Is this true?

[hilde_the_dog]

Sounds like gossip to me. And gossip that is not true. Infact most of the posts indicate the trend is toward more statues and art work. We have added large print of St Jude and BVM. 8ft statue of St Leo the Great

 

[LoyalViews]

Do you *really *know of a Catholic church that took out statues for the express purpose of being more ‘like our separeted brethren’? I have never encountered that. I have been in some very simple plain Catholic churches, but the reasons had to do with things other than being like a protestant. And I don’t know of any churches that took out artwork without also doing some kind of renovations for repairs or to increase the size of the sanctuary.

Unfortunately yes I think it may have been an isolated problem, but we have a Catholic hospital which had a very beautiful chapel, nice high altar, statues and art. It was simple, and plain, but very beautiful!

Around ten years after Vatican II, it was stripped of everything but a new altar and the pews. “so not to offend Protestants and other non-Catholics”…this was a CATHOLIC hospital. Recently it’s beginning to be restored to it’s former look, due to new management, but it was said that this happened, don’t you think? The chapel was only used by Catholics as there was a Protestant-run hospital not too far away.

Vatican II is not to blame for this though, it’s those who ran the hospital.

 

[DCNBILL]

Pastor on a statue buying binge like ours?

He asks me a question in the chapel and I answer, I realize that he isn’t hearing a word I say, but he is staring at the new bust of Blessed Pope John Paul II. I say, “Father, are you listening to me?” and he says, “He looks young, doesn’t he?”

I love Father, but woo-wee, he loves statues lately.

-Tim-

Your pastor sounds like an interesting character.

Our pastor, who has only been at the parish 3 years, has just been filling in some “gaps” that have been needing filled for some time. And he waits for the items to be donated due to budget constraints.

 

[arkwright]

Around ten years after Vatican II,

Vatican II is not to blame for this though, it’s those who ran the hospital.

Of course the Second Vatican Council is not to blame , so why did you bring it into your post ?

 

[CatholicLife]

After the VII Council, here in American many churches and cathedrals began the process of getting rid of many religious paintings , statues, relics , and anything that looked to “Catholic”. I’ve heard of priests throwing relics away in the garbage and of paintings getting covered in paint. Here in the Diocese of Phoenix many pastors are fixing up the Churches and adding statues and more sacred imagery and the new churches that are getting built actually look like churches and not like apartment buildings!

 

[CatholicLife]

Saint James church in Seaforth, Ontario, Canada before Vatican II and after the post Vatican II wreckovations.

 

[CharitableFaith]

Perhaps it would be better to deal with facts and not hearsay when starting a thread .

That’s why I asked if it was true.

 

[EcceAgnusDei]

Here is an example from my own diocese of wreckovation and renovation (this is actually the church of my baptism).

First, the church itself. From left to right: the original church (started in 1859), the remodeled church, the monument to the church when it was torn down in 1969, the replacement church in 1969

View attachment 13817

Next, the original high altar from the old church:

View attachment 13818

Now, after the church was torn down, here was the new modern altar:

View attachment 13821

The old high altar sat in storage (once being outside for 2 years). Here’s what it looked like 40 years later:

View attachment 13819
View attachment 13820

The priest who catechized and baptized me took it out of storage and with the help of dozens of people it was restored and now looks like this:

View attachment 13822

I can’t believe that people really truly thought throwing out something so old and beautiful to be replaced with something so incredibly banal was the right thing to do. I’m glad this priest restored the altar to its current state.

Now if we could only get him to celebrate the EF on it…

• PAX

 

[LoyalViews]

Of course the Second Vatican Council is not to blame , so why did you bring it into your post ?

So that I could begin by saying it wasn’t started because of Vatican II. It happened ten years after it. That’s not exactly an immediate obedients to the documents and result of the liturgical directives (which in regards to design changed little to nothing), is it?

 

[englishredrose]

well not quite what you heard…

but certainly in England where churches had halls and have icons etc the press did print a few stories where people hiring the church halls demanded that icons etc to be removed. Not protestants as you seemed to have heard, but general public hiring the halls.But don’t actually know because Media will print anything sometimes and will juice a story up a bit too to make it readable etc. But I think that has sort of thing has gone now I hope. I think if I was in charge of hall bookings etc and someone was hiring it out and requested anything to be removed I would tell them to go elsewhere because they know it a church hall before booking. even if it risks loosing income. I’d rather see them go rather than pander to their false politically correct notions.

here is your answer

 

[OraLabora]

Many Catholic religious orders have a tradition of austerity in their conventual churches consistent with their vows of poverty. Benedictines and even more so Cistercians and Carthusians come to mind. There is nothing inherently scandalous, anti-Catholic or pro-Protestant about an austere church.

Of corse the motivation for stripping a church may be for the wrong reasons. But it could also reflect the influence of local religious orders. Charity suggests that one shouldn’t presusume nefarious motives in all cases.

I myself as a secular Benedictine am drawn to simplicity and austerity in church design, and I can assure you I am very far from being Protestant!

 

[Joe_Kelley]

well not quite what you heard…

but certainly in England where churches had halls and have icons etc the press did print a few stories where people hiring the church halls demanded that icons etc to be removed. Not protestants as you seemed to have heard, but general public hiring the halls.But don’t actually know because Media will print anything sometimes and will juice a story up a bit too to make it readable etc. But I think that has sort of thing has gone now I hope. I think if I was in charge of hall bookings etc and someone was hiring it out and requested anything to be removed I would tell them to go elsewhere because they know it a church hall before booking. even if it risks loosing income. I’d rather see them go rather than pander to their false politically correct notions.

Georgetown did it for President Obama’s visit.

 

[SMHW]

While it is no doubt the case that parishes have removed sacred art and icons…

I think it is far more common that parish churches have never had them in the first place.

At least in the United States I would say that an extremely large percentage of parishes were build after 1965 and as such were built in a simple modern style. What statues and stations of the cross they did have were frequently bought from a Church supply store and often were just painted plaster or resin. They would not really have qualified as “art”.

Yes, I know that there are highly ornate church buildings of recent construction but I think they are in the minority. And yes there are older church buildings which have been remodeled and the artwork removed.

 

[LoyalViews]

Many Catholic religious orders have a tradition of austerity in their conventual churches consistent with their vows of poverty. Benedictines and even more so Cistercians and Carthusians come to mind. There is nothing inherently scandalous, anti-Catholic or pro-Protestant about an austere church.

Of corse the motivation for stripping a church may be for the wrong reasons. But it could also reflect the influence of local religious orders. Charity suggests that one shouldn’t presusume nefarious motives in all cases.

I myself as a secular Benedictine am drawn to simplicity and austerity in church design, and I can assure you I am very far from being Protestant!

We have a church built in a Benedictine-style here, it’s simple, plain, and austere. It just makes your soul SING to God! There are no Benedictines, but the Benedictines have had austere Churches since pre-Trent