Traditional Art Cannot be Revolutionary: Modern Churches and Traditional Parishes - Guest Article by Mr Joseph Bremer

We are happy to share this article by Mr Joseph Bremer, a PhD student at the London-based King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, studying western iconography, and specializing in the art and architecture of the Romanesque period. He also currently teaches theology and history at Holy Family Cathedral School in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

There seems to be no artistic spirit of our age. Future generations of Church historians will have a profoundly unenviable task ahead; for we can examine a 6th century mosaic covered domed cross church and definitively call it ‘Byzantine,’ a 12th century thick walled stone basilica and recognize it as ‘Romanesque,’ or identify a 17th century sprawling marble-clad church as definitively ‘Baroque.’ One could even travel back 30 years and identify our large monochrome iconoclastic churches as definitively modern, but that simply doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Many Catholic churches currently in use were constructed in the now-outdated styles that dominated the late 20th and early 21st centuries; and it is no secret that most practicing Catholics now find this commitment to post-modern art and architecture deeply problematic. We still inhabit the bones of these modern spaces, but the Church’s architectural turn in the late 20th century is now considered by many priests and parishioners to be a mistake. Our future church historians will have to make sense of a well-meaning, albeit disparate traditional patchwork independent of any overarching style or meaning as we try to patch modern churches with what bits of tradition we can.

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles

This is especially true in America, where the Church eagerly married itself to the spirit of the age, but the last few decades has seen her, at least aesthetically, widowed. Our artistic inheritance is the fruit of jaded and betrayed post-modern optimism, and now these modern churches have been all but rejected by the very youth they were designed to appease. A new generation of young, eminently conservative, and overwhelmingly well-meaning priests have been assigned to these modern churches, with a strong will to traditionalize them, but the walls and artwork of our churches preach a theology altogether rejected by many of her parishioners and most of her priests. The pulpit is at war with the building it inhabits, and we are all left wondering ‘what now?’

It is an all too familiar question in our day and age: What is a traditionally minded parish, or at the very least a parish that rejects the maxims of artistic postmodernism, able to do if they inherited the all too familiar 70’s square?

Many parishes understandably see the need to construct an entirely new space. One such example is St. Philip the Apostle Church in Lewisville, Texas; a congregation not known for being exceptionally traditional.

The Old St. Philip the Apostle Sanctuary, construction completed in 1977

The parish, over the course of many years, was able to raise the money for a brand new neo-Gothic church in Flower-Mound, the interior of which is currently incomplete and pictured below.

As beautiful and preferable as the building of a new church is for most parishes, this is rarely an option. The recent agglomeration of small local parishes into larger urban ones makes this very difficult. The late 20th century shortage of priests coupled with a declining percentage of mass attendance meant dioceses in the 1970s and 1980s shut down many small local parishes, and built very large, very central and very modern churches in their place. Building a new large church is a monumental expense most parishes simply can’t afford; and it doesn’t help that construction, labor, and land costs are at an all time high with no sign of decline in the near future.

So can a parish traditionalize a space designed to be antithetical to tradition? This question must be necessarily answered on a church by church basis, but let's first examine what is currently being done. An example I am intimately familiar with is the Church of the Incarnation, a parish located at the University of Dallas which serves as a stark archetype for the difficulties and pitfalls of traditionalizing modern spaces. The University of Dallas teaches us three important lessons in the traditionalization of modern churches: the importance of continuity, of artistic telos, and of recognizing the realities of your space.

The church was designed and built by architects Duane and Jane Landry in 1985 in the spirit of most modern churches, with an express emphasis on the community rather than the liturgy. Its circular form was derived from Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome, but the processional aisle was deliberately placed so that it wasn’t the focal point of the very large narthex. (A cheeky former chaplain reserved the URL www.bigbrowncircle.com for the church’s website) The altar is pushed forward to the center to emphasize communal participation. It is also situated on a North-South axis, and there is no entrance to the church except for from the East. Its paneled walls prevent any other liturgical art but a crucifix. The sanctuary naturally feeds into the narthex, but the narthex rather awkwardly blocks entry into the sanctuary. The sanctuary simply doesn’t feel like the focal point of the church. It is awkward to enter and almost entirely barren.

