We recently reported on a very nice restoration project at the Basilica of Ss Peter and Paul in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the diocese of Knoxville, in which three new altars were installed, along with a new reredos for the main sanctuary, and a good deal of carpeting removed from the church’s original hard pine flooring. A final stage of the project has now been completed, with installation of a new tabernacle in the main sanctuary, and the return of the altar rail around it. Fr J. David Carter, the pastor and rector of the basilica, wrote to his parishioners that the altar rail is being used as a way of encouraging people to kneel for the reception of Holy Communion, in the hopes that it will serve to foster belief in and greater reverence for the True Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament - feliciter!
The new altar rail in use.
