Sacred Architecture - Issue 6 (2002)

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Sacred Architecture Spring 2002 3

B O O K S

Spring 2002

SACREDARCHITECTUREIssue 6

C O N T E N T S

E D I T O R I A L

2 Rerum Supernarum Signa et Symbola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Duncan Stroik

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4 Building the Church for 2010 Cathedral of St. Paul Being RestoredGreek Orthodox Church to

Host Olympic Visitors Pope John Paul II Visits Damascus Mosque New Shrine to the Immaculate

Heart of Mary Planned in Buffalo Restoration of St. Clares Basilica Unveiled in Assisi, Italy

F E A T U R E9 The Future of Restoration and Renewal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michael S. Rose

A R T I C L E S

14 Gem of the Boston Archdiocese: St. Catherine of Genoa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Milda Richardson16 Identity and Longevity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michael Enright17 Relativism by Any Other Name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Moyra Doorly

20 The Synod Chapel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John A. Abruzzese

21 Let the Children Come to Me: On the Cry Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peter Dobrowski

22 Letter from the Congregation for Divine Worship Concerning the Milwaukee Cathedral

23 Ugly as Sinby Michael S. Rose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . reviewed by Dino Marcantonio24 Ancient Churches Revealed by Yoram Tsafrir, editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . reviewed by David S. Heit25 Geometry of Loveby Margaret Visser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . reviewed by Renee Ryan

C O M M E N T A R Y

26 Lex Orandi Lex Aedificandi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John A. Perricone

J o u r n a l o f t h e I n s t i t u t e f o r S a c r e d A r c h i t e c t u r e

The Institute for Sacred Architecture is a non-profit organization made up of architects, clergy, educators and others interested in the discussion of significant

issues related to contemporary Catholic architecture. SACREDARCHITECTUREis published bi-annually for $9.95. 2002 The Institute for Sacred Architecture.

Address manuscripts and letters to the Editor.

EDITOR: ADVISORY BOARD: PRODUCTION:

Duncan Stroik John Burgee, FAIA John S. Bergsma

P.O. Box 556 Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M., Cap. Thomas Dietz

Notre Dame IN 46556 Rev. Cassian Folsom, O.S.B. David S. Heit

voice: (219) 271-0522 fax: (219) 271-0522 Ralph McInerny Stefan J. Molina

email: [email protected] Thomas Gordon Smith, AIA Peter Jones

DO C U M E N T A T I O N


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4 Spring 2002 Sacred Architecture

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SACREDARCHITECTURENEWS

PhotocourtesyFranck,Lohsen,

McCreryArchitectsA Greek Orthodox church

destroyed by the collapse ofthe World Trade Center willreceive $500,000 for recon-struction from the mayor ofBari, Italy, the Associated

Press reported. Italian For-eign Minister RenatoRuggiero announced the aidfor St. Nicholas Church fif-teen days after the Sept. 11tragedy. St. Nicholas is thepatron saint of Bari. I havebrought just a small gesture ofsolidarity, but I believe it a sig-nificant one, Ruggiero said.The church has about 80members. The building wasconstructed in 1832 and laterhoused a tavern. Greek immi-grants made it a church in 1916.

Young monks and consecrated mem-

bers of new ecclesial movements andcommunities are taking over historicmonasteries in France. The most strikingcase is that of Mont-Saint-Michel. TheBenedictines ended a 1035-year residencyin Summer 2001 when three elderly monksmoved out and allowed a dozen membersof the Monastic Communities of Jerusalem,founded in Paris in 1975 by Pierre-MarieDelfieux, to take over. This latter group al-ready had 150 monks and nuns living inmonasteries in France and Italy. The aver-age age of the members is 32. Another caseis that of the Abbey of Dombes, a symbol ofthe world ecumenical movement. Thispast October, the last elderly Trappistmonks left this architectural complex in theDiocese of Belley-Ars, where they had re-sided for more than 140 years. The new oc-cupants will be Chemin Neuf, a Catholicmovement founded in Lyon in 1973 by Fa-ther Laurent Fabre. The Chemin Neufcommunity of Dombes will soon number30 people.

A new study shows that people who at-tend religious services regularly are more

likely to pick up and maintain healthyhabits than less-dedicated church-goers,Scripps-Howard News Service reported.Individuals who regularly attended reli-gious services were more likely to becomemore physically active, quit smoking, be-come less depressed, increase social rela-tionships and initiate and maintain stablemarriages, claimed William Strawbridge,a researcher at the Human PopulationLaboratory in Berkeley, California.

Building the Church for 2010, a confer-ence on Catholic liturgical architecture,was held at the Liturgical Institute at theUniversity of Saint Mary of the Lake,Mundelein Seminary, Illinois, October 25through 27, 2001. The theme of the confer-ence was continuity and renewal in Catho-lic liturgical architecture. This included alook at the rich history and tradition ofCatholic church art and architecture, aswell as how one might reclaim some of theground which has arguably been lost in thepast fifty years.

The conference featured a number ofspeakers including Rev. Robert Barron,Page Cowley, FAIA, Rev. Brian Hughes,

Duncan Stroik, AIA, Denis McNamara,Rev. Jamie Lara, Virginia Raguin, and JohnYiannias.

The culmination of the conference was adesign presentation for the Church for2010 by James McCrery of Franck,Lohsen, McCrery Architects. The designsolution was in response to a hypotheticalprogram given to the architects by the Li-turgical Institute. The presentation utilizedvideo to display a three-dimensional walk-through of the project, which was an artfuluse of the classical language of architec-ture. - Carter Hord

For the first time, the InternationalSeminar of European Christian Artistsafive-day festival of art and prayerwasheld in the Italian Shrine of Oropa duringthe first week of September, 2001. Some150 people, including professors, profes-sionals and artists in fields such as music,dance, painting, sculpture, and mime

joined in the ecumenical meeting. Spiritu-ality and art are simultaneously presenthere, said gospel singer Aurelio Pitino, ex-plaining the reason for the choice of venue.

This sacred place in north-ern Italy is dedicated to OurLady of Oropa, representedby a Black Virgin, a woodensculpture brought here, ac-cording to tradition, by St.

Eusebius. Legend attributesthe sculpture itself to St.Luke.

New church develop-ment among Catholicpopulations in the UnitedStates is being outpaced byother faiths,including Islamand Bahai, according to anew survey conducted byresearchers at HartfordSeminary and published

March 14, 2001, in the Washington Post.Newly organized Catholic parishes atmidcentury represented about ten percentof all new churches. That portion hasdropped to five percent, while the com-bined percentage of new Bahai, Muslim,

Jewish, and Mormon congregations has in-creased from about three percent to morethan twenty percent. Evangelical Protes-tant congregations make up the largest por-tion, fifty-eight percent, of new congrega-tions. However, most new congregationsare quite small. Over half have less thanone hundred adult participants. AlthoughCatholic congregations have built few newchurches, the survey found they tend to

have the largest congregations of any faith.

The Archdiocese of Armagh haslaunched its Web site which contains a360-degree virtual tour of St. Patricks Ca-thedral. The site has 450 pages of informa-tion on the life of the archdiocese, includ-ing a section on shrines and places of pil-grimage. The site may be accessed at http://www.armagharchdiocese.org

In August, 2001 the Archdiocese of

Caracas temporarily closed sevenchurches in the capital because of explo-sive devicesfound in the vicinity of someof them. In a published statement, Cardi-nal Ignacio Velasco said the cathedral andsix other churches in the city center wouldclose as a sign of reparation and rejectionof what he called a destructive protest.Earlier, two explosive devices were found,and one detonated injuring a youngwoman, in churches within the capital.

Interior of the Church for 2010


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More than 400 rare items from thestunning art collection of 18th-centuryCardinal Stefano Borgia went on showthis spring and summer in a suburb ofRome. The exhibition in Velletri brings to-gether works of art from all over the worldfor the first time since Borgias estate wasbroken up in 1804. The cardinal was an in-satiable and eclectic collector. Many of theobjects were sent to him by Catholic mis-

sions. Works include curiosities and trea-sures from ancient Greece, from pre-Ro-man times, from Egypt, Asia, the Pacific is-lands and the Americas, and even Lapland.

Robert D. Putnam, professor of publicpolicy at Harvard University, has beenmaking something of a stir in publicpolicy circles on both sides of the Atlanticthrough his speaking tours promoting hisnew book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse andRevival of American Community. This bookargues that people in America have be-come disconnected from their friends,

neighbors and social structures, resultingin a dramatic decline of social capital.Putnam chooses as his icon for this declinethe local bowling leagues, which have seentheir membership decrease by two-thirdsin the last twenty-five years. Americansworship together, eat together, play to-gether, and even watch TV together far lessthan they did even a few decades ago, saysPutnam. He also sees signs of the same so-cial collapse taking place in Europe.

On June 8, 2001, the first chapel totwentieth-century martyrs was dedicatedin the Shrine of the Family of Fatima at thetiny town of Alexandria, South Dakota. Acommemorative tablet will list the namesof the witnesses of the faith, includingMaximilian Kolbe, who died at theAuschwitz death camp; St. Edith Stein,Carmelite nun of Jewish origin, who alsodied in Auschwitz; Italian Blessed GiannaBeretta Molla, who sacrificed her life forher unborn child; and Blessed Miguel Pro,killed in 1927 during the religious persecu-tion in Mexico.

