Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church is a Catholic church in the Glebe neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The parish was founded on March 25, 1913, with the first building being a simple chapel. When the current building opened in 1932, its plain design and lack of ornamentation caused local controversy because it seemed more Protestant than Catholic. However, the building later won plaudits for its modern design. Designed by M.J. Morton, it is considered an example of the Perpendicular Gothic style.
As with Ottawa's other old churches, declining church attendance had caused problems for the church. For several years it served as home to Ottawa's Hungarian Catholic community, though they left in 1997. Church attendance began to increase dramatically when Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Gervais appointed Rev. Joseph (Joe) LeClair as Pastor, a turnaround that continues to regularly attract media attention.
The church's parish retains its original form. It covers the area north and west of the Rideau Canal, south of the Queensway and east of Booth Street.
Famous quotes containing the words blessed, sacrament, catholic and/or church:
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
—Bible: Hebrew Exodus, 20:8-11.
The fourth commandment.
“Work! Labour the aspergas me of life; the one great sacrament of humanity from which all other things flow—security, leisure, joy, art, literature, even divinity itself.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“The Catholic Church has never really come to terms with women. What I object to is being treated either as Madonnas or Mary Magdalenes.”
—Shirley Williams (b. 1930)
“It is manifest therefore that they who have sovereign power, are immediate rulers of the church under Christ, and all others but subordinate to them. If that were not, but kings should command one thing upon pain of death, and priests another upon pain of damnation, it would be impossible that peace and religion should stand together.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)