The blueprint of the Church of the Incarnation 

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Renovation of Kalamazoo Cathedral by Duncan Stroik

On Gaudete Sunday, His Excellency Paul Bradley, Bishop of Kalamazoo, Michigan, celebrated the Mass for the re-dedication of the cathedral of St Augustine, in which architect Duncan Stroik has just completely the first phase of a major renovation. Bp Earl Boyea of Lansing, Abp Allen Vigneron of Detroit, and two Detroit auxiliary bishops were also present for the ceremony. (All photos courtesy of these are by Duncan G. Stroik Architect.)

The main sanctuary after the new restoration...

...and before.

The church was built as a parish of the diocese of Grand Rapids by the office of Ralph Adams Cram and completed in 1951; when Kalamazoo became a diocese in 1971, St Augustine was chosen as its cathedral. A renovation in 1989 altered the sanctuary and dismantled the high altar, using pieces of its broccatello marble as a backdrop for the cathedra (on the center axis of the sanctuary), and as a pedestal for the tabernacle, which was moved to a side chapel. This most recent renovation, initiated by Bishop Bradley and Monsignor Michael Osborn, Vicar General of the Diocese, has restored the tabernacle to the center of the sanctuary, and aimed to make St Augustine a worthy cathedral. Major plaster repair was also addressed, including completely rebuilding the framing, lath, and plaster of the back wall of the sanctuary. Pieces of the original high altar were put back into place, and a new baldacchino, altar of sacrifice, ambo, cathedra, and sanctuary floor were installed. Side altars with Mary and St. Joseph were also restored. A new decorative paint pattern on the sanctuary walls and ceiling and new pews in the nave complete the first phase. Here are several photos of the rededication ceremony, and below, details of the newly renovated parts of the church.

The relic stone is place in the altar.

The mensa is anointed with chrism.

The anointing of the walls

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Christ on the Flat Screen: The Renovation of the Crystal Cathedral, Orange, California

Today, the Catholic Diocese of Orange, California, celebrates the dedication of its new cathedral. Built by televangelist Robert Schuler and opened in 1980, it was orginally called the Crystal Cathedral; after massive renovations aimed at transforming it into a Catholic church, it has now been renamed “Christ Cathedral.” Our readers may find this article about the project interesting; it was originally published in October of 2014.

Some time ago, as part of the media buzz surrounding the purchase of the Crystal Cathedral, the Catholic Diocese of Orange opened the floor to online suggestions as to what the new church should be named. I offered that it should be titled the Cathedral of the Transfiguration; after all, the feast of the Transfiguration is traditionally the patronal festival for churches dedicated to Our Lord, and its suggestions of illumination, splendor, and above all, a glimpse of Heaven afforded through physical change, seemed perfectly suited to the project, even not without a bit of reverent wit. The name chosen, of course, was the blunter Christ Cathedral, direct but falling rather oddly on the ear--the Anglophile in me senses it is missing a Church in between Christ and Cathedral--and lacking the elusive specificity of the incandescent mystery of Mount Tabor.

One name conjures up Moses and Elijah, and a foolish, sprawling Peter, the painter Raphael, the siege of Belgrade and Calixtus III; an entire stained glass window filled with little colored scenes, all purple and scarlet, ranged round an explosive and nuclear bloom of gold and white. The visual image presented by Christ Cathedral, by comparison, seems rather transparent, and oddly incomplete: not particularly specific, and universal only in its vagueness. I couldn't help returning to this contrast when I began to review the designs for the renovated church by Johnson Fain and Ross Clementi Hale Studios released at the end of last month. One longs for a bit of color, or even a speck of good Christian dirt in the glacial interior.

