I recently wrote about a book:
“Copies should be obtained and given to priests, especially those who lean toward traditional, and to bishops perhaps along with a spiritual bouquet.“
What book?
Does TRADITIONIS CUSTODES Pass the Juridical Rationality Test?
by Fr. Réginald-Marie Rivoire FSVF and Fr. William Barker FSSP
You perhaps recognize “FSSP”. But do you know “FSVF”?
This is the Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer in Chémeré-le-Roi, France – HERE They have a Dominican spirituality.
I’ve written about them before. They had a series of videos on the Mass.
I post today because I received an email from them about a spectacular altar they are making for their chapel. You really should have a look at what they are doing. They are proving that, in this day and age, churches and our worship can, in fact, have beautiful appointments.
A taste…
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Why are all the post V2 churches ugly?
Thank you for introducing me (and I expect, many more of us) to this – and linking the delightful, instructive, edifying website! Reading about the inclusion of a statue of St. Catherine, I was the more delighted to meet thereafter a work and (as far as I recall) an artist new to me among your ‘header’ illustrations, in Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale’s depiction of St. Catherine of Siena “negotiating with Pope Gregory XI. on behalf of the Florentines” (as it is glossed in the scan of her Golden Book of Famous Women in the Internet Archive, which also includes her depictions of St. Joan and St. Clare: her 8 illustrations are also there in a scan of The Story of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, but I have not taken the time to get a sense of William Canton’s text, or that of his Child’s Book of Saints – with 14 illustrations by T.H. Robinson in at least one of the copies of it scanned).
JustaSinner,
I’m sympathetic to how you feel but it started before V2. I have visited or seen photos of many of them. It’s just that the trend snowballed and often got worse in the era during and after V2.
I don’t blame V2; I blame “powers that be” waiting in the wings who had their agenda ready to roll years prior, and whenever you announce anything that can smack of change (accurately or inaccurately) like a council, it can cause perceptions of instability – that revolutionaries use as an opening to force their agenda on others.
It’s perfectly possible, for example, to celebrate the Novus Ordo in such manner (ad orientem, Latin, chant, communion rail, traditional vestments, Eucharistic Prayer I, church design, etc) that it mirrors the older mass about 85%, but so many chose to go in a different direction for their own reasons. It’s perfectly in line with contemporary rubrics to build beautiful traditional churches but many just won’t.
-Boniface (also just a sinner)
@JustaSinner: Because, perhaps, the focus changed (in practice) from a vertical orientation to a horizontal, humanistic view. In one, our visual (and other senses) lift our eyes to the heavens, in the other, we’re forced to look (figuratively) down and horizontally at each other.
Ever notice how the seating in many churches built since the 60s are semi-circular amphitheaters with ‘sanctuary’ at the lowest point rather than the altar being the highest point in the building? We look down at the altar instead of raising our sights to on high?
That, and the remnants of some questionable documents outlining the ‘new church architecture’ derived from the zeitgeist of the post-conciliar enthusiasms.
Luckily, there are examples of beauty in the works of many notable contemporary church architects who have tossed out the ‘Bauhaus’ brutalist memes and are bringing some beauty back into our churches, especially those which were wreckovated in the late 60s/early 70s and are being returned to spaces which can be said are “Deo Optimo Maximo”
“Why are all the post V2 churches ugly?”
Because the Evil One hates beauty.