Vatican about to establish commission to discourage ugly churches

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“Cement cubes, glass boxes, crazy shapes”
Italian daily says Vatican about to establish commission to discourage ugly churches, uses photo of Crystal Cathedral to illustrate its point

A photo of the Orange diocese’s newly acquired Crystal Cathedral was used by an Italian daily to illustrate a Nov. 21 story about the creation of a new Vatican commission that will “crack down” on architectural abuses.

“Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Benedict XVI, consider this work as ‘very urgent,’” the Italian daily La Stampa reports. The newspaper is known for its “Vatican Insider” project, staffed by experienced journalists well connected to sources inside the Holy See. Yesterday’s story was published in the newspaper’s “Vatican Insider” report.

“The reality is staring everyone in the eyes: in recent decades, churches have been substituted by buildings that resemble multi purpose halls,” said the report, written by Andrea Tornielli. “Too often, architects, even the more famous ones, do not use the Catholic liturgy as a starting point and thus end up producing avant-garde constructions that look like anything but a church. These buildings composed of cement cubes, glass boxes, crazy shapes and confused spaces, remind people of anything but the mystery and sacredness of a church. Tabernacles are semi hidden, leading faithful on a real treasure hunt and sacred images are almost inexistent.”

“The new commission’s regulations will be written up over the next few days and will give precise instructions to dioceses,” wrote Tornielli. “It will only be responsible for liturgical art, not for sacred art in general; and this also goes for liturgical music and singing too. The judicial powers of the Congregation for Divine Worship will have the power to act.”

Prominently displayed at the top left of the story was a photo of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, with the caption: “California – The controversial ‘Crystal Cathedral,’ which has just been purchased by the Diocese of Orange.”

vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/architettura-architecture-arquitectura-10121/

calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=281e0014-72d0-4e5e-adc9-48c6ab96404b
 
Given his vast education and background in the arts, I am sure that Pope Benedict XVI is very pleased with the design of the Crystal Cathedral by the world renowned Philip Johnson. He had to approve the purchase and I bet he will, effectively putting his stamp of approval on the design.
 
Aeolian said:
Given his vast education and background in the arts, I am sure that Pope Benedict XVI is very pleased with the design of the Crystal Cathedral by the world renowned Philip Johnson. He had to approve the purchase and I bet he will, effectively putting his stamp of approval on the design.
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How biased and extremely overreaching, like in the CC thread. I don’t think anybody on this board is personal buddies with the Pope, so there is no way of you being sure of anything.

Does the Pope have to approve all cathedral purchases?

Did it ever occur to you that the Cardinal in charge of the Congregation that this commission falls under is acting under the Pope’s own authority and is exercising it in a manner consistent with his competencies in his post? I presume that if the Pope did not like the idea of this commission’s indicated mission, he would order it to be shut down.

Anyways, I think this commission is long overdue. However, as is usual, I suspect they will be slow as molasses to correct things.
 
They said the same about Brunelleschi and Michelangelo. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I am a great fan of European Gothic Cathedrals, but I acknowledge that in their time, they were hated symbols of foreign domination designed to intimidate the masses. I’m sure that time will either bring us to love our concrete boxes or cause them to crumble into dust.
 
prettiefly said:
“The reality is staring everyone in the eyes: in recent decades, churches have been substituted by buildings that resemble multi purpose halls,” said the report, written by Andrea Tornielli. “Too often, architects, even the more famous ones, do not use the Catholic liturgy as a starting point and thus end up producing avant-garde constructions that look like anything but a church. These buildings composed of cement cubes, glass boxes, crazy shapes and confused spaces, remind people of anything but the mystery and sacredness of a church. Tabernacles are semi hidden, leading faithful on a real treasure hunt and sacred images are almost inexistent.”
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This would be great. My church looks like an ecumenical prison chapel. The last thing you notice is a small “Risen Christ” above the altar on the wall, looks like Peter O’Tool hailing a cab after escaping from a mental hospital. The “stained glass windows” are cement blocks with random pieces of colored glass stuck in them.
 
In London, we have two particular buildings which are loved and loathed in equal measure. The recently refurbished Midland Hotel at St Pancras Station dennis-jackson.me.uk/pictures/pancras/pancras.jpg is the ultimate in Victorian fantasy Gothic. The National Theatre i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01428/national-theatre_1428543c.jpg is a lump of 1950s brutalist concrete relieved only by the grain impressed on it by the timber shuttering used in construction.

The UK Sunday Newspaper, the Observer, carries out a survey every year to publish a list of the five most loved and the five most hated buildings in London. Both buildings invariably make both lists. We will never agree on architecture.
 
