This spring, students at the School of Architecture and Planning at The Catholic University of America undertook an assignment like no other. They were invited to participate in a competition to design the altar, ambo and chair that Pope Francis will use in his Sept. 23 outdoor Mass on the east portico of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, overlooking the Catholic University campus. And they had about two weeks to submit their designs, at a time when CUA students were completing course work for the semester, and seniors were preparing for graduation.
Friends and fellow architecture students Ariadne Cerritelli, Matthew Hoffman and Joseph Taylor knew the National Shrine well, from joining each other for Mass at the basilica, which adjoins the campus in Northeast Washington.
“That’s how we picked our team. We go to Mass together, we pray together,” said Cerritelli, a 24-year-old Bethesda resident. “When we chose to work as a team, (we decided) to do it in faith.”
The students entering the competition were told that their designs needed to be based on the assumption that the furniture used for the Papal Mass could find continued use afterward as permanent fixtures inside the basilica’s Great Upper Church.
“We took the approach that (we were designing) something not just to be used once outside, but for generations (to come) inside the shrine,” said Hoffman, who is 22 and from Pittsburgh. “We wanted to create something timeless that could be added now, that would harmonize with the shrine.”
Taylor noted that their trio took many trips to the basilica, studying the architectural style, the geometric forms and the colors of the materials there, with the goal of making the furniture for the Papal Mass “look like it always belonged in the basilica.”
The 23-year-old from Eldersburg, Maryland, said they decided to tackle designing the altar first, and they were inspired to incorporate arches and columns around its base, to reflect the many arches present in the basilica, which is designed in a Byzantine and Romanesque style of architecture.
Cerritelli added, “The first thing we did, we walked into the basilica. We sat there and took it in… Everything is designed based on what is in the basilica.”
Those students also had another factor in mind – that their design reflected the spirit and style of Pope Francis himself, who would be using the furniture in his canonization Mass for Blessed Junipero Serra, the famous 18th century Spanish Franciscan missionary who established missions along California’s coast.
“For all the pieces, we wanted to make them simple. We wanted them to be humble. He (Pope Francis) wants to be part of the people,” said Cerritelli.
The 18-days between when the competition was announced, and when the design entries had to be turned in, were intense for the 18 teams of CUA students competing in the contest, which was sponsored by the basilica and by the Archdiocese of Washington. Catholic University students had competed in a similar contest seven years earlier, with the winning design used for the altar, ambo and chair at Pope Benedict XVI’s 2008 Mass at Nationals Park.
“We spent those two weeks working as hard as we could,” said Hoffman.
Then a couple of weeks after Cerritelli, Hoffman and Taylor joined fellow members of the class of 2015 for graduation ceremonies at Catholic University, it was announced that their designs for the papal furniture had been selected, and would be used by Pope Francis at his Mass, at the same location where their commencement exercises had been held.
“I was just in shock,” said Cerritelli, who like her fellow team members, said she felt both honored and humbled that their designs for the Papal Mass furniture had been chosen. “I’m just so happy I got to design (and help) build the furniture the pope is going to celebrate Mass on.”
Hoffman said the realization of what had happened “was really a lot to handle at one time… The commission for anything papal was a pre-eminent task that a lot of artists and architects would dream about.” He added, “For me, it shows you how God can work surprises in your life. I never would have dreamed about it.”
Then in the summer, the three students conferred with Deacon Dave Cahoon, a Poolesville carpenter who had built the altar for Pope Benedict’s 2008 Mass in Washington, and who was assigned to coordinate the construction of the furniture for Pope Francis’s 2015 Mass in the nation’s capital.
The three students had designed furniture on a small scale before, but had never had any of their designs constructed, and working with Deacon Cahoon and officials from the National Shrine, they made adjustments in color and materials. Deacon Cahoon noted that it was decided that the altar could not be primarily made of marble, as the students had hoped, for a practical reason – the altar had to be able to be moved, not only from outside the shrine to inside, but also later for special events there, and marble is very heavy. So they decided it would be primarily constructed of wood, with a faux finish painted on to resemble marble.
On Aug. 17, the students joined the carpenters, woodworkers and artists working on the Papal Mass furniture for a media briefing at Carriage Hill Custom Cabinets & Millwork, a shop in Frederick, Maryland, where the chairs for the Papal Mass are being built by the shop’s owner, Doug Fauth. Deacon Cahoon spoke with reporters beside the altar, which he had transported from his St. Joseph’s Carpentry Shop in Poolesville, where he has been building it.
All three students said it was amazing to see their miniature design taking shape as actual sized furniture, built by skilled craftsmen. “It’s pretty awesome. It’s my first look at it since we designed it. It’s the first thing I designed that was built,” said Taylor, smiling. “So far, so good. It looks really nice, just how we designed it.”
Hoffman noted, “To see it being born from regular pieces of wood is really special.”
Taylor like the other members of his design team, said the project was a work of faith. “Knowing the importance of what goes on at the altar allowed us to take the approach that we did,” he said.
All three students, who are now pursuing master’s degrees in architecture at Catholic University, said growing up Catholic and attending Catholic school prepared them for designing the furniture for the Papal Mass. This fall, all three will have the thrill of seeing Pope Francis celebrate Mass at the National Shrine, overlooking their campus, and using the furniture they designed. For Cerritelli, whose family is from Madrid, the Mass will be especially meaningful, as the pope presides over the first-ever canonization Mass in the United States, and canonizes a missionary from their native Spain.
Taylor, a member of St. Joseph Parish in Eldersburg, attended middle school at Sacred Heart School in Glyndon, Maryland, and then Loyola Blakefield High School in Towson. Hoffman – who attended Holy Child School in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania and then North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh – said his Catholic education taught him of the central role of his faith, and that God is always present in one’s life.
Cerritelli, who attended St. Jane de Chantal School in Bethesda, in her home parish, and then the Academy of the Holy Cross in Kensington before earning a degree at Catholic University, said, “These schools have helped me learn how important the faith is, and to keep that first.”
After completing his graduate degree in architecture, Hoffman hopes to work in Catholic church architecture, because he said the design, color and beauty of churches “is pointed toward God.”
Reflecting on the honor of helping to design the furniture for the Papal Mass, Hoffman noted that the hands and minds of architects can “produce things of earthly value, like office buildings. But they can also draw people’s minds from earth to heaven.”
This September, when Pope Francis celebrates Mass on the altar designed by the Catholic University students and canonizes the newest saint from the United States, he will probably have that same goal in mind. And the congregation will include those three students whose once-in-a-lifetime project began by praying together.
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