I am very glad to see the discussion of church architecture being carried on at an apologetics website, as there is a strong connection between the doctrinal laxity of the last 30 years and the general (and uncanonical) innovations of modern church design. Lex orandi, lex credendi, as they say.
These, I believe, are the principal problems:
- The shape of the church.
- The arragement of tabernacle and sanctuary
- A poverty of liturgical and Sacramental imagination.
- A certain faddishness and confusion about the role of tradition and custom in church design and liturgy.
- The shape of the church.
The modern fan-shaped church, with raked seating and an amorphous volume, is without precedent before the 1960s. The early Christians, if certain notable hypotheses about the way they gathered around the tomb of Peter are correct, would have worshipped very similar to how we do today, with the priest on a raised platform and the people before (or behind) him. As Jews, such an arrangement would have been familiar to them from the Synagogue. Orientation ad orientem or versus populam seems to have depended on which way actual east was (and indeed, the congregation would sometimes turn their backs on the priest so to be facing in the same direction, as at Old St. Peter’s. Incidentally, most Orthodox Jews have an ‘ad orientem’ arrangement with their worship, their lecterns turned ‘around’ to face the Ark in their synagogues). So, the priest in front, with altar, people before, rather than around, him, seems to have a deep historical basis. Plus, the cruciform and anthropomorphic shape of ancient churches has a deep Christological significance which is lacking in most fan-shaped designs, which derive from auditorium models adopted by Protestant congregations with an emphasis on preaching. (The consensus in the past–exemplified by St. Charles Borromeo’s instructions–is that smaller, non-parochial churches, or memorial churches and oratories could use unconventional shapes, but the Cathedral and most large parish churches should be cruciform; even so, most parish churches, if not necessarily cross-shaped nonetheless preserved the longitudinal orientation of the traditional shape).
- Tabernacle and sanctuary. The precedent cited for most “Tabernacle-in-a-closet” designs is the major basilicas in Rome, which have a tabernacle at a side altar or separate chapel. This is not an applicable precedent as, for one, the major Basilicas have several liturgical peculiarities which are not intended to apply to parish churches at large. If they were, all the parish churches of Rome would have similar arrangements, and they dont. These circumstances are that the large volume of traffic would make prayerful reflection and Eucharistic Adoration impossible to carry out at the high altar, and also, it was the custom to remove the Sacrament from the high altar before a Solemn Pontifical Mass to a side chapel, which would have been celebrated very frequently in such basilicas. Such an arrangement would otherwise have been awkward. Also, the freestanding nature of most of their altars, as well as the Papal custom of celebrating mass ‘facing the people’ at St. Peters–because the church was oriented west rather than east, would have made such a practice awkward.
There is some evidence for episcopal thrones being placed in the apse, in the manner of the Presider’s chair of today, but the custom seems to have died out–and, while it is all good and well to strive for an understanding of primitive liturgical customs, there is the fact that some things were thrown out because they didn’t work. The liturgy and liturgical art has been time-tested, and mistakes got weeded out over the centuries. An indiscriminate attempt to strip away accretions in favor of an overzealous archaeologism can sometimes lead to problems.
- Poverty of Sacramental Imagination. Well, this one is hard to address: I suggest parishes hire artists with training and talent and the ability to draw people that look like people. On the whole, traditional-leaning artists work cheap since they’re hard to find and seldom get much work. In the mean time, pray a lot, look at icons and the Sistine Chapel and Beuronese art, and burn any felt banners your parish owns. Oh, and tell the priest to stop wearing the stole on the outside of the chausible. It’s forbidden.
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It reads like a federal building from the street.
I once went into what I thought was the confessional in a Church in Tx when we were on vacation and started my confession. I got no response from the priest for the longest time. I really was beginning to wonder if I had said something really wrong. When my eyesight finally adjusted, I discovered that the cubical I thought was the confessional was a storeroom and the guy I thought was a priest sitting in the chair, was part of an old statue. SIGH! It’s not easy being blinded by the light.