By Barry Adams – Wisconsin State Journal –
The pews are gone. So, too, are the altars, baptismal font and the pipe organ.
The concrete floor will soon be removed in favor of a thicker slab and the roof replaced with thousands of imported Luigi Italian tiles.
Two pre-World War I pipe organs are being readied in Missouri, new pews are being built in Rochester, New York, while the furnishings — like ornate railings, the sprawling and towering high altar, and the bishop’s chair, referred to as the “cathedra,” will be hand-crafted from oak in a garage on Madison’s East Side by a local artisan.
All that seems to be missing from the multi-year, $15 million renovation of St. Bernard Catholic Church would appear to be a steeple. But it hasn’t been forgotten in the plan to transform this 1927 church building into a cathedral for the 11-county Diocese of Madison.