The Baltimore Sun reports parishio-ners are attempting to restore the neo-Gothic sanctuary of the St. Mary, Star ofthe Sea Catholic Church to its formerglory. The ornate church once boasted alavish interior with an abundance of goldleaf. But in 1968 the carvings were takendown, the high altar torn out, statues re-moved and the church accoutrementschalices, vestments, candlesticks, altarclothsunceremoniously dumped outfront. Now church old-timers, as well asyoung professionals recently attracted to

Baltimores fashionable downtown, are ex-cited about restoring the church and re-es-tablishing links to their past. According tothe Sun, the church is part of a nationwidemovement, principally among Catholicchurches, to correct the sins of the 1960sand 1970s, when church interiors wereradically simplified and modernized togive an appearance that, only decades lat-ter, already looks dated. At the Emmanuel

College Chapel in Boston, the grandiosehigh altar had been abandoned and asmaller altar table was set up in the middleof the church, surrounded by fan seatingthat critics said distorted the chapels in-tended layout. In a restoration completedlast year, the altar was restored to the frontof the church, constructed out of pieces ofthe old altar railing. At St. AlphonsusCatholic Church in Lemont, Ill., a renova-tion in the 1960s removed all ornamenta-tion and covered delicate stenciling withbeige paint. The stenciling was reapplied ina restoration completed last month. TheCollege of Notre Dame in North Baltimoreis in the midst of a $1.5 million restorationof its Theresa Hall Chapel, where a vaultedceiling was hidden by metal ducts and adrop ceiling. Pine floors had been coveredwith carpeting and plaster walls withwood paneling.

Cathedrals for a New Century. Over200 clergy and laity gathered October 21-23, 2001, at the University of Notre Dameto attend a symposium organized by theSchool of Architecture and the TheologyDepartment. Breakout sessions were struc-tured for presentation of New Cathedrals,Recently Refurbished Cathedrals, and Ca-

thedrals to be Refurbished. Both the Schoolof Architecture and the Department of The-ology provided a critical response to thepresentations, highlighting what has been

successful or unsuccessful in these projects,and adding what implications can bedrawn from these for future projects.Projects presented ranged from restorationof the Basilica of the Assumption in Balti-more, Americas first cathedral by Ben-

jamin Henry Latrobe, begun in 1806, tonew construction of the Cathedral of LosAngeles designed by Rafael Moneo. Aquestion raised at the end of the sympo-

sium: Does the liturgy serve the building ordoes the building serve the liturgy? begsanother question: How can the liturgy,which is experienced sequentially in timethrough words and actions, be in harmoni-ous partnership with the architecture,which houses it through images and spaceregardless of time? Margaret Ketcham.

After 85 years of Minnesota weather,the Cathedral of St. Paul is being restored.The cathedrals 60,000 square-foot copperdomes and roofs are distressed, failing andmust be replaced. Black rubber patches dot

the roofs exterior where breaks in the cop-per have occurred. On the dome interior,damage to the plaster is evident. All of theexterior surface stone needs to be cleanedto prevent further deterioration and returnit to its original, lighter color. The masterplan for the restoration requires $35 millionin funding and 30 months to complete.Work began on the cathedral in 1906 underthe famous Archbishop John Ireland andhis architect E.L. Masqueray. The exteriorwas completed in 1915, the interior in 1952.In addition to serving as the mother churchfor a diocese with over 750,000 Catholics,the cathedral functions prominently in the

local community, hosting concerts, funer-als, and other civic ceremonies. It drawsmore than 200,000 tourists a year.

The St. Paul, Minnesota, Cathedral is being restored.


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Cardinal Roger M. Mahony announcedthat the $75-million Our Lady of AngelsCathedral is on scheduleand will be dedi-cated on Sept. 2, 2002. Consecration of the

massive mother church of the nations larg-est Roman Catholic archdiocese will comeduring two weeks of celebratory events ex-pected to draw thousands from throughoutSouthern California and the nation. Al-ready, the 11-story cathedral, designed bySpanish architect Jose Rafael Moneo, hasreached its maximum height. It will cover57,000 square feet of interior space, and, at333 feet in length, will be a foot longer thanSt. Patricks Cathedral in New York. Sev-eral 60-foot-high clerestory windows oftranslucent alabaster stone will cover27,000 square feet of surface area, more ala-baster than at any church in the world. In

Spring 2002 the church will open a land-scaped plaza, which will include water-falls, fountains, carillon bells, a shrine toOur Lady of Guadalupe, a conference cen-ter, gift shop and cafe. The garage, plazaand conference center will cost $88 million.

On August 5, 2001, John Paul IImarked the dedication of the Basilica ofSt. Mary Major in Rome,the first Westernchurch building named in honor of theBlessed Virgin. The building of the churchis connected to a dream of Pope Liberiuson the night of Aug. 5, 356. In the dream,the Blessed Virgin asked him to build achurch in the place where he would findsnow the following day. The present build-ing, atop the foundations of Pope Liberiuschurch, was built by Pope Sixtus III.

More visitors are flocking to monaster-ies and convents, in search of silence andcontact with God, a French newspaper re-ported in July. La Croixcontacted 322 mon-asteries and convents throughout France

during its research. Itfound that the numberof visits lasting severaldays and the numberof group retreats areincreasing. The dataalso reveal that manywho visit conventsand monasteries arefrom other religions,

and that many re-turned to Catholicismafter having had anegative experiencewith sects.

Plans for the Dio-cese of Galveston-Houstons new down-town Cathedral were

announced by Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenzaat a press conference on May 22, 2001.Bishop Fiorenza unveiled an artists ren-dering and scale model of the proposed2,100 seat Cathedral. The new structure ex-hibits a classic Romanesque Cathedral de-sign. I have asked for an architectural ex-pression that reflects the historic and cul-tural values that are fundamental to theDiocese of Galveston-Houston and theCatholic Church, Bishop Fiorenza said.Architectural highlights of the 79,400-square-foot Cathedral include: a 180-foot-tall gold-leaf-clad metal dome roof; a 210-foot campanile (bell tower) standing sepa-rately from the church; a sunken gardencourt; walls clad in imported limestone andmarbles; natural wood accent panels; andmosaic wall features. The interior nave of

the church will peak at 116 feet

A fire caused by old, faulty electricalwiring swept through the ornate SacredHeart Parish Church in Indianapolis inthe early morning hours of April 27, 2001,doing more than $1 million in damages.Murals, stained-glass windows and irre-placeable handcrafted items in the land-mark building were destroyed, officialssaid. The German-founded parish startedin 1875. The church now serves 410 house-holds. Destroyed or damaged in the fire

was the high altar, which was made byBernhard Ferring (1868-1944) of Chicago;statues on the high altar; and severalstained-glass windows that were designedand installed in the mid-1920s.

Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila decriedthe desecration done by Estrada support-ers at the Edsa national Shrine to OurLady of Peace,and called for law and or-der as massive protests in support of jailed

former President Joseph Estrada subsidedin early May. For two weeks in late Apriland early May 2001, two million Estradasupporters gathered at the shrine, at timesusing foul language and singing obscenesongs. The Vatican flag was removed, andpictures of the ousted president werepasted on the image of the Blessed Mother,which stands atop the shrine. They areprofaning a house of prayer, a temple of

God, a monument to peace, Cardinal Sinsaid. Stressing that a time of crisis is alsoa time of heroism, Cardinal Sin added:We must preserve the blessings of ourEdsa II, referring to the January rosaryrevolution, which led to Estradas politi-cal downfall, and the subsequent procla-mation at the shrine of Gloria MacapagalArroyo as president.

On May 20, 2001, children were thefirst to welcome the Bishop of Romewhen he crossed the threshold of the

parishs church,a 200-square-meter tentdedicated to St. Edith Stein, the Jewish phi-losopher-turned-Carmelite who died atAuschwitz. This neighborhood, known asTorre Angela, is on the outskirts of Romeand lacks many services. The Holy Fathercontinued the meeting in the field whereconstruction was set to begin on a churchin December, 2001. In his homily duringthe Mass, the Bishop of Rome encouragedthe faithful to get to know the figure of St.Edith Stein, whom he canonized in 1998. Iwould like to recall on this occasion thephrase that Edith Stein wrote in 1933, whenshe went to see the mother superior of theCarmelite convent in Cologne: Human ac-tivity cannot help us, but only the Passionof Christ. I wish to share in it.

In August, 2001, Italian authorities un-veiled the restored fourteenth-centuryfrescoes of St. Clares Basilica in Assisi,four years after they were severely dam-aged by an earthquake. Brilliant lightbathed the basilica during a Mass on Aug.11 to celebrate the restoration of the GiottoSchool frescoes which adorn the pink andwhite marble building. St. Clares Basilicawas reopened to the public in 1998, months

after the thirteenth-century buildings fa-cade had been damaged by two earth-quakes on Sept. 26, 1997. Most of Assisischurches suffered serious damage. Four ofthe ten people who died in one of the earth-quakes were in St. Francis Basilica whenthe vaulted ceiling caved in. St. Clares Ba-silica was built between 1257 and 1265.The saint, a disciple of St. Francis, was bornin Assisi in 1194 and died in 1253.

Construction of the new Los Angeles Cathedral is on schedule

for the September, 2002, dedication.


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The Greek Orthodox Church hopes tobuild three luxury hotels in Athensfor the2004 Olympic Games. The Church, whichowns extensive land in Athens, already hasthe approval of the Greek Tourism Organi-zation to build a 750-room luxury hotel inthe heart of Athens. Sources of the GreekOrthodox Church explain that it will notbecome an hotelier, but will simply makeuse of its property.

