ST. CHARLES, Minn. – When the good Catholics of St. Charles Borromeo Parish chose a knoll just out of town for a new church, an attraction was the bucolic setting. Such a calming and fitting backdrop for worship for a town seeped in its agricultural roots. Less so now. Beyond the parking lot a vast solar array has been installed and intrudes on the site’s original pastoral purity. Look carefully, though. Corn still grows in the back Back 40.

st baromeloes backyard solar fram scaled - Winona Journal

Sign of the times. The view is now oh so 21st century. Image: Steve Lunde

st charles mn st borromeo chuch - Winona Journal

St. Borromeo. On Highway 14.