Restoration of Byzantine-style Catholic church

The 1995 fire had been set by a Des Moines man consumed with hatred over the Catholic church's stands on homosexuality, masturbation and abortion.

But ironically, the people trying to bring the old church back to life found themselves at odds with people from their own diocese and their own parish council - people who thought it would be more sensible to take the $3.9 million insurance settlement, build a more modest $3 million church to replace it, and have cash left over. ... She's one of the many who believe that the Catholic leadership should have renovated the old structure "instead of building this other barn out here, as we call it."

Reading stuff like this is painful. One person left the Church over this. I am glad efforts are being made, but it is truly sad that the parish leadership chose otherwise. Our parish currently worships in a typical 70's building and after donations to build a new "more traditional" church failed to come in, the parish decided to go with a scaled down church and "keep the look of the old church" ... trust me, there is no look to it. Who deliberately chooses ugly or economical or time sensitive? It used to take decades to build churches. Sacrifices were made and time was usually one of them. Now we find ourselves motivated by deadlines and cost cutting ...

And in other recent news, we have folks wanting to run churches like Wal-Mart.

I have to keep telling myself that places like this still exist but I am having to wonder how long they will when such flippant attitudes towards restoring them or building anything new to compare seem so rampant.

The gates will not prevail ... the gates will not prevail ... the gates will not prevail.