What's wrong with this church?

  • Thread starter Thread starter loyola_rambler
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
loyola rambler:
Just for kicks, please take a look at these photos of this humble little cathedral and see how many bizarre little oddities you find.
Click to expand...
The pictures aren’t really clear, but a few:

— the thurifer is a woman who moves gracefully
— the choir has a defined schola with real risers
— there are lots of holy images [even in these poor pictures, I noted four or five]
— the wood of the cross is wood
— it’s interesting to recreate the stars in the dome of the sky in the Christmas decorations, though it seems to me that the stars’ glittering could be somewhat distracting.
For extra credit, do comment on the statue of Mary in the background on the far left of the “altar”. Quite “unique”, isn’t it?
Click to expand...
Photo too dark, unclear, and at too great distance to be able to make any comment. Hope she’s at least as beautiful as my parish’s “Maria Mater Ecclesiae”

karen marie
 
So very sad. Many years ago my mother and some other ladies went to Bishop Utner for help on right to life. He threw them out of his office. I say God have mercy on this diocese and the destruction that has gone on their for years.
 
Well, I wrote elsewhere recently about hijacked churches, and this seems to be the home of one of them.

You know, the church of he Nativity has a lot of things hanging in it, too (but I’ve only seen pictures).

I can’t tell what the statue of Mary is doing back there, but perhaps she is posed as an urban dweller hailing a cab.

I’m glad I had the chance to see these photos, because if I saw this building in real life I might have suffered a collapse.

There’s a liberated church building down in central Florida which sports a larger than life modern mural of a group of followers dressed in Jewish costume, with a lady conspicuously breast-feeding an infant. There’s one thought I kept gravitating to during Mass, except that the priest had developed a style of speaking, wherein he would exceptionally emphasize various wording, to draw me into the prayer. Very strange place.

Yeah, everybody come up to Michigan. No toll booths, lots of bars, and some of the most wacked Catholic church buildings you’ll see anyplace.
 
What sort of nonsense is this bishop letting have happen anyway??? Too bad this site rc.net/saginaw/smc/page6.html won’t let me cut and paste those pictures, or else I will be filling them here.

I find it difficult to fathom that this is a “Catholic” Cathedral in good canonical standing with John Paul II, much less in communion with him. I have seen Lutheran churches that are more dignified than this atrocity in liturgical design, so I wonder who is the protestant??? And as a faithful non-traditionalist Catholic I can’t help but join the Lefebvrites in dismay over this mess.:nope:

Someone should be writing to Rome about this, but I suppose nothing will be done about it since he is the bishop of his diocese, unorthodox or not. So our only recourse is with the Lord in this case. :gopray2:
 
I guess I just do not see what the problems are. Perhaps if I was live I could see what you are talking about.

The statue of Mary has no where near the detail necessary to declare that is in inappropriate.
No crucifix? How can that be determined just because it doesn’t show in the sections photographed.
Kneelers aren’t required. Kneeling is.

I would never want to be critical based on such poor evidence.
 
does it not seem that the same people who were eager to throw out all vestiges of “medieval” art from our churches and make them into pole barns wish now to redecorate with felt banners and paper stars? my former church has had butterflies hanging from the ceiling since Easter (as long as they were climbing a ladder to hang them, too bad they did not paint the ceiling, which badly needs it.)
 
Thank you redkim
I guess I just do not see what the problems are. Perhaps if I was live I could see what you are talking about.
Click to expand...
The statue of Mary has no where near the detail necessary to declare that is in inappropriate.
No crucifix? How can that be determined just because it doesn’t show in the sections photographed.
Kneelers aren’t required. Kneeling is.
Click to expand...
I would never want to be critical based on such poor evidence.
Click to expand...
Ok pnewton and everyone else who is wondering why we are putting up such a fuss over this Church(actually a Cathedral). Putting artistic and personal tastes aside, just take a gander at these photos and see how much they are in compliance with canon law and the GIRM. In my eyes they appear to be an atrocity, and I have every right to be offended by what I percieve to be a desecration of a holy house of our Lord.

Poor evidence??? Just look at that girl holding up an inscence bowl(or whatever it is) like in some form of native american or neo-pagan blessing rite, sheesh!:nope:
 
The one item in the picture that most puzzled me was the large white screen behind the altar in the Christmas 2002 picture. It looks like a movie screen. Does the church supplement its collections by showing movies during the week?
😉
 
40.png
pnewton:
I guess I just do not see what the problems are. Perhaps if I was live I could see what you are talking about.

The statue of Mary has no where near the detail necessary to declare that is in inappropriate.
No crucifix? How can that be determined just because it doesn’t show in the sections photographed.
Kneelers aren’t required. Kneeling is.

I would never want to be critical based on such poor evidence.
Click to expand...
I actually went to mass there last weekend, which is why I brought this up. It’s much worse in person.

