The beautiful church thread: please post photos / links to beautiful Catholic churches!

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In 1990/1991 I spent 6 months of two weeks at home then two weeks in the Chicago area. At first I went St. Margaret Mary in Naperville, IL. I was never comfortable there as it did not feel Catholic (wrong thread for going into further detail on this). I decided that since I was spending so much of my Sunday’s in Chicago proper, I would try Holy Name Cathedral. I loved it!

http://www.holynamecathedral.org/special/tours/frontclose_small.jpg

http://www.holynamecathedral.org/special/tours/superiorside_small.jpg

http://www.holynamecathedral.org/special/tours/fullfront2_small.jpg

http://www.holynamecathedral.org/special/tours/inside_small.jpg
 
Of course, you can’t have a discussion about magnificently beautiful churches without looking at one of the Papal basilicas, St. Mary Major.

Here are some pictures:



This is truly beautiful.

http://www.davidmacd.com/images/europe/100_5906_skylight_st_mary_major.jpg

The light streaming down from the sky is fabulous. . I mean this is a beautiful church dedicated to the Blessed Mother.

Here is a look at the dome:

http://www.limoitalyrooms.it/public/tours/monrealecristopan.jpg

This is breath-taking! And, it’s the oldest Marian shrine!
 
Cobbfmly said:
In 1990/1991 I spent 6 months of two weeks at home then two weeks in the Chicago area. At first I went St. Margaret Mary in Naperville, IL. I was never comfortable there as it did not feel Catholic (wrong thread for going into further detail on this). I decided that since I was spending so much of my Sunday’s in Chicago proper, I would try Holy Name Cathedral. I loved it!

http://www.holynamecathedral.org/special/tours/frontclose_small.jpg

http://www.holynamecathedral.org/special/tours/superiorside_small.jpg

http://www.holynamecathedral.org/special/tours/fullfront2_small.jpg

http://www.holynamecathedral.org/special/tours/inside_small.jpg
Click to expand...
Hmmm…I had heard that Chicago’s cathedral had suffered through a wreckovation some years back.
 
Cobbfmly said:
In 1990/1991 I spent 6 months of two weeks at home then two weeks in the Chicago area. At first I went St. Margaret Mary in Naperville, IL. I was never comfortable there as it did not feel Catholic (wrong thread for going into further detail on this). I decided that since I was spending so much of my Sunday’s in Chicago proper, I would try Holy Name Cathedral. I loved it!

http://www.holynamecathedral.org/special/tours/inside_small.jpg
Click to expand...
I am glad you found the cathedral and its worship beneficial. I have always found Holy Name cathedral to be sparse and uninspiring. I had not seen it before Vatican II, so I don’t know how it looked originally. It has many nice features, but there are so many more beautiful and edifying churches in Chicago, like Our Lady of Sorrows or St. Mary of the Angels, as shown in the post above.

BTW, St. Mary of the Angels was scheduled for tear-down about ten or fifteen years ago, but a grass-roots fund-raising effort spared it. It had been shuttered and was refurbished over a couple years. Now it is an Opus Dei parish. It is one of several large churches that can be seen from the Kennedy Expwy just north of downtown. These churches were built by immigrants in the early 1900s and those in this general area were built mostly by Polish immigrants.

And thanks for sharing that pic, benedictgal. I had a friend who attended grammar school there, oh, many, many years ago. Kinda cool.

In any case, the Lord is there – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – so that’s what makes it wonderful. 👍

God bless,
Dan
 
Of course, I could not ignore my Salesian roots. So, here is a magnifcent picture of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, Italy:

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Even though I have a strained relationship with the nuns, I am still devoted to Mary under this title.
 
danonwaveland said:
I am glad you found the cathedral and its worship beneficial. I have always found Holy Name cathedral to be sparse and uninspiring. I had not seen it before Vatican II, so I don’t know how it looked originally. It has many nice features, but there are so many more beautiful and edifying churches in Chicago, like Our Lady of Sorrows or Our Lady of the Angels, as shown above.

In any case, the Lord is there – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – so that’s what makes it wonderful. 👍

God bless,
Dan
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Here is a picture of it post Vatican II, but before the major changes.

http://www.holynamecathedral.org/special/tours/HCMMay58.jpg

In 1990/1991 it was not easy to know which churches were beautiful. The internet was in it’s infancy. You could not hop on it and see pictures of different churches in the Chicago area or post to a forum to get the recommendations of other people. As I didn’t know any Catholics in the Chicago area, I was fairly limited to the phone book or a call to the diocese. After attending mass a few times at St. Margaret Mary in Naperville (the first time I questioned if it was really a Catholic church from the minute I drove up to it until the end of mass), Holy Name Cathedral was like heaven to me.

