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New altar arrives from overseas

New altar arrives from overseas

By Jerry Buxton

Sewerd — The waiting was over at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday. Father Rene Guesnier expected the new altar for St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church to arrive around 9:30, so it was not very late.

The new white marble altar arrived in a Ryder truck, brought all the way from King Richard’s Religious Artifacts in the Atlanta, Ga., area. It was expected to take much of the day Tuesday to assemble it. The base alone weighs at least half a ton, one of the two men from Georgia who conveyed it to Seward said.

The marble was quarried in Italy, they said. It was not certain where the altar was made. Probably in Italy, someone said, but equally possibly, in China, Turkey, or elsewhere in Europe, Father Guesnier said.

King Richard’s gathers up old, used altars, such as the wooden one being replaced at the 94-year-old Seward church. The firm then redoes, refurbishes them and sells them.

St. Francis Xavier, at 8th and Lincoln in Seward, underwent a big sprucing up operation about a year ago, with major cleaning, painting and other work done, especially on the interior, to give the facility a facelift and then some.