February 5, 2020
By Tim Swift/Catholic Review
Photos: Kevin J. Parks
So, stop me if you have heard this one: A priest walks into a bar – that used to be a church.
But when Father T. Austin Murphy Jr. arrives Friday, Feb. 7, for the grand opening of the Ministry of Brewing in the old St. Michael the Archangel Church in Upper Fells Point, it won’t be a joke. It will be to witness a dramatic transformation of a historic Baltimore sanctuary.
The transformation has some in the area bullish on a neighborhood revival, but others are dismayed that what once was a place for weddings, baptisms and funerals is now a trendy nightspot.
“It certainly is not what the church was built for,” said Father Murphy, pastor of Christ the King Church in Glen Burnie. “And certainly, it’s not what the church had served over the hundred-some-odd years that it was operational. But also, what were they going to do with the building?”
Here’s somebody who’s willing to invest in it as a historical place in the city so that the building will always be there,” Father Murphy said.
Stained-glass windows crafted in Munich, most of the pews and the altar are long gone. The massive statue of the church’s namesake, carved in walnut, sits in a Pennsylvania warehouse waiting for a new home. But much of St. Michael’s remains — its soaring ceilings lined with beautiful frescos, its towering Corinthian columns and even its ornate wooden confessional.
After weeks of delays, the owners of Baltimore’s newest brewery and brewpub will officially open the doors this week. But how did one of Baltimore’s most historic Catholic churches – built in 1852 to serve German immigrants and once led by St. John Neumann – become a brewery? It’s complicated.
After years of declining attendance and much-needed and expensive repairs, St. Michael was closed, and its mostly Spanish-speaking parishioners were invited to Sacred Heart of Jesus/Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in Highlandtown in 2011.
Full story at CatholicReview.org.
댓글