Renovation draws out beauty, solemnity of worship in St. Pius X Church in Moberly

Now that everything is completed, it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up when you walk in and see it.”

Deacon Christopher Sago

CLICK HERE to see a gallery of photos from this event.

“Instaurare Omnia in Christo.”

Pope St. Pius X’s papal motto — “To restore all things in Christ” — was also the goal for the recently completed renovation of the sanctuary in a church in Moberly that bears his name.

“We set out to create a holy place for holy worship,” said Chuck Schuman, a member of St. Pius X Parish, who oversaw the renovation. “Since we got all of this started, I think people have felt a sense of greater reverence and higher worship. That was the idea.”

The work included a new altar, ambo, presider’s chair, statue pedestals, choir screen and table for the tabernacle, all created by master woodworker Ian Byrne of Lenexa, Kansas.

Mr. Byrne previously built several of the sanctuary fixtures in the Cathedral of St. Joseph and helped restore the Proto-Cathedral of St. Peter, both in Jefferson City.

Other additions in Moberly included a new tabernacle donated by a parishioner, and a higher arched wall at the back of the sanctuary, upon which the crucifix is given greater prominence.

“The Eucharist being the source and summit for us, we wanted to present the Eucharist — the altar, the tabernacle — and the crucifix in a higher, more elevated way than it was presented previously,” said Mr. Schuman.

Statues of the Blessed Mother and of the parish’s patron saint now stand on ornate pedestals in the sanctuary.

A new tile floor and carpeting were installed throughout the church, and the front pews were reconfigured to maximize seating space and have everyone facing the same direction.

Bishop Ralph B. O’Donnell solemnly dedicated the new altar and blessed the new sanctuary fixtures at Mass in the church the evening of May 4.

Father Louis Nelen, pastor of St. Pius X Parish, concelebrated. Deacons John Hill and Christopher Sago assisted.

“Tonight,” the bishop stated, “I have the privilege of consecrating this altar as your bishop. This is the first time I’ve been given that privilege. So, this is a very special night for me. It’s a privilege to be here with you.”

Now and forever

Bishop O’Donnell thanked everyone who helped with the renovation, which has been entirely paid for.

He noted in his homily that Jesus Christ, in the gift of himself on the cross, served as the priest while offering himself as the sacrifice and himself as the altar.

“He completed in that action the gift of our salvation,” the bishop said.

Christ’s total gift of his own body is his offering to the Father, “and provides sacred food for us — real food, sacred bread, his Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.”

“It is given to us as bread for the journey,” said Bishop O’Donnell. “We gather at this altar so that the Lord can feed us.”

“Your pastor, Fr. Nelen, will offer the unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass daily here for the salvation of souls and the redemption of the world,” he continued. “You’re all part of that. By this community’s gift of the new altar, you have a special share in that action.”

The bishop spoke likewise of the generations of people who will continue to approach this altar to be renewed by Christ’s sacrifice made fully present there, and nourished for the journey to heaven by his Body and Blood.

“In some 50 years from now, some 100 years from now, the community here, your great-great-grandchildren will gather around this altar with their pastor and their bishop,” said Bishop O’Donnell. “Your generosity and your witness here today are already providing for them and gives glory to God the Father.”

The bishop echoed Jesus’s command to “go and be reconciled with your brother” before leaving a gift at the altar (Matthew 5:23-24).

“We are called as witnesses in our faith to see the challenges in the world around us,” said Bishop O’Donnell. “In our country, in our state, in our neighborhood, in our workplace, in our home, in our hearts!”

“We are to see that tension, and we are to cry out to God as the martyrs in the book of revelation did from beneath the altar to our Savior, Jesus Christ, ‘How long, O Lord?’ — so that we might submit our will to his teaching and place ourselves as witnesses under his gift, this sacrifice,” he said.

“The Lord wants us to follow him,” the bishop stated, “so that we might bring a gift of his presence daily into the life of the world.”

Oil and water

Bishop blessed water and sprinkled it on the people and on the new sanctuary fixtures.

After a prayer, the choir and people chanted the Litany of Saints, asking God’s holy men and women in heaven to pray for everyone present in the sight of God’s divine majesty.

Bishop O’Donnell then solemnly placed below the altar relics of:

• St. Dorothy, a third-century Christian who was executed for refusing to renounce her faith during the Roman emperor’s persecution of Christians;
• St. Vincent de Paul, a 17th-century priest, founder of religious communities and advocate for people in need; and
• the parish’s namesake, Pope St. Pius X, who led the Church from 1903-1915 and was declared a saint in 1954.

The tradition of including relics in altars dates back to when Mass was celebrated above the burial places of martyred Christians in the early Church.

Bishop O’Donnell poured Sacred Chrism — fragrant oil that he had consecrated during the Chrism Mass in the week leading up to Easter this year — into the shape of a cross in the marble altar top’s center and four corners.

The same oil is used in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation and to anoint priests and bishops at their ordination.

