Ocean Kayaker: Fr. John Jamnicky: “The people wanted a church that looks like a church, and honestly, so did I”

Friday, June 19, 2015

Fr. John Jamnicky: “The people wanted a church that looks like a church, and honestly, so did I”

Fr. John Jamnicky, pastor of St. Raphael the Archangel Church in Old Mill Creek, Illinois, with the help of Francis Cardinal George, former Archbishop of Chicago (RIP), played a major role in an effort toward "Restoring the Sacred" in Illinois, and that effort is still ongoing. It's a fascinating story, and it was told in some depth by Michael Tamara today in Crisis Magazine.

Fr. Jamnicky, commented on the ongoing project, and the why behind such a huge undertaking:

“The people wanted a church that looks like a church, and honestly, so did I,” declares Fr. Jamnicky. “The newer parishes in Lake County have been built in ‘big box’ styles, so this is very unique in this area of the archdiocese. People comment about the monumental scale. It’s otherworldly. It’s a little bit of heaven.”

The essay by Michael Tamara details how parts of two old and closed churches in the Illinois archdiocese were combined (and are still being combined) to restore the sacred, and once again to create a beautiful place in which the Catholic faithful can honor God.
You can read the entire essay HERE.

Transubstantiation

The Catechism of the Catholic Church: 1376: The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: “Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.”

Pope Benedict XVI

The more vigorously the primacy was displayed, the more the question came up about the extent and and limits of [papal] authority, which of course, as such, had never been considered. After the Second Vatican Council, the impression arose that the pope really could do anything in liturgical matters, especially if he were acting on the mandate of an ecumenical council. Eventually, the idea of the givenness of the liturgy, the fact that one cannot do with it what one will, faded from the public consciousness of the West. In fact, the First Vatican Council had in no way defined the pope as an absolute monarch. On the contrary, it presented him as the guarantor of obedience to the revealed Word. The pope's authority is bound to the Tradition of faith. … The authority of the pope is not unlimited; it is at the service of Sacred Tradition.