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Contents The Sou ☆ ☆ Diocese of Savannah mu ☆ hem (joss News 1-3 Commentary 4-5 Religious Life 6-7 Faith Alive! 8-9 Notices 10-11 Last But Not Least 12 Pciest accused of embezzlement removed from pastoral ministry — Vol. 79, No. 28 $.50 per issue see page 3. Thursday, August 19,1999 4. k At the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist workers pass pieces of scaffolding to the steeple level during the church's renovation. Work begins on Cathedral By Father Douglas K. Clark Savannah T he scaffolding — 12 stories of it — has gone up around the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, the stained-glass windows are being repaired in Wisconsin, the pews in Pennsylvania and the bell in Ohio. In other words, work is well underway on the multi-mil- lion-dollar restoration of the historic seat of south Georgia’s bishop. The restoration is being financed by the Jubilee Campaign, “One Faith... One Family.” While one bay of the Cathedral, centered on Saint Patrick’s window, was restored in 1998 as a sample of the work to be done, the “real” work began only in February 1999, with the removal of the stained-glass windows for restoration by Conrad Schmitt Studios in Wisconsin. The windows were removed first because of the time needed to clean and restore them — 56 weeks. The extent of the work on the Cathedral’s exterior required the closing of Harris Street, on the building’s south side, on June 24. The last Masses before the restora tion began were celebrated in the upper church on June 27. Since that time, daily Masses have been celebrated in the rectory meeting room and Sunday Masses in the lower church. In August and September work on the air condi tioning system necessitated using the cafeteria of Notre Dame Academy. Since July 6, a trench has been dug around the Cathedral in order to waterproof the foundation. A section of the wall between the rectory courtyard and Saint Vincent’s Academy was opened on July 12 to allow equipment to work on the north side of the Cathedral. The handicap-access elevator was removed on July 13; it will be replaced by a larger one. The bishop’s chair (cathe dra) was removed on July 14; the pews were also removed during the same week and sent with the cathedra to Petersen Woodworks in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The heavy bell, silent for years, was lowered by chains through trapdoors to the ground level on July 20 and shipped to the Verdin Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, the next day. The erection of the exterior scaffolding began on July 22; it will take 12 levels to reach the bell tower area 2 96 feet above the ground. Separate scaffolding will be erected around the spires. When the scaffolding had progressed to seven levels, Father William O. O’Neill, rector, climbed to the seventh level to oversee the work done so far. In doing so, he spotted a plank that needed repairing and scrutinized the walls and window frames for himself. All this work has been accomplished during a heat-wave, with temperatures so hot that a supervisor’s portable phone melted, and in the wake of one of the worst rain storms (12 inches in 12 hours) in Savannah’s 266 year history.