Does your parish have a crucifix, a plain cross, or a resurrectifix in its sanctuary?

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Does your parish have a crucifix, a plain cross, or a resurrectifix in its sanctuary?

Do you think it make a difference?

Which do you prefer, and why?

For the record…

General Instruction of the Roman Missal
308. There is also to be a cross, with the figure of Christ crucified upon it, either on the altar or near it, where it is clearly visible to the assembled congregation. It is appropriate that such a cross, which calls to mind for the faithful the saving Passion of the Lord, remain near the altar even outside of liturgical celebrations.

usccb.org/liturgy/current/chapter5.shtml#sect2
 
lepanto said:
Does your parish have a crucifix, a plain cross, or a resurrectifix in its sanctuary?

Do you think it make a difference?

Which do you prefer, and why?
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My parish has a crucifix in the center of the sanctuary, as does our Cathedral. In fact, just about all of our parishes have a crucifix. One parish has Jesus in priestly vestments in front of the cross (in the middle of the sanctuary); however, there is also a crucifix in the sanctuary as well.

Now, for me, it does make a great difference. St. Paul said that he “preaches Christ crucified.” The crucifix is our sign of redemption. You cannot have the Resurrection without the Crucifixion. To totally ignore the crucifix in favor of the resurrectitifix shows a very poor understanding of the mystery of our salvation and is very Protestant in nature. Recall that the Protestants do not have a crucifix, except, perhaps, for the Anglicans.
 
The large cross hanging in the sanctuary has the Risen Christ on it.

Two years ago the youth group raised money and without consultation (or so we thought) bought a very expensive set of altar candles and processional cross, spending almost 5 grand. The set they ordered was designed for wax candles and with a crucifix so they special-ordered it to be acrylic tubes for oil canisters and a resurrected Christ. Nobody involved in the liturgy was thrilled and the first comment the youth group leader heard when they revealed it to the staff was “BUT IT’S SUPPOSED TO HAVE A CRUCIFIED CHRIST!!!” She was miffed and at that point we found out that they had waylaid the pastor after Mass one night, shoved a catalog at him and he’d suggested the purchase they’d just made.

They turned around and spent another 800 bucks to get a crucified Christ and now we play revolving processional crosses – during the entire Easter Season, in spite of being aware of the GIRM, they insist on using the Risen Christ, because well ‘we spent all that money’. So at that time we have 2 Risen Christs in the sanctuary.
 
At the parish I had first attended last summer, they had neither crucifix nor resurrectifix (sp?) but a statue of Jesus ascending into heaven above the tabernacle. It’s actually quite beautiful, but I do believe that a crucifix belongs in the sanctuary. The parish I now attend has a large crucifix suspended above the sanctuary by cables in the ceiling, which makes for a very striking reminder to contemplate Christ’s sacrifice.

At a parish not far from my house, they have, in my mind, an absolutely hideous resurrectifix in the sanctuary and a small crucifix next to the altar. When I say hideous, I mean it. The cross itself is painted on the wall, and Jesus is stuck out from it by some sort of pole. What makes it worse, it looks nothing like a traditional depiction of Jesus, but an effeminate man with five o’clock shadow. The lights in the sanctuary are positioned so that the shadows from the statue look like angel’s wings coming from Jesus. I suppose someone thought they were quite artistic when they came up with it. Blech. This same church also has the tabernacle shoved off to a side chapel. Apparently it might’ve offended someone’s aesthetic sensibilities… Yet the same parish has perpetual adoration available in the parish center. 🤷
 
Our parish and the chapel have a crucifix. The one in the cathedral is “small”, but Jesus is there on the cross. The one in the chapel (which is the size of an average-sized church) is huge.
 
Our church has a very large crucifix in the vicinity of the altar which is visible to just about everyone.

But I voted “other” since I’m not sure you can really say it’s in the sanctuary due to the unusual design of our church.
 
benedictgal said:
Recall that the Protestants do not have a crucifix, except, perhaps, for the Anglicans.
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Many Anglican churches I’ve been into in two countries have a crucifix. Many of them even had Lady Chapels or at least a statue with a blue light similar to a sanctuary light next to it. Some had piety stalls and sold rosaries!