As I commented in an article written for The Living Church some years ago (which, I understand, the renovation committee read with great interest), the project of Catholicizing the Crystal Cathedral is a daunting and perhaps even quixotic one. For the amount of money going into the project, one could have probably built a cathedral in a more traditional style, without much difficulty. The structure, with its all-glass walls, combines both a postmodern skepticism about man’s ability to describe the Divine, barring vague appeals to colorless light and nature, with TV-studio televangelist glitz and a lingering bit of Calvinist iconophobia. Rocky ground, indeed. While adding the life and vigor of a true Cathedral to this space would have been difficult, it would not have been impossible; indeed, while the building would never be a Chartres or a Beauvais, it could have easily been a brighter, more luminous Coventry, its enormous glass walls shielded by translucent banners and curtains, the entire interior focusing on an immense mosaic (modern in style, but traditional in content) of Christ in majesty--or better yet, a stained-glass window. Room could have been found in the various vestibules and balconies for those dark chapeled crannies where prayer comes so easily, and which might have, in time, become the seats of confraternities and Catholic guilds. Perhaps even the strange lack of boundaries between outside and inside that so characterize the space could have been an asset, transforming the interior into a sort of liturgical Field of the Cloth of Gold. All this could have been accomplished without even necessarily going much against the grain of the modern interior.

However, the result is more of the same, in the end. The design lacks the aggressive ugliness of the churches of the ’60s and ’70s, but this is replaced with the chill, uninviting perfection of an Apple Store. It is curious today that, despite living in an almost aggressively visual age--and one which has taken interconnectivity to new levels via hypertext--that our church buildings seem so afraid of imagery, and instead settle for a crisp lowest common denominator. The chaos of the Internet, with its mixed-bag garden of Earthly Delights, would suggest that only an interior of Baroque physicality or Gothic majesty could counterweight such enticements. Instead, we have only a surpassing coldness in spaces such as the baptistery, with its cruciform immersion font, or the low-ceilinged Eucharistic Chapel. There are a few interesting moments here--the suggestion of a mosaic dome in the baptistery, the translucent stone walls in both spaces--but on balance, the effect is institutional and rather impersonal. The curious tabernacle, in particular, is utterly divorced from any liturgical context--no altar, possibly no steps, and set in the midst of diagonal pews. The effect is a bit like a gallery installation. It is almost as if we question whether matter, the physical, can convey even the most rudimentary spiritual ideas. Christ, the God made man, who used even mud and spittle to work miracles, challenges us to think otherwise.

The principal space of the interior is also not without its idiosyncrasies. The interior is airy and open, but it is also not a little agoraphobic: is there a ‘there’ there, as was famously said of Oakland? Seen from the galleries, the effect is even more disorienting, and the altar and congregation seem sunken in a sort of arena. The one bit of warmth and color, the wood grain of the enormous organ case, has been painted out, lest it distract the faithful from the altar--though the logical solution to that would have been to emphasize the altar with a more elaborate canopy or even a proper altarpiece. And where are the icons? One sees a cross hung over the altar, some timid monochrome reliefs in the nave (if one may call it that), and a decontextualized copy of a Byzantine mosaic of Christ in the narthex, cropped and mounted on the wall in such a way one cannot help think of a flat screen TV; but, like the tabernacle, they seem almost like artifacts rather than objects of devotion. The altar itself, for a church that is more-or-less in the round, is elevated, of a distinguished size, and, while lacking the baldachin that would really set it apart, the large standard candlestands and hanging tester do give it a sense of presence largely lacking in most modern sanctuary layouts. The actual details and form are, once again, a bit too sharp-edged modern for my taste, but the basic layout is, all things considered, fairly sound. However, the altar has been placed on a curious catwalk-like bema that apparently runs the entire length of the interior, with the congregation seated antiphonally on either side, and the large elevated ambo balancing it at the other end. The ambo is itself rather fine in terms of height and proportion, if not location, and I was pleased to see what appears to be an Easter Candle stand to one side of it, as one sees at San Clemente in Rome.

Nonetheless, this is all admittedly a rather outré adaptation of the traditional monastic layout, which, for one thing, never envisioned the Mass lessons being read from anything other than their traditional position. Furthermore, antiphonal seating works best for the Office, and not very well at all for Mass. It is, I suppose, a great improvement on the faddish placement of the ambo behind the altar, as seen at the renovated Milwaukee Cathedral, and perhaps will put to rest in at least one cathedral the contemporary preoccupation with the celebrant being able to make eye contact with everyone all the time. It may be a bit more distracting for the laity looking at each other across the thrust of the sanctuary, and one wonders what complicated and lengthy treks altar boys, deacons and other ministers may need to make during a solemn liturgy if they need to go recover something from the sacristy.