Now, I would probably attend mass at different churches each weekend. I now know there is a beautiful church 4 miles from St. Margaret Mary. It is Ss. Peter & Paul.

http://www.dioceseofjoliet.org/campus/Graphics/outsidepeterandpaul.jpg

http://alexandginnette.com/images/Altar1.jpg
 
Houston, Texas, also has its share of beautiful churches, like this one, Our Lady of Walsingham, an Anglican-use parish:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

This is really pretty.
 
Cobbfmly said:
Here is a picture of it post Vatican II, but before the major changes.

http://www.holynamecathedral.org/special/tours/HCMMay58.jpg

In 1990/1991 it was not easy to know which churches were beautiful.
Click to expand...
You’re right; I would have tackled the problem the same way, expecting that the cathedral would be at least among the most beautiful churches in the diocese.

Thank you for posting the old photos of the cathedral. The statuary at the tops of the columns, the paintings above the altar in the sanctuary and even the ornate doors to the sacristies were removed. The sanctuary now consists of the post Vatican II altar and the bishop’s and other chairs, with plain wood panels in the background.

You would think that there are plenty of photos of the cathedral from the “old days,” but I wonder if they’re intentionally hard to access to avoid comparisons to what the interior used to be.

God bless,
Dan
 
danonwaveland said:
You’re right; I would have tackled the problem the same way, expecting that the cathedral would be at least among the most beautiful churches in the diocese.

Thank you for posting the old photos of the cathedral. The statuary at the tops of the columns, the paintings above the altar in the sanctuary and even the ornate doors to the sacristies were removed. The sanctuary now consists of the post Vatican II altar and the bishop’s and other chairs, with plain wood panels in the background.

You would think that there are plenty of photos of the cathedral from the “old days,” but I wonder if they’re intentionally hard to access to avoid comparisons to what the interior used to be.

God bless,
Dan
Click to expand...
One really has to wonder what possessed many post V2 liturgists to denude our beautiful churches. :confused:

Intentionally building a plain or ugly church is one thing, but paying good money to destroy a historic, stunning church is beyond explanation. 😦
 
Lepanto said:
One really has to wonder what possessed many post V2 liturgists to denude our beautiful churches. :confused:

Intentionally building a plain or ugly church is one thing, but paying good money to destroy a historic, stunning church is beyond explanation. 😦
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I don’t think there was any malice intended. These people surely thought they were truly doing what was best for our Catholic church. I think there were just gross errors in judgement and the unfortunate results are still with us. Even in our very humble church on the south side, we had about twenty intricate paintings of saints on the ceiling – between the beams that ran width-wise across the building – that were painted over and lost for good.

The good news is that our God is so anxious to meet us and be with us that He won’t let bad architecture get in the way. I guess it’s up to us to make sure we don’t let the ugly churches get in our way.

God bless,
Dan
 
Blessed Sacrament parish in Seattle, WA. Their 100th anniversary Domincan Rite Solemn High Mass(ordinarily they have a table altar set up in front for versus populum OF Masses).

The church is not finished, hence the bare brickwork. It is highly symbolic, and was the subject of the homily on this occasion. Also, the woodwork in the church was all done by hand, alone, by the former pastor during the 60s. This is what I would consider noble simplicity. Also, you can’t see it from the pictures, but it has the most beautiful stained glass I have ever seen, and I’ve been to Europe.





Especially beautiful…the fair sized number of Dominican friars there.

 
Serra Chapel at Mission San Juan Capistrano



Since Eclessia Dei, the only mass to be offered in Serra Chapel has been the Traditional Latin Mass. The chapel seats 120 people. Due to attendance of 450+ people, they recommend arriving 45 minutes early to get a seat.
 
Cobbfmly said:
Serra Chapel at Mission San Juan Capistrano

Since Eclessia Dei, the only mass to be offered in Serra Chapel has been the Traditional Latin Mass. The chapel seats 120 people. Due to attendance of 450+ people, they recommend arriving 45 minutes early to get a seat.
Click to expand...
Since Pope Benedict XVI’s moto propio, there’s now 5 Tridentine Masses in the Diocese of Orange. 👍
 
There are some breath taking pics on here. I think my fav so far was St. Vincent de Paul in Los Angeles.
 
shrineex.JPG
 
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