becoming

For those of you that drive along Woodbine and 16th (or Major Mac) will notice the three golden domes soaring 20 storeys into the sky. Being the only Catholic church in North America to have been personally blessed by a pope, the Slovak Cathedral of Transfiguration is a landmark in Markham. What’s interesting, is that the church is actually privately owned by the family of Stephen Roman, the uranium mining magnate who financed its construction before his death in 1988. Ownership of the cathedral and 50 acres around it was never formally transferred to the Vatican, although Mr. Roman had expressed his intention to do so.

The Cathedral has recently been closed in an ownership dispute between the Eastern-rite Catholic church and members of the Roman family. As a result, it is now inexplicably empty, abandoned by its bishop and congregation.

And according to Ondrej Mihal, the author of Slovaks in Canada Through Their Eyes, the cathedral’s maintenance was a financial "black hole". "The church is incomplete. It’s very beautiful outside. Because Mr. Roman’s grand vision would have cost millions to finish, nothing was spent after he died."

Saying the cathedral is merely an expensive shell, Mr. Mihal has heard speculation some would prefer to dispose of it altogether.

"Some say it would cost about a million dollars to blast it to kingdom come," he said. "Then they could make more subdivisions and make more money. That would be shame."

Well, I don’t know much about the details of the dispute, but I agree that abandoning (or even blasting it down) such beautiful place for worship is indeed, a shame.