Bringing back beauty: The new traditional Catholic churches of the U.S

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My parish has 300 families and is simle. The church 25 miles away has 50 families and is simpler. Not all US churches are big but many are struggling to stay open and may soon be combined in my area.
 
Although I prefer the more traditional looking churches, I have a little soft spot for some of the wackier looking brutalist and modern churches as they remind me of my youth. I hope some of them are preserved for the sake of architecture.
I don’t like the very boring ones that as I said look like a brick “big box” store with a couple banners thrown on the wall and usually little tiny, non-stained glass windows.
 
Mi_Rose said:
My parish has 300 families and is simle. The church 25 miles away has 50 families and is simpler. Not all US churches are big but many are struggling to stay open and may soon be combined in my area.
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That situation isn’t really that common in America however, except in some areas where most of the parishioners moved away due to industry closing.

Most Catholics who immigrated to America came in large enough waves and/or located in metropolitan areas
 
Actually that situation is “really common” in America, because many of the people who moved to cities and started Catholic churches there had descendants who moved out of the city to suburbs, and in some cases moved from the initial suburbs to more distant suburbs. Couple that with the fact that many of the descendants do not go to church, and that new congregations of immigrants have arisen and the immigrants do not always live in the city (many of the Hispanic immigrants are involved in agricultural labor and thus live out in the country somewhere), and there are more reasons for churches to consolidate. “Industry closing” is not the only reason why people move.

Many cities that were heavily Catholic have an overabundance of Catholic churches, in some cases built just a few blocks from each other. Philadelphia has closed a lot of such churches. Cleveland tried to close some churches but the bishop went about it all wrong and was reversed by the Vatican, so most of them re-opened. The mainline Protestant denominations have the same problem - I’ve seen several huge Episcopal churches in cities like Philadelphia and Wilmington being rehabbed into a non-church use or just demolished.
 
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I’d like churches to have neo-classical, gothic and Baroque style. I do not like having a church that looks like it is sponsored by Ikea. 🙂

But sometimes you can’t get what you want 😔
 
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Augustinian said:
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Mi_Rose:
My parish has 300 families and is simle. The church 25 miles away has 50 families and is simpler. Not all US churches are big but many are struggling to stay open and may soon be combined in my area.
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That situation isn’t really that common in America however, except in some areas where most of the parishioners moved away due to industry closing.

Most Catholics who immigrated to America came in large enough waves and/or located in metropolitan areas
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What?!

Spend some time in rural areas and the outer suburbs. There are many many very small churches in the United States especially once you get out of the northeast!
 
I’m struggling to articulate a thought. Don’t get me wrong, I love the large, grand churches, but I’ll just say that one doesn’t need size or ornate architectural ornamentation to create a space intended to engage all the senses in worship. Not all communities are able to support a giant church or commission lots of large statues and paintings/icons, but I feel like simpler spaces can still be decorated/ornamented in such a way so as to still engage the senses rather than treating such engagement as superfluous.
 
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giuseppe96 said:
I refer to these post-modern nightmares.
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Ah, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Home of one of the worst statues of Mary i’ve ever seen.

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I feel like a lot of the architectural monstrosities in the Church were done by architects who wanted to win awards and praise from their peers. I see it a lot in the art and design field. People create things in such a way because following whatever style is current or expected of them is what is encouraged and rewarded. It’s done for design’s sake in itself (which generally means it will end up looking quite dated fairly quickly). Anything traditional, classically beautiful or timeless is generally not given that kind of attention or praise.

Not that I don’t come across as a bitter artist and designer who is projecting just a little. 😂
 
Augustinian said:
What’s wrong with cost effectiveness?.
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Nothing, really.

But I doubt there’s an unattainable difference in price between, say, a stained glass window of Jesus or Mary or St Francis or another famous saint, and a stained glass window with abstract designs. There are definitely cases throughout America (and elsewhere) where a conscious decision was made to have the sanctuary be less openly religious looking for various reasons that can’t be well defended.

There a lot of parishes in locations throughout the world that don’t have much material wealth and they still manage to have sanctuaries that would surpass various parishes in America in terms of focusing a person’s attention on God and on holy things.
 
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I love the church I attend. The National Shrine of Saint Alphonsus Liguori built in 1842. You feel as though the Angels and Saints are there praying with you.

stalphonsusbalt.org

National Shrine of Saint Alphonsus Liguori | FSSP

The FSSP's apostolate in America's premier episcopal see. A place of spiritual refuge and prayer in the heart of Baltimore.
stalphonsusbalt.org stalphonsusbalt.org

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MiserereMei25 said:
I like that. “Sponsored by Ikea”
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The idea of the parish priest opening the boxes and figuring out how to put the pews and altar rails and confessionals together sort of sticks in the mind.

Although there is nothing wrong with corporate sponsorship in church construction per se.
 
The modish church where I once worshiped resembles an Art Deco snail shell. The stained glass windows viewed from the worship space follow no rhyme or reason. The build had some serious issues and a multi-purpose section was added. The whole place would have to be leveled to start anew as a traditional church. That–or the place turned into a night club. The older folks love it as there are multiple exits, and no stairs to climb.
 
Communities don’t really need to commission statues these days. There are a lot of such works from closed churches that the dioceses usually store and make available to other churches seeking a statue. Same for any other sort of religious decoration.
 
I would go so far as to put into canon law some requirement that new churches must be Gothic, Baroque, or Neo-Classical. Churches should look like churches. End of story.
 
That’s going too far I think.

If the community can’t afford such a building then what? There’s just no Catholic Church at all?

A simple building with an altar, tabernacle, crucifix, and whatever statues/icons the community can afford is better than no church at all.
 
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giuseppe96 said:
These banal structures also fail to visually inspire the faithful. My mother came from three generations of Sicilian immigrants who in 1927 all contributed their money according to their ability towards the building of a beautiful Romanesque church; St Anthony’s in Bryan, TX. If a bunch of poor Sicilian farmers could help build this, then ‘cost-effectiveness’ shouldn’t be a problem.
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@mrsdizzyd Regarding cost I refer you back to Giuseppe’s post earlier in this thread.
 
KJW5551 said:
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giuseppe96:
These banal structures also fail to visually inspire the faithful. My mother came from three generations of Sicilian immigrants who in 1927 all contributed their money according to their ability towards the building of a beautiful Romanesque church; St Anthony’s in Bryan, TX. If a bunch of poor Sicilian farmers could help build this, then ‘cost-effectiveness’ shouldn’t be a problem.
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@mrsdizzyd Regarding cost I refer you back to Giuseppe’s post earlier in this thread.
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A parish of 100 people is not going to be able to donate that kind of money.
 
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