Yes, the large white screen is actually a movie screen. Only it’s there permanently.

There isn’t a single cross or crucifix anywhere in the church…I kid you not.

I looked for a better photo of the statue that’s supposedly Mary. You’d never know from the flowing hair and grecian attire. It’s much more a statue fit for a fountain that someone decided to call “Mary” than it is anything reminiscent of the actual BVM. The only saving grace (and it’s not visible from these photos) is that on the wall to the left is a handpainted mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

I kid you not, the only things “Catholic” in the entire building are the people, the baptismal font and the bishop’s chair. Everything else is as non-descript as can be. As CD noted, the architecture (once very beautiful) has been stripped to nothingness. The celebration of the mass is more than out of the ordinary (no processional, the priest sits with the congregation, people walking around during mass for things like taking up their own offetory, and yes…handholding during the Pater Nostre.) Also, no there is no kneeling in the church…it’s physically impossible because of the placement of the chairs.

On the otherhand, the bishop died last March and we’re waiting for his replacement. One of the highlights of the late bishop’s tenure is that he sold the bishop’s residence and literally went from parish to parish. He undoubtedly married and baptised more people during his tenure than the vast majority of his peers, because he was even known to fill in as pastor while priests were in the hospital or away on sabbatical. He did have major redeeming qualities, but the desecration of the parishes is profound.
 
I was just joking about them showing movies to supplement the collection. To hear that they have a permanently affixed movie screen in the church makes me MAD !!!
:nope: :banghead: :bigyikes:
 
Thanks, Loyala Rambler.

I thought perhaps you had personally seen more than I could make out. Your explaination helps.
 
40.png
MrS:
I would not call Tom Monahan (Domino’s Pizza, Detroit Tigers, etc) a dissenter, but his idea of a church in Naples Florida (or the one he funded in Nicaragua too) is horrid. Looks like a big green house, and the one in Nicaragua is referred to as the nipple-dome. He was and propably still is a lover of Frank Lloyd Wright arch. but really, give me a church from the middle ages over most gymnasiums of today.

MrS
Click to expand...
Not to worry, the proposed “Our Lady of Windex” design has been scrapped and I believe that a far more traditional, Spanish-influenced design has been submitted and approved.
 
What is wrong with a church that sponsers a mission, that sends its kids to the world youth festivities and has an active stewardship group?

Lets see, no opus dei pamphlets.

No big throne chairs for the pastor.

No lists in front of the church advertising the donors to the building fund.

As for the tree as cross, the most touching Good Friday stations of the cross included trembling while He was nailed to the tree. Did I miss the part of the cross being gold when Jesus hung upon it?

Peace
 
Rica, what you missed is that the crosses you’re seeing were outside of the church during Christmas. There isn’t a single cross in the church at all, except the small prayer chapel off to the side. Last time I heard, the crucifix and resurrection are central to the mass and we’re supposed to include them in the mass. Somehow, omitting it altogether is pretty disconcerting. You’re worried about crosses of gold? I’m worried about churches that outright omit the death and resurrection.

Frankly, the mass was more like a family reunion and less like a liturgy. The priest interpreted the Gospel before even reading it. Never experienced that before. A lady wearing sloppy cropped pants, a sloppy T-shirt and sunglasses propped on her head was holding the Bible while the priest read from it. Superficial of me? Naw. There’s supposed to be some level of reverence during the mass. If we can’t at least expect it on the altar or from priest and the servers, then why even go to church? Can’t we get sloppy and just pray from home?
 
40.png
MrS:
Saginaw and Gaylord dioceses are probably the saddest and weakest in the state. QUOTE]

I was fortunate enough to work as a counsellor for a summer at Camp Sancta Maria just outside Gaylord. A formative experience for both my teaching and spiritual life. I don’t think the people who run it had much to do with the local diocese.

Anyway, before the priest arrived for the summer to celebrate daily mass, I attended the (I think) Cathedral in Gaylord. Maybe an off day but a dreadful liturgy and I still remember to this day a timpani drum!

Michigan is beautiful, I have fond memories of the camp and travelling around after.
Click to expand...
 
All told, Gaylord is much better than Saginaw. At least their bishop had some sense of tradition and orthodoxy. We’ve been without either for over 20 years.
 
What I see is a really beautiful building that’s been made into a mockery. Wow! How’d they do that?
 
I would never know that was a Catholic church! :eek:
I would be extremely upset walking in and seeing all of that,
I would have to leave and go to another church! 😦
 
loyola rambler:
Yes, the large white screen is actually a movie screen. Only it’s there permanently.
Click to expand...
I went back to the photos and determined that what I thought was a movie screen was actually a large banner. But I was wrong. I visited a Protestant church recently and was horrified to see that it had a movie screen at the altar. Tell me it isn’t true that a Catholic cathedral has a movie screen! Lord have mercy on us!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top