St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Whitefish has been undergoing an extensive repair, renovation and beautification project that might be completed in time for Christmas mass.

Soon after Father Sean Raftis took the helm of the church on Baker Avenue in the summer of 2022, Bishop Austin Vetter visited and had one comment: “Fix the ceiling.” 

"It was a false ceiling, and the sanctuary was asymmetrical,” Raftis said. “It really looked weird.” 

Additionally, to the left of the altar, there was no ceiling, so it appeared from inside that a section of the roof was missing. Further, the crucifix was mismatched. The cross was extremely long and the corpus was, in comparison, rather small.  

After carefully envisioning the remodel and creating mockups, Raftis made a plan. Establishing symmetry was one major goal of the new design. 

“This is so nice to just have it symmetrical,” Raftis said of the newly designed sanctuary. “Because it is scientifically proven that symmetry is confluent with beauty, and that's what church is supposed to be about -- the true, the good and the beautiful.”  

Phase 1 of the project is the most transformative with new ceiling, insulation, lighting, fans and energy efficient windows. Future phases will add angels and new altars to the sanctuary. 

Raftis secured the tabernacle for the remodeled St. Charles from his friend, a priest at St. Ann church in Butte. 

“’Hey, you want this tabernacle? I know you like stuff like this,’” Raftis recalled his friend asking. “I said, ‘Yeah, it'd be great.’ It's quite remarkable.”  

About a year and a half later, the bishop gave Raftis the new-to-St.Charles crucifix. Raftis wasn’t sure whether the tabernacle had been in St. John’s or St. Joseph's until Monsignor O’Neill at the cathedral in Helena set him straight. 

“That crucifix you're getting fixed, and the tabernacle were sitting for over 100 years in the same church,” O’Neill told Raftis. 

The two main features of the church had been together in Butte’s St. Joseph’s church since it was built in 1911.  

“It's the same crucifix that hung over same tabernacle,” Raftis remarked. “I had no idea.” 

Montana Build’s Paul McElroy is the contractor on the job, and Raftis sought out local artists to work on the project.  

Local artisan Kathy Reiner restored the heavy plaster corpus which was slightly damaged and dirty from 100 years of smoke from paraffin wax and potentially dust given the church’s location near the mines in Butte, surmised Raftis. 

“The corpus is one of less than 10 that were made in the world because his eyes are still open. He's looking up to heaven,” Raftis said of the statue made by the de Prato Company. 

The arms of the centenarian statue are detachable, the eyes are made of glass, and there is a piece of real rope around the sculpted loin cloth. 

John Hayden of Kalispell reconditioned the white oak cross and has plans for more work in the church. 

“He's known as the altar guy, and he's booked out for three years,” Raftis said, “He's going to make us a new altar and a new place where the tabernacle goes.” 

Demolition began in September and Raftis said for the first two weeks, the church resembled the Oklahoma dust bowl due to the filthy and deteriorating acoustic tiles and fiberglass insulation. 

Albeit a filthy job, the two-month-long demolition revealed a special surprise -- purlins.  

Purlins are wood framing strips that run horizontally, parallel with the eaves of the building. They had been covered by foam tiles for years. 

Now exposed, the purlins on the 38-foot-tall ceiling add to the “upside down boat” appearance of the nave, a feature known as the Barque of Peter, or the boat of Peter.  

The renovated church has sprayed foam and fiberglass insulation. Raftis said the previous insulation and ventilation was poor, and heat would go out the ceiling in the winter. 

“We've always had temperature issues, especially in the summer, and I'm in robes, and I'm just like, let's hurry this thing up,” he said with a laugh. 

The church now has an R-value between 50 and 60. 

“We'll have nice LEDs that'll put off a soft white light, and there will be cylindrical omni directional lighting,” he said. “Should be a lot better for people, especially those who don't have great eyesight. 

“We have 30 pews that are being reconditioned right now. They have never been reconditioned since they went in,” he said. “You can actually see the black marks from so many people, when they walk in and they touch [the pews].” 

The project was funded by benefactors and church savings. 

While the Whitefish church was a construction zone, masses were held at St. Richard in Columbia Falls, where Raftis has been the priest for nearly 10 years. 

This was not Raftis’ first rodeo in terms of church renovation projects. 

“I repaired, renovated and beautified St. Richard,” Raftis said. “I want everybody to have access to beauty, and it's cool, because during the summertime, people go and look at St. Richard. They'll just go in to look around." 

St. Charles began in 1906 in a humble building on the corner of Third Street and Baker Avenue where traveling priests would celebrate masses. The current building was completed in 1953 and renovated in 1970. It currently serves 268 families. 

    The newly framed in and drywalled ceiling reveals the purlins that had been there, covered, for years. (Photo provided)
  

    Drywall work was well underway on Nov. 26 at St. Charles Borromeo's. (Julie Engler/Whitefish Pilot)
  

The corpus for the newly remodeled St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church is over 100 years old and has glass eyes that look to the heavens. (Photo provided)