One looks at all the renderings with a certain weariness. As has been pointed out by a number of commentators, quite justly, the design could have been far more objectionable. But surely we can do better than this. Modern man, on those few occasions when he is still confronted by the Divine, seems now perpetually stunned and speechless. Rather than joining him in mute incomprehension, let us give him the words, and the Word-Made-Flesh.

Another Wreckovated Church Gets Un-wrecked

Holy Family Parish in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, within the Diocese of Greensburg, recently completed a very nice restoration and de-wreckovation. Under the leadership of Fr Daniel Mahoney, V.F., the parish put back the ornately patterned ceiling, a high altar, murals of varies “modern” Saints around the nave, as well as all new lighting and sound system, etc. The decorative work, murals, and painting were done by EverGreene Architectural Arts; the restored churched was blessed with the dedication of the new altar by Bishop Edward Malesic on June 25, 2017. Our thanks to Mr Christopher Pujol, a seminarian of the diocese of Greensburg, for sharing these photos with us, and our congratulations to Fr Mahoney and Bishop Malesic for bringing beauty back to this church. Ad multos annos!

The church prior to the renovations of 1967. Notice the murals, ornamented ceiling, and the similarity to the newly restored high altar seen below. Images of the Holy Family crown the arch.

This is the 1967 renovation of the church as pictured in the commemorative booklet from the consecration; the high altar, pulpit, and all decorative paintings have been removed.

The altar installed in 1967 was granite, and consecrated with the rite in the revised Pontifical of 1961, according to the commemorative booklet of the day. The relic chamber can be seen in the front of the altar where the relics from the original altar were placed; these have now been moved to the new high altar. The booklet from 1967 notes “This restoration observes the prescriptions given in the tradition of the Roman Church, assigning dignity to the altar by due attention to essentials and not to temporary decorations.”

A more modern photo of the church prior to the restoration of 2017.

The restored church played off the original design by returning the Holy Family to the arch; Christ the Divine Teacher takes the center position, as the parish school is claimed in His name. The focus again becomes the great window of the crucifixion in the apse, as well as the restored high altar with tabernacle.

The new high altar comes from a closed church in the Archdiocese of Baltimore; it is strikingly similar to the original altar of Holy Family. The relics deposited within the mensa are the same from the original high altar.

The beginning of a celebration of Low Mass at the new High Altar, by Fr Daniel Mahoney, assisted by Mr Christopher Pujol, June 2018.

Follow-Up on a Beautiful New Church in Indiana

Last March, we published a brief article about St Pius X parish in Granger, Indiana, a beautiful new building which was officially dedicated on the feast of the Annunciation by His Excellency Kevin Rhoades, bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Our webmaster Richard Chonak just visited the church and took some photos.

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Completing the Gothic Aesthetic of a Parish Church

Sometimes at NLM we feature the work of new artists and architects doing projects from scratch. At other times we have featured marvelous examples of renovations that have undone some or all of the evils of a former wreckovation (usually from the sixties or seventies). Today I am pleased to share some conceptual renderings by a young architectural designer, Kevin O'Connor, who is working to complete the "Gothicization" of a church built only a few years ago -- Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the FSSP parish in the Denver archidiocese. The project is quite extensive in scope and shows a fine sense of consistency of style and attention to detail, both on the inside of the building and in its external appearance. It is a great example of taking a good thing and making it even better. The text below was supplied to me by Mr. O'Connor. The parish hall is also undergoing renovation, as the painting below indicates.

 *          *          *

When the new church for Our Lady of Mount Carmel was built it was done so as an "interpretation" of the Gothic style, but with some elements left missing in order to make the project manageable and to fill an urgent need for a better church building. The purpose of the work being done at present is to address the unfinished aspects and to bring the church from an interpretation of the Gothic to an authentic execution of the style. Specifically, the church will be refinished in the English Gothic Revival as developed by the nineteenth-century architect A.W.N. Pugin. Not only have Pugin's buildings served as inspiration, but the design philosophy is also strongly formed by his writings on the principles of Gothic architecture.