On May 6, 2001, John Paul II becamethe first Pope to enter a mosque,calling forbrotherhood between Christians and Mus-lims. The Pontiff went into the OmayyadMosque accompanied by Grand MuftiAhmad Kuftaro, the highest Muslim reli-gious authority of Damascus. While enter-ing the mosque, the Pontiff admired thebeauty of the temple of the Omayyads inwhich, according to tradition, the head of

John the Baptist is preserved.

More than 400 of North Dakotas 2,000prairie churches are vacant and poorlymaintained,and at risk of falling apart, ac-cording to the National Trust for HistoricPreservation. The churches, mainlyfounded by first-generation settlers fromGermany, Poland, Iceland, Russia andScandinavia in the late 19th century, wereusually the first building erected when atown was settled, trust officials said. NorthDakotas population peaked by 1930, thenbegan to decline, forcing many communi-ties to close or demolish their churches.Many of the remaining structures containirreplaceable artwork, stained glass win-

dows, carvings and statues. Architecturalstyles vary from simple folk to Gothic,Greek Revival, Tudor and Romanesque.

American Catholics in many communi-ties are no longer acquiescing quietly tothe large-scale renovations of theirchurches, says Zenit news agency. Protestsagainst renovations in Petoskey, Michigan;Rochester, New York; and Grand Rapids,Michigan, may be indicative of a wider na-tional trend to question experts who insistthat radical alterations of traditional churchinteriors are mandated by Church law.

Bishop Raymond Burke of La Crosse, Wis-consin, agrees that there is a larger move-ment at work. Parishioners once thoughtthere was nothing they could do about im-poverished renovations, said Bishop Burke.Now, he said, people wont accept that.Most of the projects that have drawn oppo-sition include such elements as moving thealtar closer to the congregation, removingthe altar railing or statues, moving the tab-ernacle and replacing pews with chairs.

Three countries are helping to rebuild400 Salvadoran churches. The CatholicChurch in the United States, Germany andSpain will assist in the reconstruction of400 churches in El Salvador, damaged ordestroyed by earthquakes this year, Arch-bishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle of San Sal-vador disclosed. The archbishop said theassistance was obtained after the archdio-cese organized separate meetings with the

episcopates of the three countries.

Siberian Catholics mark a decade ofreligious liberty. The Catholic Church inSiberia is marking the tenth anniversary ofthe return of religious liberty to theselands. On April 13, 1991, the CatholicChurch was able to re-establish ecclesiasti-cal structures after more than seventyyears of state-imposed atheism. After theOctober Revolution in 1917, the Sovietgovernment confiscated all the CatholicChurchs property. This was followed in1923, under Stalin, by the systematic and

total elimination of ecclesial life. Churcheswere closed or turned into factories orwarehouses; parishes were suppressed,and priests and faithful were deported orkilled. But beginning in 1990, religiouspersecution abated. Today in these regionsthere are an estimated 500,000 Catholics.Problems remain, however. According toBishop Joseph Werth, apostolic adminis-trator for Western Siberia, there are criticalshortages of priests, religious, and fundsfor building churches and schools. More-over, a 1997 law restored some restrictionson the activity of the Catholic Church.Bishop Werths office can be reached at:Telephone (3832) 21-61-09. Fax: (3832) 21-88-06.

On January 16, 2001, The Associationfor The Arch of Triumph of the Immacu-late Heart of Mary and InternationalShrine of the Holy Innocents, a not-for-profit New York corporation, was formedin Buffalo, New York. The Associationspurpose is to build a truly world-class, glo-bally significant shrine, probably to be lo-cated on the western shore of Lake Erie ad-

jacent to downtown Buffalo. The shrinewill feature primarily a monumental, as-cendable, golden triumphal arch, the Arch

of Triumph of the Immaculate Heart ofMary, to be the worlds tallest monumentmeasuring 700 feet to the tip of the goldenCross that will surmount its peak. Themonument will commemorate the tri-umph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary aspredicted by the communications given atFatima. Below the arch will be a shrine tothe innocent children lost to abortion.More information is available on theinternet at www.archoftriumph.org.

Bulgaria will erect a statue to PopeBlessed John XXIIIby May 2002 in front ofthe Cathedral of St. Joseph. The monumentis in remembrance of his presence in Bul-garia where, as Cardinal Angelo GiuseppeRoncalli, he was apostolic nuncio for 10years. Last October, Istanbul dedicated astreet to John XXIII, who once worked inthe Vatican diplomatic service in Turkey.He was beatified last September.

The damaged 17th-century Cathedralof Arequipa has become a rallying pointfor Peruvians rebuilding after a June earth-quake that killed 102 people. Its a toppriority for us to restore it, said Mayor

Juan Manuel Guillen. Nestled amid theAndes mountains 465 miles southeast ofLima, Arequipa is nicknamed Perus colo-nial White City because of its brightlycolored buildings that sparkle in the sun.But the city is located in an area prone tomajor earthquakes, which struck in 1687,1858, 1868, and 1960. The church, built in

1656, had weathered them all. When thequake struck, Arequipa resident AugustinMedina watched in horror as thecathedrals steeple tumbled backward andcrashed through the ceiling of one of theside chapels. It sounded like a bomb hadexploded, she said. The mayor estimatedthe cathedrals restoration will cost around$3 million and take anywhere from six toeight months.

Bishop is principal liturgist of diocese,says Cardinal Egan. Cardinal EdwardEgan of New York, general relator of the

Synod of Bishops, touched on issues of lit-urgy, art, and architecture in his openingaddress to the Synod on October 1, 2001, in

An artists conception of the new Arch of

Triumph Of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

proposed for Buffalo, New York.


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Rome: Another essential duty in our min-istry as sanctifiers of the faithful... [is] see-ing to it that the liturgies in our churchesand chapels are in harmony with the normsand practice of the Church and carried outin a spirit of true devotion. We are the prin-cipal liturgists in our dioceses.... Ours, weall know, has been an era of numerouschanges and developments in the worshipof the Church. As a result, we will not al-ways be able to avoid controversies aboutrubrics, liturgical appointments, church ar-chitecture and the like. In dealing withthem, the bishop has to be willing to listenand no less willing to lead. He must insistupon the limits of good taste; he must ex-hibit appropriate regard for established tra-ditions; and he must respect and encouragethose popular pieties that genuinely nour-ish the faith and fervour of his people. Thetask can be quite demanding.

My ambition is to giveOaklands cathedral a universalcharacter independent of theCatholic Church,says SantiagoCalatrava, explaining his unor-thodox design for the new dioc-esan mother church, which com-bines elements of Chinese, Bud-dhist, Hindu, and nature-reli-gion traditions. Pluralism is

universality, he explains.Calatravas design would sporta signature rib-like armature ofpainted steel, glass and concrete.Inside, in the spirit of oriental re-ligions, the congregation will sitencircling the altar and cathedrain the middle of the 34,000square-foot space. At night, the

cathedral will be a central beacon, while anauditorium nearby will be for myriad cel-ebrations. Its gardens will symbolize earth,air, fire and waterall gods within manypantheons. This all-encompassing celestialview is no coincidence. The word culturecomes from occult, says Calatrava, andin multicultural Oakland, there are manycults to consider.

Architects give an old seminary newlife as a five-star conference center. St.

Johns in Plymouth, Michigan served as aRoman Catholic seminary from 1946-1988when it was closed due to declining enroll-ment. Detroits new Archbishop, AdamCardinal Maida, retained Brown-Teefey &Associates to design a youth center andconvert the 30,000 square foot seminary on200 acres into a world-class facility forweddings, conferences and other events.

Brown-Teefey worked carefully to preservethe old architectural beauty of the semi-nary while adding new infrastructure.Work on the seminary commenced in 1998with an $11,000,000 budget and a 2-yearschedule for completion. Theall-new St. Johns opened on Ju-bilee Day, September 2000 asplanned.

The controversy surround-ing the renovation ofMilwaukees St. John the Evan-gelist cathedral was the most

highly publicized church archi-tecture news in 2001. Planningfor the renovation began a fewyears ago when ArchbishopRembert G. Weakland was ap-proached about needed repairson the cathedral and decided athorough re-working of thechurch and surrounding prop-erty was needed. Changes tothe interior of the Cathedral in-clude moving the altar to thecenter of the nave, displacing

the tabernacle from the high altar in theapse to a separate side chapel, replacingpews with chairs, and building a pipe or-gan into the apse. Some Milwaukee Catho-lics objected to the plans, however, and re-tained a canon lawyer to present their caseto the Vatican.

Renovation began after masses onMay 20, 2001. On May 26, the Congrega-tion for Divine Worship and Discipline of

the Sacraments moved to halt the renova-tion until the Congregation could reviewthe plans more fully. In June, ArchbishopWeakland flew to Rome to discuss the mat-ter with Jorge Cardinal Medina Estevez,the prefect of the Congregation. On June30, the Cardinal faxed a letter to the Arch-bishop outlining four difficulties the Con-gregation found with the plans, and askingfor a revision of them. (The text of theCongregations letter can be found on page22 of this issue.) The Archbishop re-sponded to the Cardinal immediately in aletter that was not made public. A fewdays later, he also sent a personal letter toall diocesan clergy explaining his under-standing of the controversy and analyzingthose individuals and groups who opposedhim.

