There was a virus. Protestants, Catholics, Jews: everybody caught it. Gag. Spit. At least we could send our hip hugger bell bottoms, bodyshirts and polyester leisure suits to the thrift shop. But architecture lasts longer. Even the bad stuff, like St. Mary’s First National Catholic Bank up the road with 20 foot high panel in the facade made of one-inch square tiles in swimming-pool. Stapled onto the front of the building is an aluminum flying Madonna . . .Any church I’ve seen built since the 1950s on this coast (all the states and includes many that have been built in the last 10 years) have all been ugly! Parishioners certainly don’t give proportionately less than before 1950. It seems that architects (and this includes of protestant churches built in the last 10-30 years) seem to think that a church is essentially an ecclesial office building.
Yeah… I cringe every time I drive by the new cathedral for the Diocese of Oakland (which is just about every day). It would be a cool art gallery. It’s a hideous church IMO. And it’s kitty-corner to a gorgeous traditional Episcopal church, just to highlight the contrast…Any church I’ve seen built since the 1950s on this coast (all the states and includes many that have been built in the last 10 years) have all been ugly! Parishioners certainly don’t give proportionately less than before 1950. It seems that architects (and this includes of protestant churches built in the last 10-30 years) seem to think that a church is essentially an ecclesial office building.
Hard truths. Yup. Where I live, $3.5M would just about be what it would take to put a McMansion on a half acre.
You answered your question yourself.
The site is not that up to date. The local TV made a long report on its progress and it can be better appreciated. Check these links out:
Mercygate,
Hi Augustine,
I did, Patrick, and I do agree that money is part of the reason. But not because people don’t have much left, but because their priorities are others. The US are the richest country in the world, nowhere else are Catholics so wealthy, yet churches in any third-world country are often more richly built than many of those in the US.
Very astute. Unfortunately, we are little if any further ahead in helping the poor (which we were doing very well WHILE all those “triumphalist-monumentalist” buildings were going up), AND we are stuck with bank-branch architecture.
We have to tear down our old convent – 15 sisters lived there. The estimate is One Million Dollars for the demolition.
We presently have a bishop trimming our diocese down to ONE HALF of the number of churches. What we have found, is that he is closing the established traditional-architecture churches which have been around a long time and have no debt, in order to keep open the modern churches steeped in debt…so what we are to be left with are the modern structures lacking traditional Catholic beauty to pay down their debt on the backs of traditional Catholic structures/communities. What’s so sad is although the debt may be brought down, the numbers of practicing Catholics will drop with it. Many old people tied to their communities will not drive to the “newly assigned” parishes.
Putting the best possible light on this, I might think that the population has shifted and the majority of Catholics do not want to drive to the inner city on Sunday.
Nah, best possible light doesn’t work…I’m in a suburban area, 99% of the diocese is suburban with one real “inner city,” so that doesn’t wash. It’s just a bishop who likes community touchy-feely play lots of guitar music and if he could get away with it, have campfires in the middle of our ugly structures. Preference here is to avoid any use whatsoever of Latin or Greek, consider the Mass a meal, and get rid of anything that even remotely sounds, looks or smells like traditional Catholicism. Goal is to have paid laity leading parishes with 40+ ministries and everybody being one big happy family.
This guy is probably of my generation or slightly older. We need to meet the Lord in person. Real fast.
Very true. Money never lacks for a new stadium, with donations pouring from all sides.
Hi Augustine,I did, Patrick, and I do agree that money is part of the reason. But not because people don’t have much left, but because their priorities are others. The US are the richest country in the world, nowhere else are Catholics so wealthy, yet churches in any third-world country are often more richly built than many of those in the US.
I guess that the reason is the same behind the lack of people answering the call: materialism and nihilism.
Suze Orman, in her weekly TV show about finances, has a segment in which people call to ask her whether they can afford this or that comfort possession. Never mind that if you have to ask, you probably cannot afford it, but I digress. One caller stuck to my memory: his double-income family made just $20000 a year, yet asked Suze if they could afford a $6000 home-theater, “the whole nine yeard”, he said. I make several times that money, thank God, but I cannot get my mind around plunging $6000 to watch TV.
Anyways, granted that this is an extremely dumb case, but it’s not too far out, if one consider the average family debt and national debt ratio, of the typical American Catholic family. Will this same family contribute as much as $6000 for a new church? I venture to say “never”, but they probably bought the $6000 home-theater anyway, Suze disapproving or not.
With this in mind, in my anecdotal experience, such people recall the poor against ostentation as an excuse to not contribute as stewards of the Church, almost always without helping the poor they were so “concerned” about.
In other words, we Catholics are quite a bunch of hypocrites when it comes to share our treasure with the future generations of Catholics. Of course, future generations that will not be, after contraception and not passing on the faith to them.
Just because the choir is here at the CAF, we have to keep in mind that 2/3 of our brothers and sisters show up at church only twice in their lives: baptism and funeral.