A faithful execution of any Gothic building requires a great awareness of the integrity of the structure itself. That is, a modern building constructed from structural steel, stick framing, and drywall cannot convey the sense of solidarity, mass, and permanence that a true Gothic building does. When working with a modern structure, we can do our best to minimize those lacunae. Arcades will be added in the Sanctuary, and compound piers added to "hanging arches" in the Nave to augment the building's integrity. A decorated oak-beamed ceiling will be added to the sanctuary, and the walls will be decorated in polychromed and gilt stencil work. Dozens of custom wood, plaster and cast mortar mouldings, corbels, statues, bosses, capitals and splays for arches will be made to properly adorn the church, as any Gothic building requires a profusion of carved work.

Not only is the design work done by my company, but many of the elements are custom made "in-house," giving the assurance that the end product will match the design concept both technically and in the desired feel. The carved stone work, mouldings, wall patterns, painted and gilt work, the wooden ceiling, and many other features, are all completed in my own workshop. I should like to note that a majority of the new architectural features, such as columns, archways, and the ceiling, are constructed off-site in modular units that can be installed relatively quickly with minimal interruption to the parish's schedule.

The project will take many years and is to be done is stages. The Sanctuary will be the first stage of the refinishing project to be completed.

Picture #1: Scale drawing and watercolour of the  new decorated timber beamed ceiling for the Sanctuary

Picture #2: Photo of renderings of the three ceiling bosses, crown moulding tracery, and string course for the Sanctuary with the first sculpted boss.

Picture #3: Conceptual rendering of the remodeled Sanctuary

Picture #4: Conceptual rendering of the new Western Front of the church, and proposed tower and spire to be completed after the church is lengthened.

Picture #5: Conceptual rendering of the parish hall based upon the collegiate halls of Oxford University.

Below are some further sketches from the brainstorming process.

High Altar Replacement - FSSP Minneapolis

From the FSSP Parish of All Saints in Minneapolis, with thanks to Tracy Dunne for posting the video. Quite an improvement, I dare say.

Renewed Altars at the Univ. of Nebraska Newman Center

From McCrery Architects come these photos of the two altars just recently consecrated by Bishop James Conley in the St Thomas Aquinas Chapel, at the Blessed John Henry Newman Center of the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln. Three altars, one main altar and two side altars, were purchased from a closed church in Youngstown, Ohio, Immaculate Conception. They were removed, repaired and refinished by a carpenter in West Virginia. The main altar was kept in its original form for use in the new side chapel dedicated to Mary, while the two side altars were dismantled and combined to form the new reredos altar of reservation in the sanctuary of the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel. Both altars were then shipped in pieces to Gold Leaf Studio in Washington, DC, where they were carefully decorated with gilding and polychrome work, under the collaboration of William Adair of Gold Leaf Studios and James McCrery of McCrery Architects. The altars were then shipped to Lincoln and installed.

The Chapel was consecrated on Divine Mercy Sunday by Bishop James Conley, with Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha and Emeritus Bishop of Lincoln Fabian Bruskewitz attending.

The new reredos altar installed. 

A view of the chapel from the choir loft. 

The central part of the altar in its original location.

The altar of the Virgin in its original location.

Refurbished and installed in the Newman Center

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9 Lessons & Carols in the Newly-Renovated Church of St Pius X in the Archdiocese of Atlanta

A Service of Lessons and Carols will take place at the Church of St Pius X in Conyers, Georgia in the Archdiocese of Atlanta on Friday, December 19, at 7 p.m. The music will include works by Palestrina and Victoria, as well as Advent hymns and Christmas carols. Admission is free, but donations will be gladly received towards the costs of the music program, in particular for the new Children’s Choir. The address of the parish is on the poster, and more information about the music at St. Pius can be found here. The service will mark the reopening of the newly renovated church and we have been sent some photos of the ‘before’ and ‘during’ passes of the renovations which are not yet complete. Among other improvements, the Tabernacle is being returned to the centre of the Sanctuary. Deo gratias!

