PRIEST TOILS ALONE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20656, 30 August 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

PRIEST TOILS ALONE.

REBUILDING A CHURCH. TWICE-WRECKED EDIFICE. ANOTHER TEN YEARS' WORK. Many a stout-hearted mason or skilled engineer would feel shy of the task of rebuilding single-handed a huge church, vet that is the Herculean job the Rev. Reginaldo Sanchez, Dominican priest, has undertaken at Havana, Cuba. If onlv the physical labour of another decade of construction faced the little Spanish padre, his task would be amazing enough. But added to this is his knowledge that fate for seventy-one years •has darkly on all efforts to bring to completion the church structure known as Antigua del Carmelo. Yet for eight years ho has toiled and he feels confident that ten years more will see bis work crowned with success. Few churches "have had so varied and existence. First begun in 1859 bv the secular clergy, Antigua del Carmelo l\v 1891 had been abandoned and stripped of its images as work had begun on a new structure near by. On June 25. 1897. i bolt of lightning shattered the niKonipleted structure. In 1898. the remaining parts were used to house volunteers in the war against Spain arid as a soup kitchen for the poor. On .July 5. 1907, persons never identified exploded a cjuantity of dynamite in the battered edifice. Tn 1912, however, the church was again blessed and in 3918 tho Dominican Fathers sent Sanchez from Spain to Cuba to take charge of the parish. With indomitable courage, the priest began his task of rebuilding the church, single handed, in 1922. First he drew the plans, fur he is an architect as well us the builder. Next lie constructed great wooden moulds and poured concrete into them to fashion the enormous pillars which support the structure. Every day for eight years he has laboured —cutting huge stones by hand, hoisting them into place with a crude windlass, and between times, turning out delicate ornaments and vessels of clay and handpainting them. Sand, rock, cement and lumber the white-robed priest trundled to the site <*f operations in a two-wheeled cart. Now iiiid then a member of the church aids Father Sanchez for a. day, helping him push thi! huge hand-saw back and forth to cut a slab of stone, but usually the little priest handles the job alone.

If all goes well. Father Sanchez will dedicate Antigua dei Carmclo in 1940. ]|e pictures that happy day as he works, toiling in his robes under the tropical Mm. lie sees a ch;.rel'i 26,3 ft. long. 136 ft. wide, rearing 130 pinacles to the skies, n:id with two towering Gothic spires surmounting all.