977, Faulkner volunteered for the task. "I'm an engineer. I worked for General Dynamics for many years before I retired in 1994. When they started talking about this in 1998 I was on the parish council and they asked me if I would be interested in the project and I was. Every single thing that was done I wanted to see done right. There were some things that the builders thought weren't necessary, but if I insisted upon it, we got it. Some of the area around the altar was not properly sized and I wanted it to be a certain width. In concert with Father Peter (Navarra), pastor; Mr Mike Torrett, the parish business manager, and the church renovation committee, I had the authority to get the job done. I worked with the architects, Rodriguez and Simon, and Melhorn construction, who was our contractor. They were outstanding."

The current St. Mary's was built in 1965 and bears the marks of mid-60s church architecture. Although still shaped in the traditional Roman Cross pattern, it is less ornate than older churches while not as vacant as the churches built in the 70s and 80s. Most of the outer construction is of plain red bricks -- a staple for midwestern churches but an anomaly for San Diego. Located in one of Escondido's older neighborhoods, the church sits next to the parish school, also under a renovation, as the parish expands its student capacity and grade levels, even adding a preschool.

The most striking feature of the renovation is the placement of the tabernacle. Once situated at the left side altar, it is now in the center of the church, in the new adoration chapel, which is open and fully visible behind the main altar. Faulkner describes the chapel's design as a careful balance between diocesan architectural guidelines and the parish's desire for tradition. "Before, it was over there (he points to a statue of St. Joseph) on a little side altar, where it was practically run over by people going in and out the doors and kids playing all around it. It was just not a private place to pray. Now we have this beautiful chapel and we can put 50 people in there."

As Faulkner walks through the church, he points out improvements -- new chairs with kneelers in the Blessed Sacrament chapel, new kneelers, new padded pews and re-leaded stained glass windows. There is a new power system, new heating and air conditioning, new and bigger bathrooms, new lighting and several new rooms added at the front of the church. The tile floor is elevated around the altar and the altar is flanked with new icons of the Four Evangelists. "Those were painted by Mr. Stan Sowanksi, a local artist." Facing the back of the church, there is a large icon in the back of the choir loft of the Blessed Mother holding a long veil. "That's Our Lady of Holy Protection." It was painted by Sowanski, but in the western style. As Faulkner points to the various statues of saints placed throughout the church, he asks, "How many churches do you see statues in any more?"

The new front of the church expands the vestibule by 50 feet and includes a baptismal pool not yet completed. "We're waiting for a marble bowl that will serve as the infant baptismal font. The holy water will flow from the font into the immersion pool. It should be here any day." He points to where the new vestibule ends and the nave begins. "The front of the church used to be right here."

The new rooms have a prevalence of traditional Catholic art. The two confession rooms are separated by a hall with an illuminated crucifix. One room has a San Damiano cross and is accessible to handicapped. The other is on the street side with a plain window, but plans are in place to replace the clear window with stained glass depicting the Return of the Prodigal Son.

"All of these windows--in the sacristy, the vestibule, the catechumen room--they are all going to be stained glass. The new windows just aren't ready yet." In the catechumens room Faulker points to a window in the front wall where stained glass will be installed depicting a seated Christ surrounded by children. He estimates the improvements have added approximately 5000 square feet to the church.

Although 98 percent of the renovation is complete, the school side of the church shows the most obvious signs of ongoing work. In a roped off section, cement foundations support steel frames for what will be the roof of an arbor over a bronze statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The statue will face another fountain and a 40-foot campanile with new bells and the church's old bells, overlooking a courtyard for parishioners to gather in. "It will be wide enough that you can drive a firetruck into it."

The total cost of the renovation was 1.4 million dollars, most of which has already been paid. "We only owe about 550 thousand. That's not a lot for a parish of this size. We have rougly 2200 registered families -- that's about 5000 people coming to Mass here. On Palm Sunday, there were so many people here that you couldn't drive in front of the church. People filled the street. They were standing across the street on our neighbor's lawns. It was just getting too crowded. We needed to fix the kneelers, and the pews were in bad shape. We needed new bathrooms badly. Windows were leaking. The air conditioning was on its last breath. The power system was undersized. When the air conditioning came on, the lights would dim! In the old sacristy, priests had no privacy and it was cramped. There was no room for the altar boys. We had no place for brides to get ready. Bible study and RCIA became a problem. The church had grown so much and there was not enough room for anything we wanted to do. And the tabernacle was not in a good place. People didn't respect it like they should and there was no place to kneel and pray around it."

The new adoration chapel seems to have increased reverence and devotion. Three parishioners have entered to pray since our arrival. "Every Friday we have adoration from eight in the morning until six at night. Every first Friday, we have adoration from eight on Friday morning until eight on Saturday -- all night on Friday night. People used to come into church through the back doors and pass the tabernacle like it wasn't even there. Now they come in the front doors and the first thing they see is the baptistry. After they bless themselves with holy water, all they've got to do is stand up and look straight ahead to see the tabernacle. It's created a sense of awe. Visitors come in here all the time now to look at the church and they say, 'Wow!' More people genuflect. Needless to say, we're real proud of this church."

One of the interior's dominant features is the large cross hanging over the back of the sanctuary. Faulkner is quick to point out that no corpus is visible because it is still Easter time. "After the Easter season, the corpus will go back on the cross."

The traditional details in the church also reflect the advice of a liturgical consultant. "It was Father Stephanos Pedrano of Prince of Peace Abbey over in Oceanside. A great guy. And Father Peter is a real people's priest. He doesn't worry so much about the business of the parish, but he worries about the religious life of the people and the liturgy of his church. He does his job and does it well."

There seems to be plenty of praise to go around for the success of the renovation. While Faulkner gives the credit to pastor Father Navarra and Father Pedrano, Father Navarra gives most of the credit to the bishop. "During the renovation Bishop Brom was very cooperative and open. He and Father Pedrano discussed the faith of the people here and what they wanted and what was important to them. He was very pastoral. We've tried to stay with the teaching of our bishop, that the tabernacle does not distract from the focal point of the altar. It's visible, so people have the option. They can pray privately in the church from a distance or they can go into the chapel to be closer and pray more intimately with the Lord there. The people wanted it to be visible."

Father Navarra on the Marian image in the choir loft: "We wanted to put Mary in the back of the church so as the people left the church they would see a vision of St. Mary offering them her protection. We had a traditional statue on the side, but we wanted a mural. I was looking at something more European like Mary being crowned queen of heaven by the Holy Trinity, but Father Pedrano from the abbey wanted something to follow the suit of the icons with the evangelists. So we looked at various icons of Mary, and we thought about the traditional one, Theotokos (Mother of God), then Father Pedrano mentioned Our Lady of Holy Protection. There's the story of a church in Constantinople that dates back many centuries, where our Blessed Mother offered her veil to protect all Christians. I believe it's still there with the icon. So our icon painter wanted to do that painting, but in a more westernized style."

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