To think!

And to think… this beautiful church… yes… church… almost burned down!

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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57 Comments

  1. joe says:

    Burned down? I never knew hadron supercolliders were that dangerous.

  2. Donald says:

    I didn’t think that Legos could burn.

  3. jamie says:

    Is there a saint that does the opposite for St. Florian?

  4. Jeff M says:

    Glad to see the Dalek school of architecture is still popular… Exterminate!

  5. Brendan says:

    I wouldn’t mind seeing this boat…er church, sinking.

  6. Bill White says:

    Was that shot taken before or after the conflagration? Perhaps that’s what was left after it melted.

  7. Sarah says:

    I never realised Churches could be so visually repulsive…

    Who exactly is authorising the errection of such hideous looking Churches?

  8. Toby says:

    I was wondering where the missing key on my keyboard had gone.

  9. Jim says:

    Of course it almost burned. Not too many fire houses left near those old roadside attractions on route 66!

  10. Sharon says:

    Did the photographer get a utility company building by mistake?

  11. Peter says:

    It is a giant cistern … (see the inlet at the top). I can’t see the button though …

    Perhaps too, that is how it was saved from fire …

  12. Thank you, Father Zuhlsdorf, for quoting my article on this discovery of the real meaning of Le Corbusier’s church. I would like just to add the video I realized in order to explain the mithraistic simbology of the church: http://fidesetforma.blogspot.com/2009/07/le-corbusier-e-il-culto-mitraico.html

    Thanks a lot for your constant work for the benefit of the Church.

    Best regards in Domino Iesu,

    Francesco Colafemmina

  13. Rosie says:

    My gosh! Toby is right!

  14. Miguel Serrano Cabeza says:

    It’s an awful building consecrated as a church.

    It seems a revamped homage to the Zoroastrian faith -dualistic and stargazering- of the old Assyrian state cities of Lagash, Uruk and Ur, that Abram and his family left behind to follow a Divine Covenant.

    Not very pious, really.

    Isn’t it?

  15. ignatiangroupie says:

    It looks like an outhouse

  16. Chironomo says:

    The “slide and lever” structure on the front side gives it the appearance of a massive ars nouveau toaster. That or some kind of ADM grain storage bunker.

  17. Gad is that damn thing is ugly, what a missed opportunity. After viewing the clip from Francesco Colafemmina, I am convinced it is a pagan temple, look at all the pagan priests up fron….., opps, sorry extraordinary minsters, guess it is a sort of “church” no pagan would need that much help

  18. Fr. AJ says:

    Okay this gets my award for the ugliest church in the universe.

  19. TNCath says:

    No, it didn’t burn down, but it’s amazing what tornadoes can do to buildings.

  20. Cosmos says:

    I know where I’ll be when the nuclear war begins!

  21. Andy says:

    Burn? Oh, you’re silly, Father. Everybody knows submarines can’t burn!

  22. James says:

    Actually, with that side arch and roof vent it looks EXACTLY like a potato storage barn. Not exactly inspired, is it? Not by God anyway.

  23. Joe says:

    I would like to see the worship space contained inside.

  24. RichR says:

    Maybe the parishioners started the fire.

  25. Padre Steve says:

    That looks like a cruel joke!

  26. Chris M says:

    It’s sad when any church burns down. Even if it’s the First Church of Buckethead.

  27. Indelible Inkstain says:

    Even Fire was at a loss on how to approach it o.O

  28. Art says:

    Looks like Picasso’s version of R2D2…

  29. ssoldie says:

    I wished it had.

  30. Mitchell NY says:

    I can think of a few worse fates than fire for this “Church”…..

  31. Michael P says:

    I was thinking pagan worship also. Where is the crucifix and tabernacle? Which side is the BVM side and which is the St Joseph side? I believe it said Cattolica which is Italian for Catholic. But my favorite post is from JohnE and the JAWA sand crawler. Do you think they say May the force be with you instead of let us pray?

  32. no, no, no…it’s a space relic of one of the docking stations from the exploded Death Star. Note the fuel port at the top?

    Check out the top right hand corner of this satellite photo….

    http://www.lunaentertainment.com/Blogger/DeathStarSurfaceCG.jpg

    I always knew that Rev. Wilhuff Tarkin made it out safely…

  33. Joe says:

    not reading Italian I presume the article says “the concrete scaffolding around the space elevator chapel will be removed by firefighters.”

  34. LCB says:

    It didn’t burn down?

    What a shame.

  35. Pseudomodo says:

    And to beautifully burn down this church, I think, YES!

    (it’s sort of a palindrome of FrZ’s statement…)

  36. Matt Q says:

    Proof someone was a crystal-meth user. Where do these bishops find these losers? Weirdos after their own hearts obviously.

