Mother Angelica and OLAN's Broken Cross

While I admire the many decades of faithful service by Mother Angelica, her sisters, and the Franciscan Brothers of the Eternal Word, I am deeply scandalized by the condition of the church at the "OLAM Shrine." The Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament & Our Lady of Angels was built north of Birmingham, Alabama in the countryside of Hanceville. It is beautiful and imposing, lavishly funded by five families of anonymous donors, and others. It is beautiful and peaceful. But it is scarred. The cross over the church is broken by a lightening strike during its building, and for an incredible to believe reason, has not been repaired. Mother Angelica explains in a sign that it was "God's will" and that the defaced cross should actually be viewed as the Greek "tau" sign "worn by early Christians who had to hide their faith." So the cross sits over the church, basically decapitated of its upright beam. You can see where the cross upright should be because the metal support piping inside the concrete cross remains. It looks like a war wound and a slap at the crucified Christ, because it sits unrepaired on top of a lavish church, because of a superstitious belief in how God "communicates."

Um, well, let me think. On September 26, 1997 the St. Francis of Assisi Basilica in Italy was seriously damaged by an earthquake. In fact, four people died within the Basilica, including two Franciscan friars. Part of the vault was lost along with a precious fresco by Cimabue (one of my personal favorite artists, by the way.) I guess by this logic, God was sending a message. I guess the Fransciscan friars should have disbanded. I guess the Basilica should have remained a ruined sore. And I guess to be really sure we understand "God's will" we should have shrouded any Cimabue frescos. But instead, faith and reason pervailed. The Basilica was beautifully restored over a period of two years. It remains the mother church of the Fransiscan Order, and is a world heritage site.

I do not understand why Mother Angelica did not understand that, well, lightening tends to strike high up manses on hills, in a countryside prone to warm weather storms. Maybe investing in less gold and more lightening protective devices would have helped. Did she understand back then that churches, to this day, sustain damage in natural disasters (look at the recent tornados in Florida.) And that rather than sending some mumbo-jumbo New Age message, if there is any message, it is to be grateful when there is not a loss of human life (praise God) AND that God is with all the people through all the storms, and does not exempt God's own temples from the cycles of nature. I have beautiful pictures of OLAM and cannot look at them because of the wound of the unrepaired cross over the church. And I gag knowing that "tau crosses" are sold in the gift shop. By the way, it is not confirmed that it was tau crosses per se that are the one time worn symbols mentioned in the bible. Do we need New Age Greek symbolism when Christ on the Cross is real? I think not. But worse, after so many years of faithful hearing and obedience to God, I do not understand what, back in 1999 or whenever this lightening strike occurred, made Mother Angelica (and those supporting her) believe such a bizarre interpretation of God. A guilty conscience about something? Confess and repair the cross, then. After all, the Basilica recovered from actual deaths in their earthquake, and they praised God and rebuilt. They did not make the earthquake "all about them."