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

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A parish of 100 people should be closed down. But I will not ruin this nice thread with a debate about that…
 
I don’t get the circle churches. Those in particular are just impractical and ugly.
 
Even beyond what mrsdizzyd said, putting this in canon law is ridiculous when you consider all the places on earth one might want or need to build a church. You could be building a church in Antarctica or in the Amazon jungle or in a desert. Historic Western architectural styles might not be possible there and the locals may have a completely different idea of what a church is supposed to look like. The early churches in rural parts of the US were often plain wooden buildings, and the few that survive today are simple and beautiful. The California missions probably wouldn’t meet your criteria either.
 
KJW5551 said:
A parish of 100 people should be closed down. But I will not ruin this nice thread with a debate about that…
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Some of you need some serious perspective regarding the state of the Catholic Church in the United States.

How far is too far to travel to mass on Sunday? Where my in-laws are there are 5 churches in a 75 mile radius. They are all vanishingly tiny save one. The closest large parish is 1.5 hours away.
 
It really is. I’m absolutely blessed that it’s not too terribly far from where I live. I like it also because they have confession on other days than just Saturday. Plus, it’s a four minute walk from The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I love going down underneath the basilica into the crypt area.

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The upper basilica;

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I actually am old enough to remember that basilica before the latest restoration, when it was blue-green inside and quite dark in there.
Much nicer now.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I actually am old enough to remember that basilica before the latest restoration, when it was blue-green inside and quite dark in there.
Much nicer now.
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Here you go Tis_Bearself.

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Exterior prior to renovation;

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mrsdizzyd said:
Looks like they took out some (or all?) of the stained glass windows to bring in more light?
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Good eye!!! The stained glass windows were replaced with plain ones when the basilica was restored according to the original vision of architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe and Archbishop John Carroll.
 
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I wonder what they did with the stained glass windows. I agree the building is better without them and they weren’t added till 1940 anyway so they weren’t part of the original plan, but I would be interested to see the windows in a museum or in some other church where they might fit better.

Edited to add, aha, I found where they went. To St. Louis’ 2006 new church in western HoCo. Looks like I’ll have to make a little road trip there.

http://www.stlouisparish.org/stained-glass-windows/
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
I wonder what they did with the stained glass windows. I agree the building is better without them and they weren’t added till 1940 anyway so they weren’t part of the original plan, but I would be interested to see the windows in a museum or in some other church where they might fit better.

Edited to add, aha, I found where they went. To St. Louis’ 2006 new church in western HoCo. Looks like I’ll have to make a little road trip there.

http://www.stlouisparish.org/stained-glass-windows/
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Correct. After they were removed from the basilica, they were installed inside the St. Louis church in Clarksville, Md. By the way, eight of them were 14 feet tall!
 
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The people know what happened in the 1960s. They had altar/communion rails put back because God’s house of prayer should be made for worship. It is not just a building. But unknown persons who had the funds did build ugly Churches for a reason. Not a good one.

See the book Ugly As Sin.
 
I remember when I was working back in the 1990’s, the employer totally renovated the office.

People were used to the older green metallic desks lined up in a row, people like the old metallic file cabinets, the ashtrays on the desk.

The employer wired the place for computers, brought in new workstation cubicles to replace the file cabinets and desks, removed the metal ashtrays and banned smoking.

A lot of people complained about the renovations, they like the old school way of doing things.

In actuality, renovation really improved on the traditional work place.

Same with church renovations, they are many times an improvement.
 
That doesn’t explain why so many Churches are putting back things that were taken out, with no authority, in the 1960s. Again, a Church cannot be compared to any other building. It is the House of God.
 
Cool. Bryan used to have a very large Italian population up until the 1980s. There is still a noticeable presence there, but not like there used to be. My mom’s family all lived on Kosarek street for years.
 
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