Duquesne’s Chapel: Before and After

Psalm 73
Why, O God, have You cast us off forever?
Why does Your anger smolder against the sheep of Your pasture?
Remember Your flock which You have built up of old,
the tribe You redeemed as Your inheritance,
Mount Sion, where You took up Your abode.
Turn your steps toward the utter ruins;
toward all the damage the enemy has done
in the sanctuary.
Your foes roar triumphantly in Your shrine;
they have set up their tokens of victory.
They are like men coming up with axes
to a clump of trees;
and now with chisel and hammer they hack
at all its paneling.
They set Your sanctuary on fire;
the place where Your name abides they have razed
and profaned.
They said in their hearts, “Let us destroy them;
burn all the shrines of God in the land.”
Deeds on our behalf we do not see; there is
no prophet now,
and no one of us knows how long…

Regrettably, this chapel was actually renovated prior to the 1960s, as Duquesne was on the cutting edge of reform–although the present renovation came later. It’s interesting that, following an earlier renovation, there were no statues or Stations of the Cross at all. Those were donated later.