I prefer a crucifix but my preference is shaped by knowing all my life that a crucifix is required. It’s the whole “punchline”, really. My parish church was built in 1980 and has a very large one, “centre stage” right over the tabernacle. The PP at the time the church was designed and built was very orthodox. The liturgy group go to great lengths to ensure that nothing that gets hung in the nave ever obscures anyone’s the view of it in any way (except for when it is veiled during the Triduum) - the ceiling is low at the back and high at the front and sometimes things are hung from the centre spine running from the back door to the top of the sanctuary. Oddly enough I can only think of one church OTTOMH that has a cross rather than a crucifix and it’s a very old church (for this neck of the woods) and run by very orthodox Marian priests. 🤷
 
We have a huge Crucifix suspended above the High Altar.

Not a closeup, but you can see it here…

stlb.org/images/LBChurch3.jpg

It’s a Dominican church. The most beautiful sanctuary in the city imo. I pray for the day the old Dominican Rite returns to this Holy place.
 
Well, we have a processional crucifix that gets placed in the sanctuary, but hanging up behind the celebrant’s chair is a “resurrectrix” or “resurrectifix” or whatever you want to call it. My pastor’s not too keen on it – and he replaces it with an (empty) cross during Lent – but it’s of sentimental value to the first parishioners, so it’s here for a while.

I wish it would be replaced with a beautiful crucifix. I’d donate to that fund.

You can see it (and our… sigh… altar) in this picture… and there’s the processional crucifix on the left side of the picture:

http://qomchurch.org/Faith Formation/Faith Formation/Faith formation.jpg
 
lepanto said:
Does your parish have a crucifix, a plain cross, or a resurrectifix in its sanctuary?

Do you think it make a difference?

Which do you prefer, and why?

For the record…

General Instruction of the Roman Missal
308. There is also to be a cross, with the figure of Christ crucified upon it, either on the altar or near it, where it is clearly visible to the assembled congregation. It is appropriate that such a cross, which calls to mind for the faithful the saving Passion of the Lord, remain near the altar even outside of liturgical celebrations.

usccb.org/liturgy/current/chapter5.shtml#sect2
Click to expand...
Our church (built in the early 1980’s) had a modernistic distorted monstrosity hanging over the altar. Several months ago, a parishioner donated a crucifix with a traditional corpus. It’s is a great improvement over what was there before. In fact, they replaced the plain wood statues of the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph with traditional statues as well. Now if they could just tear down the church and rebuild a traditional one…
 
There is a Church in our area that has a risen Christ over the altar - no cross, just Jesus suspended from wires over the altar. :eek: He always looks to me like he’s doing the rings at the Olympics. :rolleyes: It’s really really distracting.

Our parish has this: photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1659/2191/1600/06_E_0311_5x7c.jpg

This photo is from Diane’s Blog: te-deum.blogspot.com/

This is the best shot of our crucifix I could find. There is another good one in some wedding photos on Diane’s Blog, but I did not want to post someone’s wedding. 🙂

~Liza
 
New Parish has a larger-than-life crucifix, up front, above the high altar. Huge. Gets the point across.

The only place around here that I have seen Touchdown Jesus in front of a cross is at That College that turned their chapel into a multipurpose dining room and rec center. The little teeny closet they now use as a chapel as a resurrectfix (seems sort of odd to have the resurrected Christ on a cross to me, anyway). I will give them credit as a Catholic university, even though their practice of things Catholic is lax, of having a crucifix in each classroom and learning center EXCEPT for the former chapel.
 
My parish has a crucifix in front…I don’t think I’ve ever seen a “ressurectifix(that’s a fun word to say!)” in a sanctuary before.

But wouldn’t a church with an image of the Risen Savior also have to have a crucifix up front as well? How does that work out?
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japhy:
I might add that I’m glad we don’t have the “Cross of New Life”.
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Hmm…that’s kinda interesting. Not exactly appropriate for a church sanctuary, though.

I might like it if it was a little 6" tall version, not a 16’ tall version.
 
My parish has a large cruifix without the body of Christ above the altar. The Church was built in 1990. There are no visible statues anywhere in the Church although there are two beautiful statues behind a wall that goes behind the sanctuary. There is no Tabernacle anywhere in site. The Tabernacle is in a small chapel completely out of sight of the sanctuary.
 
dandn5000 said:
But wouldn’t a church with an image of the Risen Savior also have to have a crucifix up front as well? How does that work out?
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The only crucifix we have in the sanctuary is the small processional one. The crucifix itself is maybe only two feet tall.
 
stmaria said:
My parish has a large cruifix without the body of Christ above the altar.
Click to expand...
Ah, the empty cross. It misses the point.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen:
Keep your eyes on the crucifix,
for Christ without the cross
is a man without a mission;
and the cross without Christ,
is a burden without a reliever.
Click to expand...
 
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