Scary Catholic church buildings!

[LegoGE1947]

Do they pipe in the Beach Boys song “God Only Knows Where I’d Be Without You?”

 

[edwest2]

Yes, starting in the late 1960s, a group of somebodies with the authority to select awful Church designs, and get the funds to build them, appeared. Sad.

amazon.com/Ugly-As-Sin-Churches-Forthright/dp/1928832369

It’s also a shame that some young people and some older, forget how to dress in a House of God. I pray the Church does something about that.

Peace,
Ed

 

[SoMissCatholic]

However, I did just discover recently that one of the stained glass windows in the back has a surfer dude in it. Talk about scary…

Maybe they thought “walking on the water” was a metaphor for surfing?

 

[pianistclare]

Maybe they thought “walking on the water” was a metaphor for surfing?

LOL.
There’s a church near me that has a crudely made stained glass window where Jesus’ hand looks like a baseball mitt, and the bottom portion of his robe is the same color as the background…looks like he’s wearing no bottoms.
Not scary, but really ugly.

 

[decjlc]

My dad attended my confirmation and my son’s baptism and looked extremely uncomfortable throughout. His view that the Catholic Church is the “whore of Babylon” probably has something to do with that, though.

 

[LegoGE1947]

LOL.
There’s a church near me that has a crudely made stained glass window where Jesus’ hand looks like a baseball mitt, and the bottom portion of his robe is the same color as the background…looks like he’s wearing no bottoms.
Not scary, but really ugly.

The parish church that we attend just observed its 50th anniversary. It was the first church in the diocese that was constructed using the “new designs” following Vatican II. Pretty stark looking Here is the website www.holyfamilyrockford.org.

 

[pianistclare]

The parish church that we attend just observed its 50th anniversary. It was the first church in the diocese that was constructed using the “new designs” following Vatican II. Pretty stark looking Here is the website www.holyfamilyrockford.org.

Well, all you can see is the exterior, but it looks pretty tame.
You must have lots of classic churches in your area to compare.
We’re fairly modern, but I like the serenity of our sanctuary. It’s uber peaceful.
I wish I could post a picture, but I’ve never been able to get that function to work for me…

 

[LegoGE1947]

Well, all you can see is the exterior, but it looks pretty tame.
You must have lots of classic churches in your area to compare.
We’re fairly modern, but I like the serenity of our sanctuary. It’s uber peaceful.
I wish I could post a picture, but I’ve never been able to get that function to work for me…

I think the ugliest one I’ve ever seen is the Cathedral of the Los Angeles diocese. Doesn’t even look like a church.

 

[pianistclare]

I think the ugliest one I’ve ever seen is the Cathedral of the Los Angeles diocese. Doesn’t even look like a church.

Not to offend anyone in that parish, but I think that’s what they were going for…something that did not look like a traditional Catholic Church.
Glad that era is over.

 

[andrewstx]

They don’t scare this one, at least, I don’t think they do. Should they?

But aren’t they very different from the typical plain LDS chapels, and even temples? I have seen, though a few LDS chapels built in the old days that were beautiful. But modern chapels and stake centers look remarkably the same.

One thing I really like about LDS chapels is that nearly all of them have pipe organs, no pianos, drums and guitars.

 

[andrewstx]

The parish church that we attend just observed its 50th anniversary. It was the first church in the diocese that was constructed using the “new designs” following Vatican II. Pretty stark looking Here is the website www.holyfamilyrockford.org.

That’s not so bad, at least it has verticality. What the author of Ugly as Sin fails to notice is that a lot of Romanesque and Gothic architecture is very expensive to build and most parishes can’t afford it.

But there is a beautiful Gothic cathedral in San Francisco. It is Episcopal but it was built of cast-on-site concrete. It took over 50 years to build though.

Old St. Mary’s cathedral in Chinatown is gothic and very attractive. But the new cathedral there is not so great. Modern all the way.

 

[LegoGE1947]

Well, all you can see is the exterior, but it looks pretty tame.
You must have lots of classic churches in your area to compare.
We’re fairly modern, but I like the serenity of our sanctuary. It’s uber peaceful.
I wish I could post a picture, but I’ve never been able to get that function to work for me…

I can’t speak for outside of Rockford, IL proper, but within the city we do have lots of old churches.

 

[andrewstx]

In the town I grew up in, there are indeed some beautiful old Protestant church buildings. Even buildings that are not churches have a character about them if they are beyond a certain age that modern structures do not have. I will say that one exception to that would be the John Deere Administrative Center in Moline, Illinois. Designed by Eero Saarinen in 1963, it uses weathering steel with a glass facade and fits in with a rustic surrounding.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fileeere_%26_Company_World_Headquarters.jpg

Springfield Il has a beautiful cathedral. And Holy Name cathedral in Chicago is nice as well.