These letters as well as the issues sur-rounding the renovation were covered inarticles in the New York Times, Washing-ton Post, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, andnumerous newspapers around the country.

Despite the controversy, renovationwork continued and was completed. Therenovated Cathedral of St. John the Evan-gelist was dedicated at a Mass on Saturday,February 9, 2002. Archbishop Rembert G.Weakland celebrated the Dedication Massand was joined by bishops from through-

out the state, archdiocesan priests, and rep-resentatives from each parish in the 10-county Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

The new church of St. Marys in Rockledge, Florida,

by Michael Graves

From the Editor

Dear Friends of Sacred Architecture:

We are pleased to be publishing our sixthissue of this unique journal which focuseson Catholic art and architecture. It has re-ceived strong support from laity, priests,and architects. As you are aware, Sacred

Architecture is published twice each year inthe Spring and Fall. However, due to un-

foreseen circumstances, the journal did notcome out in Fall 2001 as planned, and in-stead we are bringing you the Spring issue.We apologize to all of you for the inconve-nience, but want you to know that you willreceive all of the issues for which you havesubscribed. If you have not recently re-newed your subscription, we invite you torenew and support the news stories, fea-tures, editorials, and articles of this unique

journal. Thank you for all of your support.

The EditorThe dedication mass for the renovated Cathedral of

St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee


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F E A T U R E

With hindsight, many are waking up tothe fact that the experimental churcharchitecture designed and built in the latterhalf of the twentieth century has miserablyfailed the Catholic people. The innova-tive forms used by church architects in thesixties and seventiesthink how cleverthey thought themselves thenlook notonly outdated at the dawn of the new cen-tury, they look ugly. The non-churches ofthe eighties and nineties that can pass forlibraries, post offices, or nursing homes areso uninspiring and banal that they fail toattract, to evangelize, or to raise the hearts

and minds of men to God. They fail to ac-knowledge that Christ was made flesh anddwelt among us. They fail to serve theCatholic community, and they fail to makeChrists presence known in any particularplace. Similarly, the insensitive renovationof traditional churches that stripped thesesacred edifices of their Catholic trappings,not only denuded a physical place, it ef-fected the worship and beliefs of thepeople.

Happily, however, the realization of thisfailureon the part of laity, priests, bish-ops, and architects alikeis the first step

that will lead to the renewal of our sacredplaces. Designer Francis X. Gibbons, for in-stance, now speaks of his 1968 renovationof St. Mary, Star of the Sea Church in Balti-more as a raping of that church.1 HelenMarikle Passano, the primary patron forthe restoration of the 1869 chapel at NotreDame College in Baltimore, remembersloving the modernization of the chapelwhen she was a student there. Wethought we were moving forward with acontemporary space. But guess what?Were moving back, she told the BaltimoreSun in early 2001. Its time to bring [the

chapel] back to its original glory. To thisend, she donated $1.5 million to peel awaythe 1960s alterations including a flat ceil-ing and metal ducts that obscured thevaulted spaces above, wood paneling thatcovered plaster walls, and carpeting thatsmothered the handsome pine floor.2

Even the Vatican finally addressed therenovation problem earlier this year whenCardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, prefect forthe Congregation for Divine Worship in-formed Milwaukees Archbishop RembertWeakland that his proposed cathedralrenovation did not conform to Church

norms or liturgical law and is doing a dis-service to Milwaukee Catholics.

This realization period should lead tofour distinct ways to improve the architec-ture of Catholic churches, returning theseedifices from meeting spaces to sacredplaces. The first is the restorationor re-renovationof traditional Catholicchurches. That is, architects and pastorsmust work together to return the older, tra-ditionally-oriented buildings that wererenovated over the past three or four de-cades to their former glory. The second isto salvage and renovate the modernist

churches built in the latter-half of the twen-tieth century by re-orienting them. Manyof the buildings erected during the 1960sand 1970s, although irregular in form, canbe transformed into beautiful transcendentplaces within. The third method is totransform ugly, modernist churches intoparish halls or school buildings, and buildreplacement churches that will serve asgenuine sacred places, designed in conti-nuity with the Churchs tradition. Thefourth method is perhaps the easiest: tobuild beautiful churches anew when par-ishes are established.

Re-orienting the Renovated

ChurchThe first step must always be to restore

the hierarchical form. The sanctuary mustbe made distinct again from the nave,where the congregation sits. In many casesthis will mean that altars that have beenmoved into the midst of the congregationbe returned to a proper sanctuary. The al-tar platformusually consisting of one ortwo stepsthat sits out in the nave withchairs gathered around is not a sufficientlydefined sanctuary by any means. Most, ifnot all, of the traditional churches are de-signed in the basilican cruciform plan.

That means that there already exists aproper location for the sanctuary. Theproper location is at the elevated head ofthe building. The nave serves as the body.

In other renovated churches the sanctu-ary has been moved to one of the navesside walls and the entire building re-ori-ented so that when one enters the churchbuilding, there is no natural progressiondown an aisle toward the altar of sacrifice.This type of renovation is really just a dis-orientation. Again, the sanctuary needs tobe restored to its proper position at the

THEFUTUREOFRESTORATIONANDRENEWAL

Michael S. Rose

Brasilia Cathedral, an innovative church form of the 1960s

PhotocourtesyM.Rose


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F E A T U R E

head of the building and the nave reori-ented to lead once again toward the re-stored altar.

The sanctuary should also be re-de-fined, that is, if the raised platform of thesanctuary has been removed, it must be re-stored. If the communion railing has beeneliminated, the restoration of such a devicewould provide a distinct boundary for thesanctuary, and it would also be functional

if Communion were to be distributed tokneeling penitents at the restored railing.The design of a restored railing shouldmatch the architecture of the church andthe altar especially. However, in manycases, the altar in renovated churches is it-self inadequate.

The poorly designed table altars that re-placed high altars of past centuries can bedeficient in several respects. First, they areoften crafted of wood alone. In order to fo-cus again on the sacrificial nature of the al-tar, the altar ought really to include an altarstone, the plain horizontal slab upon whichthe priest places the Holy Sacrifice of theMass. The restored altar should also be apermanent fixture, built of durable materi-als. A simple table that could be used for athanksgiving dinner in our homes is insuf-ficient.

In some renovated churches the high al-tar fortunately still remains, although it hasoften served only to hold flowers orcandlesticks since a freestanding altar wasintroduced after Vatican II. The most obvi-ous solution in these fortunate churches isto eliminate the inadequate freestanding al-tar and revert to using the high altar, whichis often already the natural focal point ofthe church, accented by either a reredos orbaldacchino. In fact there is a growing

movement, given impetus by Cardinal Jo-seph Ratzinger, among younger priests es-pecially to return to the ad orientem (or adapsidem) Mass, that is, reciting the Eucha-ristic prayer while facing in the same direc-tion as the congregation at the elevated al-tar.

Although many priests and not a fewmembers of the laity believe this practicehas been outlawed, banned, or otherwisemade illegitimate, it is not so. Nor is thiscenturies-old practice awkward in anyway. In fact, it is quite natural for a priestto lead his congregation by turning withthem toward the Lord. This solution is so

obvious that it can only be politics that arepreventing such a restoration.In many other churches, however, the

high altar and reredos or baldacchino havebeen summarily removed. Although this isa most unfortunate situation, for those par-ishes that are committed to restoration itcan be an opportunity to design and buildsomething even more worthy and beautifulthan the original. Such is the case with St.Pauls Cathedral in Worcester, where abeautiful new wood reredos and cathedrawere constructed in 1996 to replace a semi-

circular concrete block wall that was putup in place of the old reredos.

It is also the case with several traditionalchurches that were restored in the Victoria,Texas diocese. The Diocese of Victoria isnoted for its preservation of the famouspainted churches in the Schulenburgarea. Some of these churches had lostmany of their sanctuary furnishings shortlyafter the Second Vatican Council. A gen-eration later, however, nine parishes in theVictoria diocese tried to recapture whatthey had lost. The ornate high altar andreredos at St. Josephs Church in Moulton,Texas, for instance, was completely recon-

structed from scratch by local carpenters in1994.

There really is no reason that dignifiedaltars cannot be made anew, comple-mented either by a beautiful reredos orbaldacchino, depending on the style anddesign of the church. These elements willnot only bring the focus back to the altar,they will ennoble it.