  37. John says:

    There was an old woman who lived in a shoe…

  38. Disgusted in DC says:

    They should place Voltaire’s remains there and give the Paris Pantheon back to the Church.

  39. Peggy says:

    It looks like a pedestal to the Gateway Arch in St Louis.

  40. Bill White says:

    Here’s an article in English about Le Corbusier’s “church”: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/arts/design/30ouro.html.

  41. Isn’t it great that when they scrap nuclear powered aircraft carriers, they are able to put the discarded superstructures to some use? Look at this and then see the photos of Cdl. Pell saying Mass at the high altar and TELL ME THESE TWO ARTICLES REFER TO THE SAME RELIGION!!!

  42. Drew says:

    If at first you don’t suceed…

  43. Dove says:

    What about this one in Oakland. It looks like a giant nuclear cooling tower.
    http://povcrystal.blogspot.com/2009/03/oakland-cathedral.html

  44. Penitent says:

    While I dislike le Corbusier by hearth, i wouldn’t make any jokes about church burnings in Western Europe. Just this week an attempt at arson a catholic church in Spain (on Sunday, while Mass, if I understood it right)
    was barely avoided … and it not the only incident (but the gravest) this year in Spain. See http://www.abcdesevilla.es/20090713/nacional-madrid/intentan-quemar-iglesia-majadahonda-200907131717.html?cambio=1&urlini=www.abc.es

    Clouds of storm are forming again … be watchful

  45. Charivari Rob says:

    Penitent – \”…i wouldn’t make any jokes about church burnings in Western Europe. Just this week an attempt at arson a catholic church…\”

    Amen to that! Church burnings are not any sort of joking matter.

    We just had a scare in eastern Massachusetts not two weeks ago. It looks as though someone tossed a couple of Molotov cocktails in through an open church window on a Saturday night. Fortunately, they failed to ignite anything.

  46. Tzard says:

    It’s not a church building. It was designed as a Church but eventually built by the municipality. Secularism in France keeps it from being a Church.

  47. Disgusted in DC says:

    I’m grateful for the translation since I do not know French. The astronomical (astrological) component of the church is actually quite fascinating and would be completely in keeping with some of things you’ll occasionally find in medieval church-cathedral buildings, except for the regrettable Cathar/Gnostic bit. There is, alas, a gulf between the whimsical gargoyles of the old stonemasons and the gnostic syncreticsm of the contemporary freemasons.

    On the other hand, how does one deal with classical-style churchbuilding which occasionally made references to the defunct pagan Roman deities?

  48. Penitent says:

    @tzard.
    The history of this building is rather complex so I suspect ownership also. In any case, in France since 1905 every religious bulding belong to the State and are only on lease to the Church. I\’m not sure about churches buildt afterward, but my recolection of the french law makes me think it\’s indeed the case

  49. Heather says:

    Not funny. Give R2D2 his foot back.

  50. Chironomo says:

    We just had a scare in eastern Massachusetts not two weeks ago. It looks as though someone tossed a couple of Molotov cocktails in through an open church window on a Saturday night. Fortunately, they failed to ignite anything

    Rob… that was in Brockton, wasn’t it? I used to be Organist at St. Colman of Cloyne (now All Saints I believe…) on the East Side and was interested in what the verdict was. Was this a gang related event? Things are still as scary as ever in Brockton it seems…

  51. David Osterloh says:

    to quote my collage age son, what bird crapped that ;>)

  52. Charivari Rob says:

    Chironomo – “Rob… that was in Brockton, wasn’t it? I used to be Organist at St. Colman of Cloyne (now All Saints I believe…) on the East Side and was interested in what the verdict was. Was this a gang related event? Things are still as scary as ever in Brockton it seems…”

    Yes, it was in Brockton. St. Edith Stein Parish, the St. Edward Church building.

    It made headlines here in Boston for a day, then dropped off the radar. All I’ve heard is that the incident is being investigated by local, state, and federal authorities (and the Archdiocese, of course).

    The parish priests moved Sunday Mass outside or to a school gym while the church was being examined that morning (July 5th). They are back in the building for Mass now, but I believe it is being kept shut/locked more of the day, when I gather it had previously been open for people to stop in and pray. So, you see, damage has been done.

    I posted about it in the prayer requests thread at the Catholic Online Forum (http://forum.catholic.org/viewforum.php?f=47 see “worrisome incident”). If there are any developments or updates, I’ll try to post them there.

  53. Brian says:

    Maybe that was one of the droids the Storm Troopers were looking for. Good grief!

  54. Tantumergo says:

    What a tragedy! To think that it ALMOST burned down!

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