When Fr. Cleary came to Georgetown in 1951, amongst so many other things, he built a beautiful new Sanctuary, with an emphasis on transcendent beauty. It had exquisite gilded angels on two, almost candy-cane-colored, poles to stand sentinel protecting the holy of holies. He procured antique fittings from France, including the two statues of Our Lady and St. Joseph, and the pair of presidential chairs. He had the original East window of the Sacred Heart and St. Margaret Mary replaced to form a new reredos to his sumptuous Altar.

Fr. Cleary had a very good eye for liturgical design. He understood the ‘bones’ of Sacred Heart were an English aesthetic of the C13. The church is sometimes described as a ‘carpenter gothic’ church, and although ‘carpenter gothic’ is its own idiom, in many ways, Sacred Heart, does not conform to that category. The belfry in fact takes its design inspiration from C13 towers and bellcotes of medieval England, in particular those of Essex, Surrey and Sussex; whilst the use of single gothic lancets evokes a discipline that ultimately derives from the prototype choir of William of Sens in Canterbury Cathedral, completed in 1180, and reaching is apogee in the great cathedral of Salisbury, consecrated in 1258.

Sadly, just 25 years later, Fr. Cleary’s Sanctuary was dismantled: some of the pieces were disposed of and others were stored in the rafters, never to see the light of day for 50 years. In the 1970s there was a sense that such highly decorated churches needed to be simplified in order to include the people. So it was that paintings were covered over, tapestries removed and Altars pulled apart. Now we are beginning to ask sober questions about this: did it work? Are the people more engaged because the Altars were shifted around? Do people prefer a Sanctuary emptied of statues? Do they find it more appealing? Have more people started coming to Mass because our liturgy is ‘understandable?’

Perhaps it is time for a different approach. There is no shame in concluding that, with the best of intentions, things may have gone too far. The Lord talks about the wise householder as one “who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matt 13:52) and that should be the watchword for liturgical restoration in our church and beyond. As Pope Francis has said, reality is greater than ideas – and this means that our Faith should be rendered visible, tangible and relatable. All of these speak in a language beyond words; one that is written on the human heart, because God has desired to be discovered by his creatures in order to love and serve Him in this life, and to be happy with Him in the next.