Burn of the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
The stained glass windows depicting the Mysteries of Christ’s life on earth and in heaven, the saints, the statues of saints and Jesus and Mary, the Stations of the Cross, the church itself teaches especially children about God and heaven and especially the church teaches persons about themselves.
This church teaches me about the lack of imagination and especially the lack of creativity, the deluge of plainess.
Avoiding the opportunity to exhibit beauty, this church at the very least excludes the triumph of grotesque and absurd idiocy which has engulfed our places of worship since the spirit of Vatican II has plagued Catholicism.
My daughter at the age of six years was startled by the stations of the cross. She asked me: “How did they get people to be so small?”
The architecture is ancient, functional and beautiful.
P.S. I go to church to visit Jesus Christ, my infinite and perfect friend.
My school’s faculty did our retreat Tuesday at the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land and the Basilica in Northeast DC. While I have spent a butt load of time there in the past, previously being a longtime resident of the DC area, I am always renewed by the beauty and the scope of the design and art of both places (with a couple exceptions) each time I go.
However, I have a couple Protestant colleagues who very conspicuously wondered aloud “what a simple man like Jesus would think about all this garishness.” All I could think of was Judas’ comment about the money at Lazarus’ house.
Great point, Josh. Jesus would smile at how His followers through the centuries gave of their own limited means to build beautiful churches for God’s glory. It really is too bad how many purported Christians, including many Modernist Catholics, completely fail to comprehend this.
This building looks like a church.
It would seem there is a central place reserved for a tabernacle.
I’ve been to uglier.
What disturbs me much more is the phrase “Reformed Catholicism”
Get it through your thick modernist head – you can reform the individual members, but it is heresy to re-form what Christ has formed.
Firstly this is not “simple” architecture. Simple architecture is a community hall (which Protestants love to worship in).
Secondly, the ceilings are vaulted – the vaulted ceilings are gorgeous and are perfect canvas for something beautiful. It’s asking for it to be ornamented.
Thirdly, the finishes are fixtures are high-end: the floor is marble (polished mind you) and the altar “looks as though it could be Carrara marble (hard to tell). The pews look like solid oak carved. The pendants lights are mid-century modern (these are not cheap).
They shouldn’t pretend that this is cracker barrel architecture. They’ve spent good money here.
It looks incredibly clean 🙂
I’d use the word “sterile”. Like, if this church has an altar and rosary society, they probably use a lot of bleach.
All the same, I would prefer the St. Elizabeth of Hungary Shrine on Buckeye Avenue in Cleveland. The good Bishop of Cleveland designated this church as a shrine and entrusted it to the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. It is far more beautiful inside than our Most Precious Blood of Jesus parish in Pittsburgh.
As for Protestants whining about the “garishness” of the Franciscan monastery in Washington, an awesome place I got to visit 26 years ago, well there is very little noticeable art from any Protestant. Certain Protestants worship spaces have less charm than aa empty retail space waiting for a Spirit Halloween store.
Ezabelle,
Thirty years ago, I might have agreed. I see bright light coming in the windows, white interior to allow the glory of Christ to shine to the max. I see highly polished marble floors to reflect the glory of God.
Trouble is, …that’s not what the architecture originally intended.
Having visited many churches, especially those of medieval origin in Europe, …I’m almost inclined to cry over this image. I dare say someone spent a lot of money on this, a typical post-Vatican II “compromise” on aesthetics. Yet to build something new, to re-build the building, would require potentially hundreds of millions of dollars, rather than a million or two for “interior re-decorating”.
Architecture of this sort aimed for majesty and mystery. It aimed to have light enough to see, yet to have that light…passively work very hard. It intended for stained glass to permit enough light to allow proper offering of Mass and Office. Yet that stained glass, even while restraining the vigor of light, would tell story after story after story. Wall space in between would host murals and frescoes to accomplish the same task. Altar and ambo would act in collaboration to focus the eye on ceremony when a priest enters to offer the Mass.
Looking at this, …one gains the impression that one could readily walk in, kneel for a moment in the pew, …and leave, yawning with fatigue and boredom.
The original design aimed to literally overwhelm the senses with the majesty of Heaven to come.
This appears to have a, perhaps well-intentioned, yet very ho-hum view of faith.
John F- they don’t need to rebuild the building. It has good bones and proportions. They have to “finish” the interior. Ornament the beautiful ceilings. Adorn the back with art and insert stained glass images into the cathedral style windows. It looks unfinished. Like they were in the right track and then, the architect was let go. Or they ran out of money…
The churches of some monastic orders (Benedictine, Cistercian) are often as plain as this. I’m reminded of San Giorgio Maggiore (Benedictine), on an island south of the Piazza San Marco in Venice. (If you visit, the view from the campanile is unforgettable). Even that has a few large artworks. St. Bernard of Clairvaux argued for plain interiors to focus the monks’ attention inward and on the holy Sacrifice at the front. On the other hand, he counseled that public churches should have more sumptuous decoration to educate the common people.
