The Blessed Sacrament has a new home in the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.
On Sunday, Feb. 20, Bishop Barry C. Knestout blessed the tabernacle that is secured on an oak pedestal on top of a threestep oak platform behind the altar. The tabernacle and pedestal are framed by an opening in the ironwork above them.
During his homily, the bishop noted the importance of having the tabernacle in this location.
“The placing of the tabernacle here in the sanctuary, in the chancel, is an architectural detail that could be resolved or arranged in many other ways,” he said. “For us today, however, it becomes a physical reminder of the centrality of God in our lives and the desire we each must receive and allow the Holy Spirit to dwell at the center of our hearts and lives.”
The refurbished, bronze tabernacle, with etchings of grapes and other fruit, is painted with red enamel. Purchased from St. Joseph Catholic Church, a parish in Hanover, Pennsylvania, which had closed, it is over three-and-ahalf feet high and weighs 240 pounds.
The tabernacle replaces one that had been on loan from Catholic Campus Ministry and which was considered too small for the sanctuary, according to Father Anthony Marques, cathedral rector. It has been returned to the CCM chapel.
Echoing Bishop Knestout, Father Marques highlighted the placement of the tabernacle. “The installation of the new tabernacle in the center of the sanctuary helps to restore the architectural integrity of the cathedral and emphasizes that the Eucharist is the center of our lives,” he said.
At the beginning of Mass, Bishop Knestout blessed the new cathedra (the bishop’s chair) that sits atop a three-step platform on the left side of the sanctuary facing the pulpit. The “Ceremonial of Bishops” instructs that the cathedra “stands alone and is permanently installed. Its placement should make it clear that the bishop is presiding over the whole community of the faithful” (47).
“The sanctuary furnishings are not just beautiful adornments; they also express Catholic beliefs,” said Father Marques. “This new arrangement highlights the bishop’s role as the shepherd and teacher of the local Church or diocese.”
Much of the funding for the $44,900 tabernacle and cathedra projects was provided by the Tom and Glory Sullivan Foundation, Inc. These are part of the ongoing improvements that have been made at the cathedral in recent years, including a new bell tower roof and new security system, as well as making restrooms ADA-compliant.
Noting the significance a cathedral has in a diocese, Father Marques related a story about when the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart was dedicated in 1906. Archbishop John J. Keane, archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa, who served as the fifth bishop of Richmond, stated, “The ministrations of divine truth and divine grace that shall hallow this sanctuary for all the future shall have that above all else for their meaning and their purpose, to draw all men, without distinction, closer to the Heart of Christ, and thereby to draw them in fraternal charity closer to one another. May this twofold divine love be, not only to the people of Richmond, but to the people of the Old Dominion, a fountain of most precious blessings both for time and for eternity; and may generations yet unborn bless and thank God for the day when their cathedral was consecrated to the Heart of Jesus.”
Father Marques added, “Those who worship in the cathedral today belong to one of those ‘generations yet unborn’ that Archbishop Keane mentioned. Now it is our turn to bless and thank God in our beautiful cathedral church.”