[URBAN NOTE] The National Post on the reopening of St. Michael's Cathedral

[rfmcdonald]

In "Toronto’s St. Michael’s Cathedral reopens to joyous applause after five year, $128M renovation", the National Post's Joseph Breen reports on the reopening of the central building of the Roman Catholic Church in Toronto. My theological and political issues with said church aside, this is an attractive building. It is good to see it back in use.

Fr. Michael Busch, rector of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto, was only making a little joke, about how people are always asking how much work it must be, renovating a huge downtown church all by yourself.

It was hardly an applause line, especially from a priest in a pulpit. But this was a midday Mass to thank the workers who spent five years shoring up the foundation of the 168-year-old centre of Upper Canadian Catholicism, bolstering the stone and brick with hidden steel, installing tiled floors and new statues, and painting the ceiling by hand.

Even after all the singing, backed by a brass band and a new Quebec-made organ, something about that reno joke sparked a contagious enthusiasm. It was the first chance for people to give thanks personally, rather than just hear Archbishop of Toronto Thomas Collins say it.

It started with one man in a worker’s jacket in the front row, rising to his feet and clapping.

Supportive applause rose gingerly from the pews. Some people around him stood up, too, but tentatively. Then the workers joined in together, and churchly decorum stood no chance.