Bishop O’Donnell used his right hand to spread the fragrant oil carefully throughout the entire altar top.

“Mercifully accept our petitions, O Lord,” he prayed, “through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Saints, so that this altar may be a place where the great mysteries of salvation are accomplished and where your people offer you gifts, make known their desires, pour out their prayers, and bring forth every sentiment of worship and devotion.”

He then burned a large quantity of incense in a brazier atop the altar, filling the church with white, aromatic smoke.

Parishioners Vickie Ritter, Sarah Mefford, Regina Summers and Cliff Ancell then reverently wiped down the altar and set the new altar linens and flowers in place.

Bishop O’Donnell and Fr. Nelen then stood at the altar and called upon the Holy Spirit to consecrate unleavened bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.

Lift high the cross

St. Pius X Parish was established in 1955 by combining the former St. John the Baptist and Immaculate Conception parishes in Moberly.

It was one of the first parishes in the country to be named after the newly canonized, beloved pope of the early 20th century.

The current church building, originally named for St. John the Baptist, was completed in 1911. It has weathered two fires (in 1946 and 1987) and a tornado on July 4, 1995.

Several renovations in past decades simplified the interior, although the resplendent stained-glass windows and Stations of the Cross remained.

When Father Joby Parakkacharuvil Thomas, a missionary priest from the Archdiocese of Kottayam, India, became pastor of the Moberly parish, he and the people set about placing new emphasis on the sacredness of Catholic worship, especially the Eucharist.

Plans were drawn up and refined while Fr. Thomas launched a successful fund drive for the project.

Fr. Nelen continued working with parishioners on the plans, the final version of which Archbishop W. Shawn McKnight, who led this diocese from 2018-2025, approved before his installation as archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas.

“One thing we really wanted was to elevate the crucifix higher and make it more prominent,” said Mr. Schuman.

That required making the arched wall along the back of the sanctuary about five feet taller and finishing it with ornately milled woodwork.

Fr. Nelen had worked with Mr. Byrne as pastor of Cathedral of St. Joseph Parish during comprehensive renovations to that structure in 2022-23.

The priest and Mr. Schuman sent specifications for the design of the altar and other fixtures.

“I would take it from there and give them some options and nail it down until we got to these final designs,” said Mr. Byrne.

At Mr. Schuman’s suggestion, Mr. Byrne designed a bas-relief depicting two angels to be carved onto the front of the altar, flanking an image of a chalice and the Most Blessed Sacrament with rays of light.

The altar and the rest of the woodwork are fashioned of red oak wood.

“Good ol’ oak!” said Mr. Byrne. “It’s a really hard, durable wood. That’s why there are still so many old altars that were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, because they used good strong, resilient wood.”

The new altar is substantially larger than the one that preceded it and is permanently anchored to the floor.

Including the marble top, it weighs about 600 pounds.

Mr. Byrne drew inspiration from some of the old-world lines and flourishes within St. Pius X Church, along with other churches such as the mid-1800s-vintage Cathedral of St. Patrick in New York.

“There are at least a dozen altars inside that beautiful cathedral!” he said. “There are hundreds of ideas there that I use all the time. So, now there’s a little bit of St. Patrick’s in St. Pius.”

He noted that every altar is its own creation.

“I try not to ever do the same thing twice,” said Mr. Byrne. “We always change it up a little bit.”

Home, sweet home

Mr. Schuman, a retired highway designer for the Missouri Department of Transportation, and several other parishioners worked on raising up the back wall of the sanctuary and installing and staining the wood trim.

“We’d sneak in at night and work for a couple of hours and clean up our mess, and everybody had a surprise the next day when they’d see what we had done,” he said.

The only weekend the church could not be used for Mass was when the pews were removed and the carpet replaced.

“We moved everything out of the way, the pews; we redid all the flooring, and we opened up the baptistry in the back and did some general freshening up around the church,” he said.

While working beneath the floor, Mr. Schuman found a mason’s hammer with a charred wooden handle from one of the fires.

“It was probably some old brick mason’s hammer from when the church was built in the early 1900s,” he surmised. “The handle was very old-fashioned in shape.”

Deacon Sago, a lifelong St. Pius X parishioner, was ordained in 2019.

“This is the second renovation I’ve been through at this church,” he noted. “A lot of people were saying they loved the way it was. But, now that everything is completed, it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up when you walk in and see it.”

Deacon Sago and Mr. Byrne both said Fr. Nelen helped make the project fun.

“Sometimes, things like this can be a drudgery, but he made it a really enjoyable process,” said Deacon Sago. “He enjoyed every minute of it.”

The deacon said there are a lot of good reasons to make the church sanctuary as beautiful as possible.

“For one thing, we want to put our best foot forward,” he said. “Everything that’s important stands out so much more now.”

He noted that it’s possible to build the most beautiful sanctuary on the face of the earth, “but that doesn’t mean people are going to come and worship here.”

“But people do come to this church,” he said. “It’s a great community, and it’s grown by leaps and bounds. People love it here. We’re very blessed.”