Restoring the Tabernacle To

Prominence

Another important aspectperhaps themost importantof a sanctuary restoration

is moving the tabernacle back to its originalposition in the center of the sanctuary, be-hind the altar. In 1997 Father RichardSimon of St. Thomas of Canterbury Churchin Chicago blazed a trail in this regard. Heannounced to his parish that he planned tomake such a liturgical move because he feltthat the experiment of removing the taber-nacle from the sanctuary had failed. In his

June 24, 1997 letter to his parishioners hewrote:

I believe that much of the liturgical ex-perimentation that began thirty years

ago has failed. We are not holier, normore Christ-centered now than we werethen. In fact, we are facing a generationof young people who are largely lost tothe Church because we have not giventhem the precious gift that is at the heartof Catholicism, that is, the Real Presenceof Jesus. Mass has become simply adrama, a vehicle for whatever agenda iscurrently popular. The church buildingis no longer a place of encounter withthe Lord but a sort of a social center, nota place of prayer, rather a place of chat-ter.In many churches, including our own,

the tabernacle was moved from the cen-ter of the church to add emphasis toMass and the presence of the Lord in thereception of Holy Communion. Thatexperiment, however, has failed. Wehave lost the sense of the sacred that for-merly was the hallmark of Catholic wor-ship. The behavior of many in thechurch is outrageous. When Mass isover it is impossible to spend time inprayer. The noise level reaches the pitchthat one would expect at a sportingevent. The kiss of peace seems like NewYears Eve. Christ is forgotten on the al-tar. You may counter that He is present

in the gathering of the Church, andthough this is true, it should not detractfrom the Lord present on the altar. If theLord is truly recognized in the congre-gation, it should serve to enhance thesacredness of the moment. This is sim-ply not happeningTherefore, I have decided to restore theTabernacle to its former place in themiddle of the sanctuary and to begin acampaign of re-education as to the sa-credness of worship and the meaning ofthe Real Presence. This means that I

St. Charles Church, Kettering, Ohio, an example of a non-church

of the 1980s and 1990s

PhotocourtesyM.Rose


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F E A T U R E

will nag and nag until asense of the sacred isrestored. I will be re-minding you that a re-spectful quiet will haveto be maintained inchurch. Food and toysand socializing are wel-come elsewhere, butthe church is the place

of an encounter withthe Living God. It willnot be a popular policy,but this is unimportant.I can hear one objectionalready. Where will thepriest sit? I will sitwhere the priest hastraditionally sat, overon the side of the sanc-tuary. Here as in manychurches thepresiders chair wasplaced where the taber-nacle had been. I amsick of sitting on thethrone that should be-long to my Lord. Thedethronement of theBlessed Sacrament hasresulted in the en-thronement of theclergy, and I for one amsick of it. The Mass hasbecome priest-cen-tered. The celebrant iseverything. I am a sin-ner saved by grace asyou are and not thecenter of the Eucharist.Let me resume my

rightful place before the Lord ratherthan instead of the Lord. I am ordainedto the priesthood of Christ in the orderof presbyter, and as such I do have aspecial and humbling role. I am elderbrother in the Lord and with you I seekto follow Him and to worship. Please,please let me return Christ to the centerof our life together where He belongs.Once Fr. Simon returned the tabernacle

to its former location at the center of thesanctuary behind the altar he was sur-prised, he said, at the response. It wasoverwhelmingly positive and effective.Some sense of reverence was indeed re-

stored at Mass in his church. On Septem-ber 16, 1997 he reported the results of themove in a form letter:

You cannot imagine the response I gotto the letter I addressed to my parishio-ners on June 24th. I have received somany calls and letters that I am reducedto saying thank you in a form letter.Still, I simply have to write to say thankyou for your support and prayers. Somany people thought I was brave to dowhat I did. Brave? I simply read theCatechism and moved a few pieces of

furniture. The response has been over-whelmingly positive. In the parish,some people even wept for joy whenthey saw the change. I am still kickingmyself and asking why I didnt do thisyears ago. The response has been sosupportive. Many wrote and expressedtheir sense of loneliness in the battle forCatholic orthodoxy. Well, you are notalone, neither among the laity nor theclergy.Perhaps you have heard the definitionof a neo-conservative. He is a liberalwho has been mugged by reality. Thatcertainly describes me. I was in college

in the late Sixties and went the wholeroute: beard, sandals, protest, leafletingfor feminism, and all the rest [I]f aparish like this and a person like me canbe turned from foolish liturgical experi-mentation, it can happen anywhere toanyone. Dont give up! For instance, ifthey have taken the kneelers out of yourchurch, go to the front and kneel on thehard floor. Youll be amazed how manywill join you. Thats whats happenedhere.Inspired by this well-publicized move

by Father Simon manyother pastors have re-stored the tabernacle toprominence in theirchurches. This, as he at-tests, was simply mov-ing furniture, but it re-stored the kind ofprayerful reverence inhis church that he and

many others desired.With the tabernacle lo-cated directly behind thealtar on the buildingsmain axis, the two ele-ments work together asone: the tabernacle wasreturned to an extensionof the altar, which is thefocal point of the church,

just as the Blessed Sacra-ment is an extension ofthe Holy Sacrifice of theMass. Since the reservedSacrament is an exten-sion of the Mass, it logi-cally follows that, archi-tecturally speaking, thetabernacle ought to besituated in direct rela-tionship to the altar,whether on the altar orbehind it. This arrange-ment has ramificationsfar beyond interior de-sign. Ultimately, it is amatter of devotion andworship. In the words ofPope John Paul II, properdevotion to the BlessedSacrament will inevita-

bly lead to a fuller participation in the Eu-charistic celebration: In his letter on the750th anniversary of the Feast of CorpusChristi he wrote, Outside the Eucharisticcelebration, the Church is careful to vener-ate the Blessed Sacrament, which must bereserved as the spiritual center of the re-ligious and parish community. Contem-plation prolongs communion and enablesone to meet Christ, true God and true man,in a lasting way Prayer of adoration inthe presence of the Blessed Sacramentunites the faithful with the paschal mys-tery; it enables them to share in Christssacrifice, of which the Eucharist is the per-

manent sacrament.3

Tying in to this theology of the Eucharistis the crucifix, the figural representation ofChrists sacrifice on Calvary, that which isre-presented in an unbloody manner by thehands of the ordained priest at the altar.The crucifixthe corpus of Christ on thecrosswas removed from many churchesduring renovations, and replaced by eithersymbolic processional crosses or other fig-ures such as the risen Christ or paintings ofwheat, sun, and birds. As beneficial asthese new symbols may be to some, the res-

St. Pauls Church, Mechanicsville, New York, after renovation

PhotocourtesyM.Rose


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toration of the crucifix is integral to aproper restoration of the sanctuary. It is thecrucifix which directly symbolizes thewhole meaning of the Mass.

Restoration of Sacred Art

Another element especially significantto the restoration of the sanctuary is therestoration of sacred art. Many unfortu-nate churches were whitewashed thirty

years ago in an iconoclastic attempt to re-move so-called distractions from thehouse of God en route to reducing thechurch to a non-church. Others parisheshad their statues summarily removed forthe same reason. Fortunately, these mis-guided purges have begun to wane, yetplenty of churches have been left barrenand stripped because some pastor, liturgist,or designer was a slave to fashion and badtaste. This is what church designer FrancisX. Gibbons called rape.

But not all is lost.With the newest methods of art preser-

vation and restoration,murals and frescoes canbe recovered, white-washed statues can bereturned to their origi-nal colors, and deterio-rated works of sacredart can be restored.Such advances in the artof preservation ought togive hope to many apastor who desires tobring the sacred backinto his church build-ing.

Furthermore, thereare, contrary to public

understanding, talentedartists who can be com-missioned to executebeautiful new murals ormosaics in churchesthat are unable to re-cover their artistic patri-mony.

With regard to stat-ues, icons, and otherpieces of moveableart, there exists a trea-sury of old sacred artavailable at architec-tural antique shops

around the U. S. and be-yond. A few calls canput a pastor orrestorationist in touchwith groups that havesalvaged these often-times priceless works ofart from Catholicchurches that have beenclosed and theirchurches razed. Thesame goes for architec-tural furnishings such

as old wooden confessionals, sacred ves-sels, crucifixes, Stations of the Cross, pews,and communion rails. Some of the morewell-known internet auction web sites, forinstance, offer a steady supply of thesebeautiful works of art. Unfortunately,these items more often wind up being usedfor secular purposes rather than in new orrestored churches. Weve all heard of con-fessionals being used as telephone booths

in restaurants or ornate hand-carved pewsbeing used for seats in a pub.

Reordering the Nave

The same steps apply to the restoringthe nave. Side shrines and Stations of theCross that have disappeared over the de-cades can be refashioned anew or pur-chased from antique dealers and architec-tural salvage companies. Yet sometimesthe destruction of church interiors goes farbeyond what was removed. In many cases,it is also what has been added. Wood pan-eling, drop ceilings with acoustical tiles,

and wall-to-wall carpeting are the biggestoffenders. Fortunately such materials datethe project to the late-sixties and seventieswhen homeowners were renovating theirhouses in much the same manner. The useof these cheap materials has dropped outof fashion, Deo gratias. The removal of suchhomey items will offend few.

Because these materials are so flimsyand impermanent they are easily removed.

With any luck they will have preservedwhat they were once hiding. The removalof ceiling tiles may reveal vaulting, clere-stories, or ceiling murals intact and in goodcondition. Carpet removal can reveal ter-razzo flooring or beautiful hardwood floor-boards, and the removal of wood panelingcan give way to beautiful plaster walls,sometimes decorated with beautiful sten-ciling or even mosaics.

More difficult to deal with, however, arethe modern furnishings that often replacedthe traditional ones. These newer furnish-ings are often at odds with the original de-

sign and style of thebuilding.

The seating is an-other major restorationitem. First, in thosechurches that had thekneelers removed fromthe pews: install newkneelers! For thosechurches that haveskewed or turned theirside aisle pews suppos-edly to better focus onthe altar: turn themback facing forward.And for those churchesthat discarded the old

pews in favor of cheap(or expensive) portablechairs, it would be idealif new wooden pewswith kneelers were toeventually be restoredto the church. The fadof homey cushionedchairs will soon pass.

