Artist rescues statues from closed Catholic churches

Canton Rep ^ | September 14, 2010 | Charita Goshay

[NYer]

The Museum of Divine Statues will occupy the former St. Hedwig Catholic Church in Lakewood. Museum founder Lou McClung has amassed about 65 pieces for the nonprofit exhibit. A December opening is planned.

Museum of Divine Statues curator Lou McClung of Lakewood describes how environment and neglect have damaged this statue of St. Sebastian, rescued from a closed parish in Cleveland. A professional make-up artist, McClung taught himself restoration techniques.

Lou McClung of Lakewood applied his skills as a makeup artist and manufacturer to restore statues such as this sculpture of Jesus from the 1920s.

[agere_contra]

Cool!

[netmilsmom]

There is a church in Bad Axe, MI that put up a false wall to cover the Altar Arch. I would LOVE to see what’s behind it!

[Genoa]

The taste for modernism notwithstanding, there must be a demand for these in Catholic churches or schools somewhere.

[vladimir998]

There is!

[Mercat]

My “un-churched” and even then non-Catholic sister in law has brought back several old wooden sacred statutes from her travels in central and south America. I saw hello to them whenever we visit her home and hope that they confer some sort of blessing. She also has some rather demonic looking art too however.

[ApplegateRanch]

Very interesting article, and not least because it explains how he is legally rescuing the statues. All too often these days, especially in Lib-speak, "rescuing" has become an euphemism for breaking in and stealing.

Glad to see they are being restored & will be displayed...and, when appropriate, returned.

[TheThirdRuffian]

“I saw hello to them whenever we visit her home and hope that they confer some sort of blessing.”

Sounds kind of like a graven image/pagan thing you have going on there. They are just chunks of stuff.

[goat granny]

I’ll bet he has some of the most beautiful religious sculptures. I was given an Infant of Prague decades ago from an old church in Detroit..My daughter now has it in her formal living room....he is beautiful, stands about 2 feet tall.....very old and still had the original paint...

[goat granny]

If you live in Michigan have you had the privilege of seeing the Shrine in Indian River. It has the largest wooden cross 70 feet tall and it took several years after the cross when up before the crucified Christ went up...It overlooks Burt Lake. (the cross was made out of one piece of wood...google it, its worth the trip. We use to have a cottage about 9 miles from Indian River so saw the whole thing unfold....The cross sits on a hill and there are steps for those that want to go to the cross on their knees.

[TASMANIANRED]

What a worthy task.

[netmilsmom]

I’ll have to look that up. Thanks!

[netmilsmom]

>>Sounds kind of like a graven image/pagan thing you have going on there. They are just chunks of stuff.<<

And that picture of your mother is just a piece of paper. It’s not the paper that makes you think of your mom, it’s the image on it.

Same with statues. Mercat is not talking to the chunk of stone, rather to the Saint that it represents.

[johniegrad]

Sounds kind of like a graven image/pagan thing you have going on there. They are just chunks of stuff.

I was going to post "In before the first misunderstood praying to idols post" but you beat me. Congratulations.

[TheThirdRuffian]

“Mercat is not talking to the chunk of stone, rather to the Saint that it represents.”

I would hope so.

Not what his or her post says, though.

[TheThirdRuffian]

“I was going to post “In before the first misunderstood praying to idols post” but you beat me. Congratulations.”

You might want to read the post in question, before defending it. I’ll copy it for you:

“I saw hello to them whenever we visit her home and hope that they confer some sort of blessing. She also has some rather demonic looking art too however.”

That’s totemism, at best. It is not accepted Roman Catholic tradition.

[netmilsmom]

>>Not what his or her post says, though.<<

Sometimes Catholics write like Catholics. We understand what we mean. Maybe it’s just that I’m Catholic but I understood exactly what Mercat meant.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks ApplegateRanch.

[annalex]

In Soviet Russia, when Orthodox churches were summarily closed, looted for gold and bronze, desecrated, and the priests shot, the peasants would rescue the Holy Icons in their attics and basements, often at a risk of being branded as class enemies themselves.

As the Soviet regime mellowed after death of Stalin, icons were displayed in secular museums.

Somehow, in free America a similar, albeit far less violent dynamic of vandalism was in place not long ago. Thank God it is changing. Let us not forget, however, that the proper place for sacred art is a consecrated space.