Why Catholic churches are like shabby department stores

Telegraph.co ^ | October 8th, 2009 | Damian Thompson

[Gamecock]

Recently I attended a Catholic service in a church, and a diocese, which shall remain nameless. This is not because there is anything scandalous to report, but because I’m about to compare it to a 1970s department store.

Then, after Vatican II, its interior was modernised. But we’re not talking savage reordering here: just the usual wall-to-wall carpeting of the sanctuary, removal of the altar rails and – unforgivably, not least because it makes a nonsense of the high altar – the removal of the tabernacle to… somewhere.

Sometimes you walk into a modern Catholic church and think: this is really just a community centre with icons.

But then, in the 1970s, younger customers deserted it for chain stores, so someone gave the shop a makeover in brown and cream formica panelling complete with snazzy logo. And the regular customers said: “Ooh, it’s a bit trendy for my tastes, not the same, I can’t get used to it” – but they did get used to it, because the staff were the same and nowhere else sold that colour of stockings that Mum liked.

It was the same story in the sacristy. The priest was wearing a double-breasted polyester alb whose top half resembled a chef’s outfit. I didn’t know such a thing existed. The door of the wardrobe was open, revealing a jumble of highly coloured cheap chasubles (also polyester) that could have been mistaken for the women’s clothing rack in an Oxfam shop.

[Straight Vermonter]

Not just a church, it’s the cathedral.

[Straight Vermonter]

...there were circular steps to a podium (?) that rose above the pews and gave his sermon.

This is from the church that I attended as a child. The pulpit pictured here was destroyed as part of the post V2 wreckovation. The church was beautifully restored a few years ago to (mostly) it's former glory but the pulpit is sadly gone forever.

[goat granny]

Such a beautiful church...They were truly works of art, craftsmanship and love...I didn't know if I could explain it good enough for anyone to understand. Your picture is worth 1000 words as the saying goes...I think with most of these beautiful old churches, the parishioners from the old country help build them by bringing their own craftsmanship to the church...Its a shame they are gone, but glad to hear some of them were saved..

[Salvation]

What do Protestant churches have to offer? Not much from my experience in visiting them for funerals, weddings, etc.

[goat granny]

When we visited the church I talked with the nun...She said the expense of keeping up that beautiful church was too much to bear as they only had a handful of regular parishioners. There was the church, school, convent, and rectory...The school had to close and they tried to keep the church going but within 2 years it would all be gone..

I always wondered what they did with all that beautiful architecture within the church..The whole back of the wall behind the sanctuary was hand carved with crucifixes and niche's for Joseph and Mary and it was a towering wall....There were Infant of Prague in niches along the side walls with many stands for vigil lights....

Sad to say I think the costs of doing that today would be enormous and probably too much for a parish to pay for...

I do a little stain glass as a hobby, but to do just one large window would cost in the tens of thousands of dollars for an artisan to do it..

[goat granny]

That would be an awesome experience to walk into that church...That is beyond words to describe..

[aruanan]

And that view isn’t the main part of it but one chapel on the right side. I have a slide of this same chapel I took when we visited it in the evening. It must have been from not having a filter to correct for the incandescent lighting so my picture (packed away in some box somewhere) looks a lot more golden (the Southeast Asian kind of gold). The rest of the church is incredibly beautiful as well.

[big'ol_freeper]

The trend (that appears to have been reversed) was caused by the creeping "protestantization" of the Catholic Church (primarily in western countries) where, instead of building church buildings that inspired awe and a sense of the heavenly, they were bland structures designed as meeting houses focused on the "congregation" where people gathered for all sorts of things in addition to participating in the Mass.

Not to say all protestant churches are bland and uninspiring, because they over the years have built some incredibly inspiring churches, but to a large degree the smaller congregation facilities are built on the cheap as gathering places vice places of awe.

During my twenty plus years in the Army I was unfortunate to have belonged to a few parishes that had built such buildings and I always felt like I was in a protestant church. Having since retired, the parish I attend has a beautiful Gothic structure built by the parishioners in 1917.

The trend in the Catholic Church is back toward building appropriate places to celebrate the Mass with the proper focus.

An example of this trend is a church recently built near where I live: