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Posted on 03/15/2005 6:19:49 AM PST by NYer
MADISON, Wis. -- Firefighters spent Monday putting out hot spots after an early-morning blaze destroyed St. Raphael Cathedral, 222 W. Main St., in downtown Madison, near the Capitol.
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The fire was reported at about 5:30 a.m. Monday. Large plumes of dark smoke could be seen from all directions toward the Capitol. Several area fire departments were called in to help Madison firefighters contain the fire. Firefighters got the fire under control at about 8 a.m. Monday. The fire burned through the church's roof and it collapsed. Firefighters spent much of the day working to save the church's steeple, which is a downtown Madison landmark.
It's unknown how the fire started.
At noon Monday, officials said they had planned to take the steeple down to protect the 100-foot spire from possible collapse. However, Monday night, they said the structure is secure enough to leave it up, for now. Workers from Findorff Builders were planning to use large cranes to bring the steeple down safely.
Findorff just erected the brand new spire in November. It was considered the crowning jewell of a million-dollar restoration of the church. The high-tech spire was designed to withstand the test of time -- as well as fire. The inside is made with steel and fire-treated wood. The outside is copper.
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No one was injured in the three-alarm blaze.
All streets within two blocks of St. Raphael, including Fairchild, Henry and West Main, were shut down to drivers during the fire Monday.
Due to the fire, several streets in the vicinity remain closed through Tuesday morning -- basically the block immediately surrounding the cathedral:
Shuttles are running again Tuesday from the Alliant Energy Center. Shuttles will run from 6 to 9 a.m.; 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.; and 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The Tommy G. Thompson Commerce building at the corner of West Washington and Fairchild was evacuated because of the fire. Since the commerce building's air handling system would draw smoke into the building from the still-smoldering fire scene, it remained closed the rest of the day, but the building will be open Tuesday.
Some say it's a miracle the 40-ton steeple at St. Raphael's survived an early-morning blaze that destroyed the city's oldest Catholic church.
St. Raphael's is about 150 years old, making it the oldest Catholic church in Madison. It's the center of worship in the Diocese of Madison.
Msgr. Paul Swain told News 3's Rob Starbuck he was in the building when the fire broke out and actually heard about the fire on a radio report and quickly got out of the building. Swain said the timing of the fire is unfortunate considering next week is Holy Week and the Easter holiday is soon; however, he remains optimistic.
"Our faith is not built around buildings, it's built around Christ who rose at Easter," he said. "The whole theme of Easter is light coming out of darkness. We are people of hope. We'll persevere and move forward."
Bishop Robert Morlino of the Madison Diocese regularly celebrates Sunday mass at St. Rafael and told News 3 he's in a "state of prayer and a state of shock."
Hundreds of people of all backgrounds turned out to watch the church burn Monday -- staring in disbelief at the scene.
"It's so sad," downtown alderman Mike Verveer said Monday. "I've been here since about 6 a.m. and just seeing the number of people coming up so emotional, tears streaming down their cheeks .... when you think of all the memories that took place in this beautiful edifice."
In addition to Easter celebrations, Madison is near its 150th birthday and honoring landmarks, such as St. Rafael's, is to be part of the festivities.
"It's a very sad day for Madison," said Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. "We're about to celebrate our sesquacentennial as a city-- the building's actually two years older than the city."
Ugh.
Well, at least they have a place to celebrate Mass until the main building is repaired.
When St. Agnes Church in NYC burned, we ended up with an even better one! (Of course, that was before Cdl. Egan...)
If we ask the Vatican, they'll say, get out of the building as quickly and safely as possible.
Now this is getting ridiculous. When the Priest accidentally drops a Host on the ground while giving Holy Communion, no desecration or sacrilege has occurred, despite the "unintentional carelessness".
A desecration would be for the Priest to purposely throw the Host to the floor or to step on it ("Then came the unbelievers/who wrecked the House of God/the Sacrament of Jesus/beneath their feet they trod"), or for anti-Catholic bigots to purposefully burn down the Cathedral. OTOH, an electrical fire or lightning strike would not cause a desecration, and the Church would not need to be reconciled afterwards, because no evil had been done. Nor is a Church reconciled after a Host is accidentally dropped.
The sacred linens are supposed to be washed until the traces of wine are so diluted as to no longer be wine - since He is only present under the species of wine and bread, when all semblance of wine and bread disappears He is no longer present.
You cannot make it "so diluted as to no longer be wine". That is a physical impossibility. Wine does not transmorgify itself because a lot of water has been added to it (just like Coors Lite is still vaguely a beer-like substance). Two drops of wine in a barrel of water are still two drops of wine, and can be detected by chemical testing. Two drops of Sarin Gas will kill you. If I splash you with two drops of Sarin and a barrel of water, would you feel better about it?
The sacrarium is a way of disposing of any minute droplets in a respectful way where they can peacefully decompose over time into basic chemical subtances without disturbance. It does not "un-Transubstantiate" the wine.
He is only physically present in the communicant for a few minutes.
Because the physical elements are broken down into something else by the digestive process (namely, into sugars). Dilution with water is not involved - it is a chemical transformation.
Also, recall the pious practice of ... drinking only water for the hour following Mass.
I've never heard of such a thing anywhere, and common practices such as the Easter Vigil feast immediately following Mass, or the Monastic schedule where breakfast immediately follows the conventual Mass put the lie to it. Someone has sold you a bill of goods there I think.
I was thinking the same thing as I listened to new reports of this.
>> After all, doesn't the washing of sacred linens in the sacrarium result in particle of the precious blood being washed down the drain? <<
Hermann... I saw your name on another thread, realized I hadn't seen you and wondered what you'd been up to. So I went to your page, saw this interesting article and popped here. And I find you asking something ELSE you certainly should know better than to have to ask.
Which makes me ask something seriously I was almost going to say jokingly before:
Are you the same person, or are you the son/wife/friend of the Hermann I knew, using the same screen name, like Ann Landers or Beetle Bailey or Englebert Humperdink?
The dilution of wine with water doesn't make the wine disappear. It dilutes it. We believe that Christ is present in there merest spec or droplet that is still bread or wine. Therefore, the consecrated wine droplets washed off the sacred linenes into the sacrarium are still consecrated wine until such time as they break down into vinegar. Or do you also believe that water is a transmorgifier and can change wine into something else merely by adding enough of it to the wine?
What exactly have you been taught about the Sacrarium? And did you read my #25 here?
The idea of the sacraium is the proper and repsectful disposure of the particles of the sacred species on the linens, not their annhilation.
>> What exactly have you been taught about the Sacrarium? <<
It sounded like you were suggesting that disposing of the washwater was equivalent to pouring the wine out onto the ground!
(two points for the comment about Coors Lite, by the way.)
If so, that wasn't my intent. My larger point was that there is no sacrilege in not rescuing the sacred species from a fire, although it is certainly pious to do so if there is no risk to oneself.
Our current priest began his ministry as one of the priests serving at the cathedral in Worcester, MA. According to him, about once a week the burglar alarm would go off. It was his duty to go to the cathedral and check things out. Usually it wasn't anyone breaking in, but a bum who had passed out under a pew during the day trying to break out.
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Paul Swain: "Our faith is not built around buildings"
