.
I was at the Shrine a few years ago. The plan then was for the
Buddhists to renovate the old seminary building, but they didn't say it
was for a temple. I got it from speaking to a Buddhist caretaker who was
walking around there that they had plans to purchase the circular church
building as well, but that would come later. The seminary structure is a 3
story brick building about 150 yards away on level ground (fairly level)
from the church.
The church is round in its floor plan, and the seating is concentric circles,
with the sanctuary area down low in the center. People seated about 10
rows back are at eye level with the celebrant at the altar. The building is
all wood, made out of logs. It's kind of rustic in appearance and seems
to be an attempt to recall the style of native Indians' life in the area,
although they couldn't have had any buildings this size.
The altar area has four altars, facing north, south, east and west, so to
speak (I'm not sure if they are arranged according to the compass but
they face outwards from the center at quarter points.) Therefore, it
would be possible to have 4 Masses going on at the same time there, but
I do not know if that has been done lately. Apparently it used to be
done in the early days when the place was first built, around 1938 when
the North American Martyrs had been canonized (after 300 years!) and
there was a lot of enthusiasm for their cause, since it was "news!"
Personally, I felt rather out of sorts in the place. It seemed too much
like the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles, where the Kings play
hockey, and The Who and Bruce Springsteen had concerts. Staying up
all night in the Forum parking lot to get advance reservations for tickets
the next day was an image I couldn't get out of my mind when at Mass in
Auriesville. The ampitheater-style seating is like nothing I've ever seen
in any other Catholic church. It really has the look and feel of a
CIRCUS. When you're seated in the pews, you can see to your right
and left all the profiles of the people along your row, because the row
curves. A bit further away, you can see the faces of people who are
sitting in the row behind you because due to its curve, it is within your
peripheral vision at around 25 feet distant. The farther you go back,
away from the altar, the higher you get, because the floor slopes up.
Those in the back rows look down at the tops of the heads of those
in front of them, and stand about 10 feet higher than the sanctuary.
This is the same format that Mahony's so-called cathedral in Los
Angeles was built with, so there I was again distracted with bad
memories!!
Outside the church, there are some large crosses stuck in the ground
that stand for the various companion-saints of St. Isaac Jogues. A wide
dirt trail goes off into the low canyon beyond. As you walk that way,
amongst the pine trees, you are going away from the church and away
from the distant seminary building which is on the other side of the
church. You walk down a dirt road, really, (no vehicles allowed) which
has stations set up for reading short descriptions of the things that
happened along the way there nearly 400 years ago. The walk is about
a quarter mile long, down a gentle slope of about 5% grade. At the
end of the trail is a large clearing, a valley floor surrounded by trees on
all sides. It's a very quaint location, and perfect for meditation and
recollection and reflection. Many groups have had meetings there.
In the bushes and among the trees on two adjacent sides that form
something of a corner, are several altars. They all have divots carved
out of their tops to accept altar stones which the priests bring with them.
You have to clean out the dirt and tree droppings that have accuмulated
with snow melt and rainfall in those divots to make room for the stone,
when you're preparing the altar for Mass. One of the altars is next to
a display case that contains a wax model of a full-sized Jesus lying
in the tomb, before His resurrection. When I saw it, there was a lot
of weather damage and it was not really presentable. But fortunately
it was not vandalized. It seems that protecting it from deliberate
damage might be a difficult task, as usually there is no one around
there, and vandals could easily get away with making trouble. Why they
would do so I don't know, but you know what I mean, these things go
on in some places.
The point of all this is, I have not seen or heard any word of this valley
floor area being sold to the Buddhists. It is really the most holy of
the grounds because it is the area where the body parts of two or
more of the martyrs were scattered by wild animals. There are signs,
like the ones on the trail going down there, that tell visitors that the
very ground you're walking on is mixed with first class relics of these
saints, the American Martyrs. The valley is almost the size a football
field, maybe more like a soccer field. But I doubt anyone has played
such games there. It's not a place for playing games, but for prayer.
So if you're looking to get all worked up over the sale of the seminary,
I understand, but don't get that confused with the area where the
ground is preserved as the resting place of the martyrs. Certainly the
seminary building would have been a wonderful place for a traditional
seminary (instead of Virginia??), but that didn't happen.
We could easily presume that the North American Martyrs is not a
theme that the Menzingen-denizens would prefer to be real snug with
in the long term, correct? I'd say highly likely, like around 95%, that
is, about the amount of Vat.II that's "acceptable." Okay?