All in all, when re-storing an historicchurch, the parishneeds to hire competentrestorationists with aproven track record of

a c c o m p l i s h m e n t s .They must be sensitiveto the original architec-ture of the church, butneed not necessarilyrecreate exactly whatexisted some time in thepast. However, anynew furnishings or art-work introduced intothe church should be inkeeping with the archi-tectural scheme rather

F E A T U R E

Apse and High Altar of St. Cecilias Cathedral, Omaha, Nebraska, after the

recently completed renovation


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F E A T U R E

than looking like foreign invaders.The restorationist should be concerned

with 1) reordering the church into a prop-erly defined narthex, nave, and sanctuaryin keeping with the original design, 2) re-establishing an iconographic program ofsacred art and furnishings, 3) recoveringany verticality that has been lost, and 4)establishing a unified whole so that thechurch will be restored to a sacred place

with transcendent qualities.Salvaging Renovations

Some may ask: Were stuck with thisugly building that looks like a __________(fill in the blank); what can we do to im-prove upon the modern design? Fortu-nately, in some cases there is an easy an-swer. In E.A. Sviks theory of the non-church, he expressed his desire for abuilding that has a throw-away interior,that is, an interior that can be easily al-tered to suit the needs of the people at anytime. Accordingly, the interiors of manyof the non-churches built in the latter half

of the twentieth century are easily altered.Their throw-away interiors can simplybe thrown away and new furnishings andworks of sacred art can be commissioned.

Of course, the new architect or designerhas no obligation to subscribe to the mod-ernist theory of the throw-away interior.On the contrary, he has the obligation oftransforming the building into a beautifulchurch. It can be done, but not by design-ing another interior that can just be thrownaway. The architect has the opportunity toreconnect with tradition in order to create asacred place that will transcend genera-tions and possibly cultures too.

Just as with the restoration project of a

traditional church building, the first task isto properly reorient the interior spaces intoa hierarchy of sanctuary and nave. This ismore difficult to do with the modernist edi-fice than with the traditional church build-ing because the floor plan may be some-what irregular. Churches-in-the-round,fan-shaped theater-style churches, andasymmetrical layouts are three popular ar-rangements that ought to be corrected.

In this regard, the altar needs to be es-tablished at the head of the building, in adistinct sanctuary that is elevated abovethe nave and set off from the congrega-tional seating. Most likely the altar in the

modernist church to be renovated is un-worthy to be used even for your kitchentable. The opportunity now exists to de-sign a new altar that will establish itself notonly as the focal point of the church butwill set the tone for the new interior. Everyother element of the renovation shouldlead to the altar in some way.

A new baldacchino or reredos can givethe altar the nobility and prominence it de-serves, and the close relationship of thetabernacle with the altar is just as impor-tant in the renovation of a modernist edi-

fice as it is in the re-renovation of an historicchurch. The same goes for other elements andfurnishingspews, sacred art, pulpit, andcommunion rail. There is no reason that thetraditional trappings of a Catholic church can-not be introduced into the modernist buildingto create a sense of the transcendent and eter-nal.

Replacement Churches

Of course, if it is at all possible, it is better tobegin anew designing a church that can serveas a city on a hill, one that through its tradi-

tional form and exterior elements has the ca-pacity to carry meaning, inspire, educate, andattract both Catholics and non-Catholics alike.Since many or even most of the modernistchurch edifices do not appear as permanentstructures, their buildings can be adapted toanother use, one that would serve the parish inanother way, for instance, as a school building,food pantry, theater, gymnasium, or parishmeeting hall.

Many of the modernist churches, because oftheir layout and arrangement, lend themselveseasily to such a transformation. Not a fewpeople have entered one of these new churchesor non-churches and exclaimed, my, this looks

more like a gymnasium (or a theater, etc.) If itlooks like a gym or a theater, chances are it caneasily be converted into a gym or theater whilea new church, designed in continuity with theCatholic tradition of church architecture, risesnearby. These are properly called replacementchurches.

In fact, a pastor or bishop can easily saveface by telling a parish that the current modernfacility they are using as a church was only in-tended as a temporary solution until a timecame when parishioners could help build apermanent house of God that would speak

equally to generations of Catholics tocome. Well, the time has come.

Finally, perhaps the greatest oppor-tunity comes when a new parish is es-tablished. The pastor, architect, andparish can start at ground zero, so tospeak. The parish has the great advan-tage of hindsight. It can look back overfifty years of ugly, uninspiring churchdesigns in order to avoid building a fadthat will pass away even before thecurrent generation has died out. Thereis that opportunity to connect with the

tradition of creating transcendent ves-sels of meaning that will not only looklike a churches but will be churches intheir essence.

Michael S. Rose holds degrees in archi-tecture (B.Arch) and Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

from the University of Cincinnati andBrown University. He is the author of TheRenovation Manipulation. His newbook, Ugly As Sin: Why They ChangedOur Churches from Sacred Places toMeeting Spacesand How We CanChange Them Back, is published bySophia Institute Press.

Notes:1 Ive often said after I did that job, said Francis

X. Gibbons, the man who designed the renova-

tion, that I raped St. Mary, Star of the Sea. (John

Rivers, Churches try to retrieve grand trappings

of past,Baltimore Sun,May 21, 2001.2Gunts, Edward. Happy undoing of a modernist

makeover,Baltimore Sun, March 4, 2001.3John Paul II, Letter on the 750th Anniversary of

the Feast of Corpus Christi, no. 3.

St. Josephs Church, Dalton, Georgia, by Thomas Gordon Smith, completed 2001

Photo

courtesyThomasGordonSmith


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GEMOFTHEBOSTONARCHDIOCESE:

ST. CATHERINEOFGENOAMilda Richardson

A R T I C L E S

St. Catherine of Genoa on Spring Hill in

Somerville, Massachusettsdesignedby the Boston firm of Maginnis, Walshand Sullivan over the period 1907-1920is a seminal building in the developmentof early twentieth-century Roman Catho-lic church architec-ture in America.With its sand-greybrick and glazedwhite terra cotta ex-terior, St. Catherinebecame a paradigmfor the promulga-tion of the ItalianLombardian style,

which was advo-cated by Charles D.Maginnis (1867-1955) because of itsassociation withEarly Christian ar-chitecture, the flex-ibility of the style,and the design pos-sibilities of usingbrick rather thanmore costly stonecarving typical inClassical or Gothicbuildings.

Often referred toas the gem of theBoston archdio-cese, St. Catherineof Genoa owes itsgenerously-fundedcommission tomembers of theOBrien family, es-pecially to HughOBrien, the firstCatholic mayor ofBoston (1884) anduncle of the pastor,Rev. James OBrien.As secretary to the

Bishop of Hartford,Rev. OBrien hadtraveled extensivelyin Europe studyingchurches and col-laborated very closely with Maginnis onthis project, making changes to the plansalmost daily. The success of the endeavorwas due in part to the fact that bothMaginnis and OBrien shared a similar ar-chitectural philosophy: the belief that thisbuilding should connect American immi-grant Catholics to the European Catholic

aesthetic and spiritual experience.

Although the original conception in-cluded a campanile to the right of the fa-cade, its elimination from the plan allowsone to focus more on the symmetry of thefacade, which is loosely derived from the

eighth-century church of San Pietro inToscanella, Italy. The tripartite arrangementof the church with a tall nave and lower sideaisles is reflected by the projecting pavilionon the facade. A double granolithic staircaseleads to the elevated main entrance with itslanding masked behind a brick parapet con-taining a central entrance to the lower

church. As was common in America, the

plan included a lower and upper church toaccommodate double masses for the grow-ing numbers of Catholic immigrantsal-though the entrances to the lower churcheswere usually subsidiary. Maginnis decided

not only to make thelower entrance promi-nent, but also incorpo-rated it into the verticalaxis of the facade, com-posed of the two centralarched entryways androse window, each ele-ment on a discreet plane.The horizontal axis con-

sists of an open arcade,decorative cornice, andinlaid panels. A life-sizeterra cotta figure ofChrist, modeled byHugh Cairns, stands atthe crossing of the axes,under a projecting arch-way. The resulting crossfunctions as the organi-zational principle for thesculptural plasticity ofthe facade as a whole.Delicate accents of thewhite glazed terra cottatrim enliven the overallsurface.

Paying homage to theintricate brickwork seenthroughout the Bostonarea since the era ofCharles Bulfinch, the ex-terior of this steel-framed building is art-fully laid in commonbond, 1:5, with simplegeometric motifs (re-peated on the interior) ofrubbed brick throughoutthe wall spaces to relievepotential monotony. The

upper section of thegable is emphasized withprojecting courses,which allow for a play oflight and shadow. In his

desire to convince leaders of the CatholicChurch that the Church had established it-self firmly on American soil and, therefore,it was no longer necessary to build big tomake an impression, Maginnis arguedstrongly for small parish churches built ofbrick: Such is the alchemy of art that anunpretentious brick church with the mark

PhotocourtesyM.Richardson

Facade of St. Catherine of Genoa by Maginnis and Walsh.


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A R T I C L E S

of gifted hands upon it, may have more ar-tistic value than the cathedral.

The supreme artistry of the lavish inte-rior, recently restored by J.W. Graham Inc.,reflects the architects leadership role asfounding member of the Catholic Federa-tion of Arts, the Liturgical Arts Society, andthe Boston Society of Arts and Crafts. Theeclectic interior, based on Byzantine prece-dents, is a premier example of liturgical

arts in the Boston area. In the spirit of theArts and Crafts movement, Maginnisfirmly believedand worked to convincehis patronsthat the architect should beresponsible for all aspects of a church de-sign, including the coordination of the li-turgical furnishings, to achieve a total unityof the arts. To this end Maginnis insistedon working with master craftsmen of inter-national repute; for example, AngeloLualdi, who carved the Stations of theCross in white alabaster, with the provisionthat the models for the stations were neverto be used again.

