Boston College files to build new archive for Catholic religious objects
![Rendering of proposed BC archive building](https://www.universalhub.com/files/styles/main_image/public/images/2024/bcreligious.jpg?itok=kSMMzGtp)
Rendering by Shepley Bulfinch.
Boston College has filed plans with the Boston Planning Department to build a three-story, roughly 45,000-square-foot building to store collections of religious stuff "as well as limited artwork and cultural artifacts" on a hillside between its Theology and Ministry Library and its St. John's Seminary property off Lake Street in Brighton.
Construction will require chopping down 47 trees, but BC says most of those trees aren't in very good shape and would likely have to be cut down soon anyway, even without construction of the new building:
The proposed building site has been an unmanaged woodland since the Catholic Archdiocese owned the property and continues to be unmanaged today. As a result, the majority of the stand is in fair to poor condition. Many of the oak species have dead or dying limbs, root problems, or decaying wood. The hemlocks suffer from hemlock wooly adelgid which is cost prohibitive to treat adequately. Although some are in fair condition today, they will require removal in the near future as a result of this decay and disease.
The school says it will plant 77 trees around the new building as replacements. They'll be smaller than the trees there now, but will grow. The school says its Brighton campus, on which the building will sit, currently has a tree cover of 35% of its land, and that the new plantings will retain that percentage.
BC says the building will use all-electric heating and air conditioning and that existing parking on the campus has enough space that new spaces will not be needed.
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Comments
Perfect setting for the next Dan Brown novel.
"Eagles and Demons"?
Every triple Eagle I've ever met ...
Was a demon
Demon? No, those are Wake
Demon? No, those are Wake Forrest.
I'm an Eaglet...
I've met non-demonic Double-Eagles. Triple-Eagles are rare in my sphere.
you win today
Many of us might have met William Bulger.
Thank you for deleting…..
… that particularly offensive scatalogical Magoo comment.
oooops not sorry I missed it
But I must admit to some mild curiosity. Magoo can be irrelevant and post a lot of nonsense but I don't think of his posts as "offensive"
Pilgrimage site?
To me religious objects, in a Catholic context, means saints relics. I am of two minds here. A place that maintains and displays relics is the cat's meow. The cult of relics is fascinating. A religious practice that could not be more "pagan." Yet, far richer than the dryness of Protestant rejection of images and religious objects (other than the idolatry of The Bible).
On the other hand it could be a push to emphasize the supernaturalism of Catholicism in the Boston area. Which is fine so long as the belief in supernatural is not used to push for political agendas.
What else are pilgrimage sites good for? Money! It's the original tourist attraction. When St. Leonard's had a relic on tour, I mean display, a few years ago the line of folks wanting to see it was down the street.
I both admire the richness of Catholic and Orthodoxy. But never forget that both can be (and for Russia's murdering of Ukrainians in its immoral war) will kiss the ring of power if that means that the power elite of the religious institution get to be top dogs as well.