Whilst I see the good intention behind this, I just hope it doesn’t stifle church architecture or indeed completely dismiss all modern churches. One of my favourite churches is the Cathedral of Brasilia, designed by Oscar Niemeyer. It’s totally non-traditional but it’s stunning. I went to Rome and to southern Spain recently and the old churches are so beautiful, but that does mean different styles are any less so.

 
Malaysian law states… that a church has to be built to resemble a factory :eek:
So sad…
 
jimrob said:
They said the same about Brunelleschi and Michelangelo. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I am a great fan of European Gothic Cathedrals, but I acknowledge that in their time, they were hated symbols of foreign domination designed to intimidate the masses. I’m sure that time will either bring us to love our concrete boxes or cause them to crumble into dust.
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You are absolutely right. When for example, the Romanesque style was developing, those used to (among others) the Byzantine style derided the Romanesque style. Same when the Gothic style developed. In fact, that’s why “Gothic” has such an odd name.

It’s not only because of the reasons you mention though. It’s also simply because of change. Some people simply cannot handle it.
 
Its about time something was done. Its 70 years too late. One can only hope and pray that the new commission has better taste than some of the designers.
 
Hmmph! Someone seems to have forgotten the history of the emergence of the church from the catacombs. When Constantine de-criminalized Christianity, the church came out from its underground existence. One of the first things that Constantine did was to begin converting existing buildings for use as meeting places for Christian worship: churches. His choice was the “multipurpose hall” which was a common sight in most cities. It was called a basilica and it was used as a meeting hall for conducting business in the nave, and as a court room with the judge sitting on the raised platform in the semicircular area at one end of the building, called the apse. Constantine is also responsible for the first cruciform church which was simply another modified, converted basilica. The converted multipurpose hall used the area formerly used as a business conference room for the congregation and the raised judge’s platform was occupied by the bishop and/or priest(s). An altar table was added to complete the conversion.
There are a great many European churches done in the Rococo style. The grossly overdone embellishments are grotesque and frequently just plain ugly. Do these Italians intend to demolish all the ugly churches in Europe (especially Italy)? Or will cooler and better educated heads prevail?
It looks as though these people are trying to further reduce the authority of local bishops. It’s not really about architecture; it’s about power. Phooey!
 
as long as this commission spends its time cracking down on actual ABUSE, I’m ok with thing. I will be substantially less pleased, however, if this is a backdoor to stifle any architectural creativity.

Also worth noting - I believe this commission is supposed to review music as well? Again, fine…but don’t leave us stuck with nothing but the horribly dry Gregorian chants.
 
mburn16 said:
as long as this commission spends its time cracking down on actual ABUSE, I’m ok with thing. I will be substantially less pleased, however, if this is a backdoor to stifle any architectural creativity.

Also worth noting - I believe this commission is supposed to review music as well? Again, fine…but don’t leave us stuck with nothing but the horribly dry Gregorian chants.
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Horribly dry? Lol.
 
prettiefly said:
"Tabernacles are semi hidden, leading faithful on a real treasure hunt and sacred images are almost inexistent.”
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Huh. It’s almost like the Tabernacle should be front and center and the focus in a Latin Rite Parish.
jimrob said:
They said the same about Brunelleschi and Michelangelo. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I am a great fan of European Gothic Cathedrals, but I acknowledge that in their time, they were hated symbols of foreign domination designed to intimidate the masses. I’m sure that time will either bring us to love our concrete boxes or cause them to crumble into dust.
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Beauty is NOT in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is objective because beauty is true. If one cannot see beauty (I for one do not like sunsets), then there is something defective in that person.
 
Maybe theology wi8ll again play a part in the way churches are built. The trend is to make churches functional in the same way a shopping mall or a movie theatre is functional. Architects who design Catholic churches obviously have no clue about the purpose of that holy space but are only interested in following trends and experimenting on occasion.

I wonder if the new commission will stock up on dynamite too. 😃

As for the ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ argument, that is not a Catholic but a secular understanding of beauty. St. Thomas Acquinas came up with three criteria of establishing whether something is objectively beautiful. There are 3 components to something that is beautiful:* integritas, consonantia and claritas*. That is: wholeness/perfection, harmony and radiance. Worth looking into for a better understanding why beauty is important and not just a question of aesthetics.
 
I hope something is done about my parish. It looks like a combo of a quaker home and a Kingdom Hall (with statues and an altar) :ehh:
 
Maybe I missed it, what will be done with the ugly churches that are standing now? It would cost too much to re-structure them…or tear them down (I think).
 
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