Johannes Kirchmayer, trained inOberammergau and also associated withthe architects Ralph Adams Cram andHenry Vaughn, carved the pulpit, five pic-torial panels, and smaller liturgical objects.The marriage and death of St. Catherineare depicted on the large panels carved inlow relief on the rear wall of the church.

The panel above the altar in the Holy Fam-ily Chapel shows Mary with the ChristChild and St. Joseph standing behind themholding a carpenters tool. The facade ofSt. Catherine church itself appears as a de-tail in the background. The pulpit waserected to the memory of parishioners whoserved in World War I. Kirchmayer carvedthe patron saints of the Allies around thepulpit, with St. Catherine representing the

United States. Throughout his carvings,Kirchmayer used gold, touches of color,and different shades and textures of woodto highlight details.

Both Rev. OBrien and Maginnis wereenthusiastic about exploring modern mate-rials, particularly the creative possibilitiesof stucco to effectively emulate stone ashad been done in Europe at significantlyless expense. The interioressentially abasilica plan with barrel-vaulted ceilingis sheathed with Rose Tavanelle marble upto the height of the gilded Romanesquecushion capitals, adorned with eagles, li-ons, birds, shields and engravings of versesfrom the Psalms. The entire wall surfaceabove is decorated with elaborate designsin stucco modeled by Hugh Cairns, whoalso prepared the models for the stonecarving and woodwork, which was ex-ecuted by Irving and Casson. The ceilingcoffers in dull green and gold contain the

main color scheme, which isrepeated in the muted gold ofthe aisle domes and through-out the detailed carvings ofplant motives, interlace, andarabesque patterns. Togetherwith the ornamental bandsand cornices, the complexgrisaille and multi-toned de-

tails result in a deeply layeredsurface texture which enve-lopes the interior. Touches ofblue and red hint at Ro-manesque vibrancy.

For Maginnis, worship atthe altar was a fundamentalarchitectural demand. In hiswords, The lines of the inte-rior must contrive to secure abefitting aspect of solem-nityan atmosphere whichshall stimulate religious emo-tion and comprehension ofthe mystery that the altar is

theologically the Church, be-cause it represents DivinePresence. Maginnis de-signed every detail to focuson the semi-circular apse con-taining the alabaster andonyx altar, modeled by HughCairns, with flowing vinesand birds copied from the sar-cophagus of ArchbishopTheodore at Ravenna. The al-tar contrasts effectively withthe deep hues of the purple

PhotoCourtesyM.Richardson

High Altar and Apse

PhotoCourtesyThePilot

and gray Fleur de Peche marble used in thefreestanding curved colonnade behind thealtar and the bookmatched marble slabs ofthe sanctuary walls. The columns of thecolonnade are made from the cores of thestrongly veined marble nave columnswhich had been cored and split to fitaround the steel posts. Maginnis tippedthe sanctuary arch to create an uninter-rupted flow from the nave to the sanctuaryspace and downward over the apse paint-ing of God the Father with his arms out-

stretched in blessing, Enthroned Christ in animbus, and the Dove of the Holy Ghost.The figures of Mary, the Archangel andsaints are arranged around the edge of thesemicircular dome, which was painted oncanvas by Alexander Locke, a pupil of JohnLaFarge. The gold-plated bronze capitalsof the columns rising from the center of thereredos were made by Tiffany Studios. Theupward thrust of the small goldbaldacchino dome over the tabernacle,with mosaics by the Waldo Brothers, cre-ates the perfect balance of this masterful in-terior.

St. Catherine represents a collaboration

between two men who shared spiritualityand piety, one bringing resources to theproject, the other providing design talent ofuncommon quality.

Milda B. Richardson is an art historian wholives in Boston. She is presently working on amonograph on the work of Maginnis andWalsh.

The pulpit, erected in memory ofWorld War I veterans


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IDENTITYANDLONGEVITYMichael Enright

As a member of the Archdiocese ofChicagos Commission for Sacred Art,I have noticed a couple of areas of churchdesign that are frequently overlooked in

the planning.In presenting these concerns, I have pur-posely avoided the thorny issues of taber-nacle placement, baptismal fonts, altar andassembly, etc. Liturgists and designers willprobably be arguing about these questionshalf an hour after Christ comes again! Inthe meantime, the two issues below need tobe addressed before any consideration ofthe interior designs for churches. Theyshould be addressed because they are notchangeable elements in design. Once thebuilding is up, you can change the interiorall you want, but you cannot go back andmake structural changes.

The first area of weakness in church de-signs has often been whether the buildinglooks like a Catholic church. During thepast couple of years, architects have cometo our commission with designs that do notread as churches. Too frequently the modi-fications suggested at the commission havebeen something like, Why dont you add atower here? or, Can you include somekind of a sign that identifies this as aCatholic church?

There is an inherent weakness in abuilding that needs a sign to be identifiedas a Catholic church. There is some debateamong designers about exactly what de-fines a church, and still more debate about

what defines a Catholic church. Still, it isnot impossible to design a building thatclearly identifies itself that way. The archi-tect only needs a tiny dose of humility andcommon sense. What I have seen too fre-quently is a building that the architectshave managed to sell to the pastor andbuilding committee, but that doesnt looklike a church and cannot be identified as aCatholic church without signage. A churchis not a place for architects to feed theiregos.

The second area of weakness in thesedesigns has often been that they are notpermanent buildings. One of the questions

pastors, dioceses, and building committeesought to ask architects is, How long willthis last? A church building ought to bebuilt to last longer than the architect whodesigned it. It seems that no one asks thelongevity question at the outset, and thenthe parish is stuck with a building thatneeds excessive maintenance from the dayits built. Many of the flaws in current de-sign lead to new buildings that almostimmediately after the dedicationneednew roofs, flashing repairs, or replacementof mechanical systems. Some require aero-

batics to do something as simple as changea light bulb. These buildings are put to-gether with the assumption that someonewill always be there to caulk expansion

joints in the brick, the maintenance peoplewill always remember to oil the little steampump in the basement, the ushers will al-ways be sure to keep the snow off of thecarpet in the vestibule, etc.

Why not eliminate as many mainte-

nance problems as you possibly can in theoriginal design? Many of the designs Iveseen make assumptions about continuousmaintenance and the desire of pastors/staffs to keep up with this maintenancethat are unwarranted. Some of the designsmake assumptions about the longevity ofmechanical systems that are simply asi-nine. A pastor of a parish I know told meabout an air handler in his church that hadto be changed, but couldnt be. The me-chanical room was under the sacristy andthere was no way to take out the old airhandler without demolishing the back ofthe church.

There are horror stories like that re-peated all over the Archdiocese of Chicago,and, Im sure, around the country. Storiesabout churches that were dysfunctionalfrom the day they were dedicated, aboutroofs that leaked after the first rainstormand have been leaking ever since, aboutlight bulbs that are never changed becauseyoud have to tape wings on the mainte-nance man to get to them, about boilersthat cant be fixed or pumps that cant beaccessed.

Architects and designers should re-

member that someday someone will bestuck with their designs. I remember beingnewly ordained and going to a parish onthe north side of Chicago. The church was

built in the mid-sixties, an in the roundchurch with low windows on three sides.The windows were some special kind ofglass and black cement. There were acouple of problems, though. The buildingwas oriented incorrectly on the site and thewindows were dark blue. The place wasalways dark, even on the sunniest day.People couldnt see well enough to read thesongs in church. The pastor solved theproblem by installing high pressure so-dium lights in the ceiling. Now everyonecould see, but they were bathed in the blue-white light of a gymnasium. So much forliturgical colors!

Furthermore, these special windowscouldnt be opened. The designers had fig-ured that the parish would always be ableto run the air conditioner. I figured it hadto be brokenthat was the only reason Icould imagine that the pastor would sub-

ject himself and me to the experience of cel-ebrating Mass in this place. The sanctuarywas raised a few feet from the floor of thechurch, and the roof rose above the sanctu-ary. Heat being what it is, on a hot summerday with a full church it was nearly un-bearable to celebrate Mass there. One day Iwas walking with the maintenance man inthe back rooms of the church and noticedthe compressors for the air conditioning. I

asked him how long theyd been broken.Broken? He looked at me and smiled.They work just fine. Its just that they costtoo much to run. I had some choicethoughts about the people who designed achurch with windows that couldnt beopened!

Someday the new church youre con-templating may be in a poor neighbor-hood. The pastor may not be able to affordto run the air conditioners or pay a mainte-nance person to scoop the leaves out of thegutters or check the flashings on the roofevery week. The building should remainstanding and be usable!

These two concernsthe readability ofa church design as a Catholic church andthe mechanical-structural integrity of thebuilding, are the easy ones. Yet they havenot been addressed! Before we even beginthe discussion on interior design, let us besure the building will still be here lookinglike a church when future generations de-cide that our tabernacle and font need toswitch places!

Rev. Michael Enright is a pastor in Chicago.

St. Stanislaus Kostka, Chicago, Illinois,

Photo:Lane,ChicagoChurches&Synagogues,1981


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A R T I C L E S

The style of church building in an age re-flects many things, not least how theuniverse is perceived by that age. Just asthe Gothic cathedral can be read as a micro-

cosm of the medieval universe, so can thecontemporary church building be read as amodel of the contemporary universe.Therefore the argument for adopting cur-rent norms for the design of liturgicalspaces, for example, is also an argumentthat the church building should model theuniverse that this age thinks it lives in. Inthis relativist age, that universe is inher-ently materialist and deeply hostile to theDivine.

