By Rachel Konieczny
News Editor
The heart of campus is being recreated, according to Fr. Ross Chamberland, O.F.M.
Chamberland, executive director of the Lateran Center for Catholic Identity, said he undertook the project of instituting a chapel of Eucharistic adoration in St. Joseph’s Oratory to help promote, cultivate and preserve St. Bonaventure’s Catholic identity.
“The oratory building had more or less been dormant—it hadn’t really been used for any prayerful purposes for quite a while,” Chamberland said.
Chamberland said the oratory will reserve the blessed sacrament inside of a glass tabernacle. Renovations include the restored original flooring, painted walls, new lighting fixtures, handcrafted wooden benching around the walls, a new pedestal for the tabernacle and a security system that requires ID cards for access. Chamberland said donors raised about $10,000 for the renovations.
Chamberland said the woodwork, completed by university carpenter and maintenance worker Joseph Questa, is the oak from the original tables in the Hickey Dining Hall crafted by the friars.
“[Questa] preserved that oak and repurposed it in this chapel which is really kind of beautiful because we try to make the connection between the celebrations that happen at the table of the Lord in the chapel and the celebrations that happen at the table in the Hickey,” Chamberland said. “We want to [convey the idea] that food is food and that God is present in all of those examples and situations.”
The oratory, built in 1927, originally served as a chapel for nuns living on campus, Chamberland said. The late Fr. Thomas Plassmann, former university president, blessed the current location of the oratory and prayed that the university be spiritually built by the carpenter Joseph, the father of Jesus.
“We talk about things like strategic planning and curriculum revision and finding new leadership for the presidency,” Chamberland said. “I think that what needs to be a part of that conversation needs to be the power of prayer and the presence of Christ in our community. I think that this is one way in which we can really help make that come alive.”
Vanessa Hulse, a junior chemistry major, said she plans to use the oratory as often as she can.
“I think it’s going to be a really great place for students to go to,” Hulse said. “Personally I’m very excited about it especially since the University Chapel is generally not open 24/7.”
The oratory will be rededicated during a Mass on Wednesday, May 4 at 4 p.m. in the University Chapel. A procession of the Eucharist to the oratory will follow Mass.
koniecrc14@bonaventure.edu
