My earliest memories of church are cold metal folding
chairs… the ones that include a little padded kneeler that folded out on the
backside of the chair… a modern wonder for Catholic Mass. Queen of All Saints Catholic Church in
Warden, Washington in 1961 held Mass in a vacant retail space downtown, while
the congregation raised the funds for a grand church that was built on the edge
of town -- 1100 South Pine. Queen of All
Saints stands proudly on a knoll overlooking irrigated farmland. The lush irrigated farmland was the result of
the Columbia Basin Project and that engineering marvel of an irrigation system
started at the Grand Coulee Dam.
My curiosity about the Columbia Basin Project got the best
of me, so I decided to do a little bit of research. Using oh-so-convenient Google Search, I
looked up the Columbia Basin Project and then checked out the Bureau of
Reclamation website and clicked on Project History. There, I found a draft research essay that provides a
fascinating history of the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam and the
Columbia Basin Project. From that, I
learned that my family and I moved to Warden just as the Columbia Basin Project
was starting to take off. Warden was a
bustling little town in the 1960’s. That
bustling little town’s Catholic community was able to raise money to build a
mighty fine church. I have no idea how
proud the adults were when Queen of All Saints church on South Pine opened
its doors. As a kid… I was very thankful for nice wooden
pews. They seemed so much warmer than
the folding metal chairs.
My early memories of cold metal chairs include the Priest
facing the front wall with a table up against it (the altar) – he was talking
to the wall instead of to the people. I
remember the Priest saying stuff in a strange language (Latin). I also remember that Mass was a somber affair
that seemed to last way longer than an hour.
If I remember right, I usually sat to the left of Mom , Dad sat right
next to Mom, and my two brothers sat to the right of Dad. And then my sister, Teresa, was born in
1962. I think that it was soon after
Teresa was born when our beautiful newly constructed church, which even included a magnificent pipe organ, was ready to use for worship.
Around that time, Mass started to change. Instead of the Priest saying all of the
prayers with his back to us all of the time, we actually got to see his
face. Also, the Priest started saying
everything in English instead of Latin.
I remember some of the older people kind of wondering what was going on,
mentioning something about Vatican II.
Doing a Google search once again, I found information about the Second
Vatican Council in Britannica online (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-Catholicism/The-Second-Vatican-Council). There, I found the following:
…During his
brief reign Pope John XXIII (reigned 1958–63) issued several important
encyclicals. Of special interest is Mater et
magistra (“Mother and Teacher”), published on May 15, 1961, which called
for justice and the common good as the norms of social conduct. Two years
later, in Pacem in terris (April 11, 1963;
“Peace on Earth”), Pope John XXIII addressed himself not only to members of the
church but to “all Men of Good Will.” In this encyclical he formulated, more
completely than any previous pope had done, a social philosophy of peace among
people and between nations…
…This spirit of
reform and social concern animated Vatican II, which Pope John XXIII convoked
but did not live to see to its conclusion. The council brought about drastic
changes in the life and worship of the church, encouraging the use of the vernacular
in the liturgy and greater lay participation everywhere. Perhaps even more
historic were its actions regarding those outside the Roman Catholic Church. To
Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Christians, the council extended the hand of
fraternal understanding instead of denouncing them as heretics. To the Jewish community,
it addressed words of reconciliation and regret for the anti-Semitism of the
Christian past. To the world religions it spoke of the church’s admiration for
the spiritual values that had been preserved in traditions that did not know
the name of Christ. And to all people, believers and unbelievers, the council
expressed its respect for the integrity and freedom of humanity and its
repudiation of coercion as a means of bringing people to faith. Underlying all
this was its Declaration on Religious Freedom
(December 7, 1965; Dignitatis humanae),
which was based on the philosophy of the dignity of the human person and the
right to religious freedom…
Reading those few paragraphs
in Britannica online, I was amazed at the thought that Vatican II may have
contributed tremendously to my values and understanding of spirit (or
Spirit with a capital "S"?). As my story unfolds in future
blog posts, I will work to help you better understand what I mean by this. Today, however, I will just say that the
formalities of pre-Vatican II were a true mystery to me and this young, little girl was truly perplexed as to why some of the adults were so upset
with the changes that were happening at church.