The modern age is said to have begun in1915 with the publication of Einsteins gen-eral theory of relativity. The body of ideaswhich constitute modernism may havebeen around prior to that date, but it tookrelativity to give the body its form and cos-mic context. In response to the already fa-mous Michelson-Morley experiment whichshowed that light does not obey Newtonsabsolute laws of motion, Einstein dis-missed the absolutes. From that momenton, the universe would be a purely subjec-tive affair. All points of view would beequally valid and value would be ascribedby the observer alone.

The relativist universe is therefore (1) boundary-less, because every

part of it and every place in it has equalvalue and boundaries, and divisions be-tween places are unnecessary.

(2) homogeneous, because withoutboundaries and divisions, places merge to-gether into one vast space that is the samethroughout.

(3) directionless, because in un-bounded, homogeneous space theres no-where special to look and no particularplace to go.

The result of all this is a universe that isempty and meaningless. Since there is noobjective truth or reality to be found outthere, since infinite and unbounded spacehas room enough for every possible pointof view and yet none of them can raise astir in all that emptiness, the only direction

to look is inwards.It is often argued that in the medieval or,more accurately, the Ptolemaic universe theEarth was positioned at the center ofthings, and therefore people in the MiddleAges must have believed that everythingin the universe revolved around Man andthe Earth. The argument continues that wein the Modern Age know the truth: we andour planet are truly nowhere and utterlyinsignificant in a universe that extends to-wards infinity in every direction.

But in the Ptolemaic universe the Earth

appears diagrammaticallyto be the centralsphere among all the spheres. But if thediagram is read three dimensionally, theEarths real status as the furthest spherefrom God becomes apparent. In theMiddle Ages the Earth was believed to beat the lowest point in the universe in keep-ing with Mans fallen status. It is the mod-ern universewhere the only valid truths

are those which originate in human con-sciousnessthat is truly human-centred.

Modernist church design is(1) boundary-less, since every at-

tempt is made to diminish ordispense withdivisions between parts of the building.This is most obvious in the merging of thesanctuary and the body of the church bothvisually and by generating a traffic be-tween the two with lay people frequentlyentering the sanctuary and the priest leav-

ing it.(2) homogeneous, since the typical

RELATIVISMBYANYOTHERNAMEMoyra Doorly

Photo:Norman,TheHouseofGod,1990

Interior of Pius-Kirche, Meggen, Switzerland, by Franz Feg, 1964-66.

Chapel at Ronchamp, France, by LeCorbusier, 1950-55.

Photo:Gieselmann,NewChurches,1972


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A R T I C L E S

contemporary church has few divisions be-tween spaces and the overall aesthetic isone of sameness. The various areas of thebuilding are difficult to distinguish fromeach other; and by dispensing with statues,wall paintings, carvings, etc. in favor of theunadulterated modernist aesthetic, the dis-tinct impression is of one single space thatcan be taken in at a glance.

(3) directionless, since theres littleto attract the eye or move the body for-

ward, and the sanctuary and altar arepushed forward into the body of thechurch with the people gathered around.This configuration is, in effect, a circularone; and even in a church building that hasnot been reordered, the mere fact of turn-ing the priest to face the people creates acircular form. Circles are essentially non-directional, closed, and inward-looking.

The result of this is an inward-lookingcommunity in which the immanent takesprecedence overor even excludesthetranscendent. The contemporary Church

worships in relativist space, space whichhas toby its very natureexclude orradically diminish the concept that any partof it may be special or worthy of being setapart, that any part of it may be sacred.And in the absence of any meaningfulspace without, the only option is to look in.

The influential Environment and Artin Catholic Worship (EACW), producedby the American Bishops Committee onthe Liturgy in 1978, summed up as much as

any document could the post-Vatican IIstyle of church building. In this documentthe Councils emphasis on Christs pres-ence in the community at worship is fur-ther explained and EACW goes as far as ac-tually making the assembly the primarysymbol of worship.

The liturgical environment, claimsEACW, draws on the communitys recog-nition of the sacred, and its own expres-sion, more than on liturgical or theologicalprinciples. And so there it is, in black andwhiteas well as in concrete, steel and

glassthe relativist church, so emptied ofthe transcendent that the people are its firstsource of meaning.

It wasnt until after the Second VaticanCouncil that the Church adapted the lit-urgy to the modernist style. For the firsthalf of the twentieth century, new churcheswere built which were unmistakably mod-ernist but which retained traditional litur-gical forms.

The Bauhaus School was founded in1919 in Weimar, Germany by the architectWalter Gropius. Many important modern-ists taught there in order to create a clean,pure style for a clean, pure future. Stylesand traditions were considered obsoleteand the talk was of starting from zero. Anew aesthetic was to be found through theuse of honestly expressed materials. Allforms of decoration were out.

The architect Le Corbusier publishedTowards a New Architecture in 1923, atext which was to become one of the twen-tieth centurys most influential works of ar-chitectural theory. The spatial principleswhich inspired them were laid out in thetext: A great epoch has begun. There ex-ists a new spirit.... There is no longer anyquestion of custom, nor of tradition.... TheStyles are a lie....

The message was clear. The past wasdead and the future wide open.

Just as relativity had freed universalspace from absolutes, so architectural spacewas to be liberated from traditional con-cepts. New construction methods employ-ing steel and reinforced concrete allowedgreater spans to be achieved without somuch solid masonry. Space could nowflow because there was no longer anyneed to restrict an activity to an area en-

closed by heavy walls. Free flowing spacecould be multi-functional and open-plan.Sliding doors and partitions allowed activ-ity areasor zonesto be closed off andopened up again as the need arose.

No longer was a building to be consid-ered in terms of connected but individu-ally defined spaces, but as an expression ofunbounded, egalitarian space. Light-weight curtain walling and extensive areasof glazing helped lighten the perimeter ofthe building, and the city was to be liber-ated by abandoning traditional patterns ofstreets, squares, avenues, courtyards, etc.By raising buildings off the ground on col-

umns, or piloti, space could also flow un-derneath them.One of the most frequent complaints

people make about the contemporarychurch building is that it doesnt look likea church, which to the modernist, at least,will only be evidence of a sentimental at-tachment to outmoded concepts. Afterall, if weve been freed from the limitationsof traditional forms, whos to say what achurch should look like?

Part of the modernist project has been toturn to the ancients for inspiration. Easter

PhotobyAlvaroSiza

Church of Marco de Canevezes, Porto, Portugal, by Alvaro Siza.


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Island statues, Mayan temples, the Acropo-lis, all demonstrate the purity of pri-mary forms like cubes, pyramids, spheres,and rectangles which have an inherentbeauty due to their geometry alone. Thistendency to look to the farthest past in or-der to develop a style for the future is a fea-ture of much modernist art.

Similarly, the model of the early Churchis often held up as the example to follow

when new churches are commissioned or areordering is proposed. The contemporaryliturgy requires an authentic and relevantsetting, it is claimed, one that reflects thesimplicity and togetherness experienced bythe first Christians as they came together ineach others houses or in the simplest ofbuildings.

But the first Christians lived in a direc-tional, bounded, and hierarchical universe.It was Aristotle who proposed that theboundary between the earthly realm(which was subject to change and decay)and the celestial realm (which was immu-table and eternal) lay at the orbit of themoon. The division of the universe intoEarth and Sky was further emphasised bythe distribution of the elements. Below themoon was air, earth, fire and water,whereas above the moon was the fifth ele-ment, or ether.

The astronomer Ptolemy of Alexandria,who died around A.D. 180, mapped out theorbits of the celestial spheres. From theEarth upwards was the moon, Mercury,Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, andthe Stellatum, or sphere of the stars.Then came the Primum Mobile, the FirstMover; and beyond thatbeyond theninth spherelay the Empyrean, the abodeof God.

It was Gods love that caused thePrimum Mobile to turn, which then trans-mitted motion down through the spheres,which made music as they turned. Thiswas a universe moved by the love of God.Like the nine choirs of angels, the spheresincreased in perfection the closer they wereto God. The furthest spherethe Earthwas also composed of a different elementthan the rest of the universe.

It is difficult to imagine a universe moredifferent from ours. To the Medievals, di-rection really matteredup and down hadabsolute value. Theirs was a transcendentuniverse that inspired movement and aspi-

ration. Where you were in the hierarchywas a crucial matter and every part of thathierarchy was occupied.

This was also a universe that died itsdeath. But was that death as much the re-sult of a human desire to climb from thebottom of the cosmic pile as of the discov-ery of new scientific facts? As C.S. Lewishas pointed out, the universal model of anage is as much a product of the psychologyof that age as of its scientific knowledge.

When the appetite for a new or modi-fied universe becomes strong enough, the

scientific phenomena to justify it will turnupor so the argument goes. This ispartly because science isnt nearly as fixedin its theories as it seems. For example,there isnt enough matter in the universe tosatisfy the laws of gravity which are sup-posed to govern the forces between planetsand stars and keep the galaxies moving.But it is generally assumed that gravity isthis universal force because it is convenient

for the contemporary world to do s

Sacred Architecture - Issue 6 (2002)

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Transcript of Sacred Architecture - Issue 6 (2002)