I am making a valiant effort not to accept or use the enemies’ language. Just as I refuse to say termination instead of murder and cell mass instead of human person, I say protestant deformation instead of reformation, protestant deformers instead of reformers, and deformed instead of reformed . I am also trying to say in person and in print: novus disordo, all lower case. Guy, Texas
“The churches of some monastic orders (Benedictine, Cistercian) are often as plain as this”
… Except those churches had altars and tabernacles. Exactly what did the designers of this church consider to be important?? Ceilings? Cleanliness? (sterility, as Pinky pointed out) … What function would a building like this perform?
Whitewashed sepulchers.
Eh, Ezabelle, I could wish that I could be that optimistic. Trouble is, .. I suspect it to be a renovation, not a new construction. Someone may well have intended this.
John F – have you see the “before” photos of this place…? It’s cream, dark and depressing.
I did some research and it’s actually a Hungarian Church. In Europe. It is not a Catholic Church. Why expect it to have the same adornments of a Catholic Church of Medieval Europe.
And Why dismiss it in its entirety. If it were sold to a Catholic diocese, it has the base for a beautiful Church waiting to be adorned. Until then, it’s a fit for purpose Calvinist Church. The architects did a good job fulfilling the brief.
Oh and the pews are pine. Other images reveal the many knots in the timber.
It’s also staged to be paired back for architectural “hero” shots. I think we are falling into “The Presbyterian Inn’s rage baiting. It’s a Presbyterian Church. So what.
So the OP was trying to say, in essence, that Calvinist heresy has replaced Catholicism. Coming as I do from three generations of Calvinist clergy on my paternal side, I should have spotted that right away. 😂
Architecture aside, the building doesn’t house the Eucharistic as long as it is Calvinist. So that’s going to be the sticking point the end of the day, regardless of aesthetics and taste…
“And Why dismiss it in its entirety.”
Um, well, …I’m reminded of my usual Protestant v Catholic conundrum: Being Christian, it’s more sacred than city hall. Great. On the other hand, it’s Christian, and could be soooo much better. So much more profound. Not so great.
I did not see before and after pictures; I did see some of what this Presbytery Inn posted, apparently on X. Seems “he” genuinely believes “his” tradition began in 33 AD, not …16th century. Sooo….”he” thinks “he” has all of it; yet my experience demonstrates many/most Protestants have… 1/2 to 3/4. At best.
Soo….it’s permissible to stop in to pray here, …yet even a poorly designed and decorated Catholic church still has SOMETHING of Catholic decoration. ..and the Lord.
Much better to pray there.
If I look at this, consider what all they don’t know, don’t believe, won’t think about, won’t pray, ….so much of faith not considered. So many spiritual consolations lost. So many souls forced to struggle so much harder to be holy.
It’s enough to make a grown man cry.
“Soo….it’s permissible to stop in to pray here, …yet even a poorly designed and decorated Catholic church still has SOMETHING of Catholic decoration. ..and the Lord.
Much better to pray there.”
Yes it is about Our Lord in the Eucharist. Not how it’s decorated. Protestant Churches do not have the presence of Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. But…..Westminster Abbey is admittedly beautiful. It’s Protestant. Protestants have built some amazing Cathedrals across Europe. But the term Protestant encompasses so many denominations. You and I could start one up if we wanted. So there are a lot of opinions. And “rules”. And so the variety is as vast as a piece of string.
“It’s enough to make a grown man cry.”
That’s a shame you fell for Presbyterian Inn usual Catholic rage baiting. The images of beautiful Protestant Churches he shares on his X account are beautiful. His intent and his commentary…not so much.
“That’s a shame you fell for Presbyterian Inn usual Catholic rage baiting.”
Perhaps I should have said it SHOULD be and/or HAS BEEN enough to make a grown man cry. I have long been resigned to the status of the overall church. I have been inside many Protestant churches at one time and another. Some of them are genuinely breath-taking in a good way. ..Especially after seeing what we’ve done in the wake of Vatican II….
Incidentally, Catholics built Westminster Abbey and several other cathedrals. They’re Protestant now due to Henry VIII et al.
Sometime during my teens I had the thought it’d be great to see Protestants and Catholics reunited; I’d love for relatives to share my faith…..
Alas, I don’t think it’ll happen in my lifetime.
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I find it interesting that the secular examples of Bud Lite, Target trans, and sterile Cracker Barrel and their effect on business are lost on those who promote ineffective and meaningless Church decor. They should have learned by now that visual insults to customers (church goers) is quite counter productive.
This is like Historic Christ Church in Lancaster County VA. Completed 1735. Church of England then, Episcopal now. Typical Colonial architecture inside and out. In Cromwell’s it may have been a stable or shuttered.
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