It has been a little while since we have shown a church as part of our ever popular "before and after" series and today we are very pleased to be able to showcase the work of Stephen S. Cascio at his very own parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
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| Left: Before + Right: After |
The challenge, of course, was moving from a relatively minimalist sanctuary to something more indicative of the immemorial Catholic tradition, while still preserving some original aspects of the church. In particular there was a desire to maintain the the original baldachin with its imagery of the Holy Spirit, which by now covered only the tabernacle.
The other desire was to give the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, to this point placed off to the side of the sanctuary, greater prominence as both the patroness of the church and the religious order who staff it. To accomplish this, a traditional altar with reredos was installed that would house the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
In addition to this most central addition to the sanctuary, around this were added various other images of Carmelite saints and otherwise:
Here, then, was the completed sanctuary:
And here, most importantly of all, was Mass offered at the newly installed altar in the ancient liturgical rites:
For more information, please visit the website of Stephen Cascio where he provides full details on the project.