 

[dreamfleur]

I was afraid to enter a Catholic Church, because I had been taught that it was the church of the devil.

Catholic churches and all things associated to them are very foreign to a lot of people. It is not unusual to feel uncomfortable, but at the same time, feel like you just need to keep going back.

These two things happened to me. Fear!!! and yet… something stronger than you just makes you want to come back.

 

[debbie_h]

My dad attended my confirmation and my son’s baptism and looked extremely uncomfortable throughout. His view that the Catholic Church is the “whore of Babylon” probably has something to do with that, though.

Sorry, this made me laugh, it just reminded me of my parents hanging around the entrance where the baptismal font is peering in at my eldest daughters christening as if they were scared the we’re going to burst into flames (as Mormons, they believe the whole ‘the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon’ thing), clearly they didn’t like that m husband & I are raising our family catholic.
I was initially scared of walking into a Catholic Church because I had that fear I was turning away from the true God by doing so,

 

[Ridgerunner]

That’s not so bad, at least it has verticality. What the author of Ugly as Sin fails to notice is that a lot of Romanesque and Gothic architecture is very expensive to build and most parishes can’t afford it.

But there is a beautiful Gothic cathedral in San Francisco. It is Episcopal but it was built of cast-on-site concrete. It took over 50 years to build though.

Old St. Mary’s cathedral in Chinatown is gothic and very attractive. But the new cathedral there is not so great. Modern all the way.

It’s astonishing, though, what a really clever architect can do with modern materials. The enormous cost, today, of building in a traditional design is due largely to the materials used and the method of preparing them. Yes, carving a huge high altar out of marble by Italian artists is horribly expensive. But there are modern ways to do the same thing at a fraction of the cost.

Modern plainness is not really due to cost, but due to ideology. Some of it is a “statement” made by one architect to other architects. Some of it is due to a (misguided in my view) desire to “return to the early Church”. If earliest Christians had Mass in mud-brick, low-end homes, why, that’s what we need today, or the nearest approximation thereto.

 

[debbie_h]

Tastes from whatever decade or century from which a church is built, I find the very old & moderns to be very nice, yes a lot of the ones built in the 60s, & 70s, 80s are a bit ugly in design & decor, but it should never take away from the fact that our Lord is truly there.
In my LDS upbringing, our chapels are very plain & sterile, i just never felt it to be a holy place to be.

 

[LegoGE1947]

Sorry, this made me laugh, it just reminded me of my parents hanging around the entrance where the baptismal font is peering in at my eldest daughters christening as if they were scared the we’re going to burst into flames (as Mormons, they believe the whole ‘the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon’ thing), clearly they didn’t like that m husband & I are raising our family catholic.
I was initially scared of walking into a Catholic Church because I had that fear I was turning away from the true God by doing so,

In 1973, when I became a Protestant and it was told me that I needed to be baptized, I was afraid to because I thought the baptismal tank was filled with blood. Protestants have a hymn titled “Are You Washed In The Blood?” I was also scared of any thing deeper than a bathtub since I nearly drowned in a swimming pool trying to learn to swim. I don’t go near swimming pools since.

 

[LegoGE1947]

It’s astonishing, though, what a really clever architect can do with modern materials. The enormous cost, today, of building in a traditional design is due largely to the materials used and the method of preparing them. Yes, carving a huge high altar out of marble by Italian artists is horribly expensive. But there are modern ways to do the same thing at a fraction of the cost.

Modern plainness is not really due to cost, but due to ideology. Some of it is a “statement” made by one architect to other architects. Some of it is due to a (misguided in my view) desire to “return to the early Church”. If earliest Christians had Mass in mud-brick, low-end homes, why, that’s what we need today, or the nearest approximation thereto.

The OLAM Shrine built for Mother Angelica in Hanceville, AL is modern (within the past 20 years) but highly ornate. At least it looks to be so on tv.

 

[debbie_h]

In 1973, when I became a Protestant and it was told me that I needed to be baptized, I was afraid to because I thought the baptismal tank was filled with blood. Protestants have a hymn titled “Are You Washed In The Blood?” I was also scared of any thing deeper than a bathtub since I nearly drowned in a swimming pool trying to learn to swim. I don’t go near swimming pools since.

I’m sorry to hear that,
It is such a shame that the lies, misconceptions & downright fear mongering tactics that are used to try & keep us from the the truth.
Do you mind me asking, what you were before you became Protestant, & what brought you home to the Catholic Church?