Updates from Holy Name in Brooklyn, St Elias in Brampton, Ontario, and Providence Cathedral

Back in January, we reported that the church of the Holy Name of Jesus in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, had undertaken the process of undoing the wreckovation inflicted on it in 1980. We have just received word this this coming Sunday, the church will hold its formal re-dedication ceremony, celebrated by His Excellency Nicholas di Marzio, the Bishop of Brooklyn.

On Sunday May 18th at 3:00 PM, Holy Name of Jesus Roman Catholic Church, serving the Windsor Terrace community for the past 135 years, will be re-dedicated in a special Mass with His Excellency the Most Reverend Nicholas Di Marzio, Ph.D., D.D. presiding. At the center of the ceremony will be the unveiling of the renovated church featuring the unique combination of humble architectural charm with bold neo-Romanesque features, Corinthian columns, and historic altarpieces transferred and restored from the former St. Vincent de Paul Church of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The showcasing of the restored church is both of historical and spiritual importance. The historical importance is that the altarpieces were designed by James Renwick, Jr., the renowned 19th century architect who also designed the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown, Manhattan. James Renwick, Jr.’s altarpieces are remarkable examples of detailed Gothic sculpture that were constructed concurrently with the founding and building of Holy Name of Jesus Church in the 1800s. The spiritual importance is that this re-dedication marks two years of project planning and implementation supported by the parish community under the leadership of Rev. James K. Cunningham, Pastor of Holy Name of Jesus. This re-dedication ceremony will formally kick-off a yearlong series of events focusing on celebrating the call of the new evangelization in Brooklyn, themed “Celebrating Our Vision.”

If you would like more information about this event, please contact Nick Sisto at (718) 768-3071, (917) 859-5156, or email at holynamebklyn@gmail.com.

A new stained-glass window in preparation. 

The new altar being installed. (Both photographs from the parish’s facebook page, documenting the restoration project.)

A reminder that if you are undertaking a similar project to unwreckovate a church, NLM will be glad to report it. Please send pictures (large format) and other documentation to me at gdipippo@newliturgicalmovement.org.

In April, we reported the sad news of the almost complete destruction by fire of St Elias the Prophet Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Brampton, Ontario. Recently, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of Kiev-Halych, and leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, visited the parish, which is soldering on under a tent as they prepare to rebuild.

Finally, Fr Jay Finelli, a.k.a. the iPadre, has posted to his site more pictures from the EF Pontifical Mass recently celebrated in the Cathedral of Providence, Rhode Island, as part of the celebrations for the church’s 125th anniversary. (Photos by Mark Garrepy)

The two bishops emeritus of Providence; on the left, His Excellency Robert Mulvee, coadjutor from 1995-1997, and ordinary from 1997-2005, and his predecessor, His Excellency Louis Gelineau, ordinary from 1972-1997.

 

Watch the Casting of New Bells for a Church Live

From Fr. Robert Matya of the University of Nebraska Newman Center, and Mr. James McCrery of McCrery Architects:

Four bells for the St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Newman Center bell tower will be cast on Monday, January 27 at 1pm Central by the Verdin Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. You can watch the process LIVE through a webcast here, http://www.verdin.com/special/bell-casting01-2014.php .

In keeping with tradition, the Newman Center is naming the bells, and we would love your help! Bells are typically named after Saints. Send your naming suggestions to newmancenter@unl.edu with the following (include “Name the Bells” in the Subject Line):

1. Submission of name(s) for the four bells.

2. Why the Newman Center should select these names (please limit your response to 200 words or less). Etching will begin soon; the deadline to submit names is Monday, January 27th at Noon Central Time.

From McCrery Architects’ website: This project is for a new St Thomas Aquinas Chapel and new Newman Center complex in welcome collaboration with Mr. Kevin Clark and his firm Clark Architecture Collaborative. The Chapel and Center will replace the existing 1960’s-era complex now rendered obsolete by the rich, vibrant and highly-active Catholic student culture fostered by the Priests, Religious and Staff at the Newman Center. The project is in the fundraising stage. Please see: http://www.huskercatholic.org/

the old Newman center, thankfully now torn down in preparation for the new building...

is that eery glow from the transporter beam...?