At The Catholic Thing there is a thoughtful piece about the project and mindset to replace the windows of Note Dame in Paris with some 21st century … efforts.
The idea fills me with horror, as it does the writer, Brad Miner, who has good insights.
A couple snips:
I’m trying to recall who it is that Macron and Ulrich remind me of. Can’t put my finger on it – a real tip-of-the-tongue thing. Let’s see: authoritarian. . .bent on destroying something beautiful. . . opposed to a tradition others admire. . .also lives in Europe . . . Shoot, it just won’t come to me. Maybe later.
And…
France was a participant in the Venice Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (1964), the first sentence of which reads: “Imbued with a message from the past, the historic monuments of generations of people remain to the present day as living witnesses of their age-old traditions.” A lofty sentiment, in my opinion, but I suppose the charter only has moral force. And the denizens of Elysée Palace can and will do what they want, ignoring the principle of Com’era Dov’era (How was it / Where was it).
At the end there are striking visual images that speak over a thousand well-chosen and pointed words.
The Philistines will have their way. Given the recent events in Paris one would think the elites might step back and take a moment. No, its full steam ahead in Church and society.
Where is Rome?
Silent.
Silent in all critical moments but singing support to James Martin and others of his ego driven ilk across a spectrum of theological and moral issues.
The mid-century council purposed to open windows now provides approbation to removing these from this sacred space of a thousand years. Why should I be surprised when the truths of eternity are being consigned to a synodal storage facility.
At moments like this, it is important to remember that the historical Vandals were more respectful than these inhumane sociopaths.
Our local cathedral has beautiful traditional stain glass windows that depict saints and gospel scenes. Another local parish church has horrible stain glass windows that consist of meaningless blobs of colour. My son, when he was about 6, compared the two and insisted that God must be very offended by the latter. Even kids can recognize beauty.
So ugly, one can only see it as gay.
I often truly wonder how it happened that those people, all the modernists and modern people basically, can not recognize beauty. Or how, if they recognize it, they don’t like it. Hate it even.
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…And here we thought the iconoclasts were gone….
The article is well done overall, but incorrect on one point: “The State, not the Church, owns Notre-Dame and every other cathedral in France.”
Three cathedrals in France, including the Cathedrale de Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille of Lille, where Archbishop Ulrich was before being sent to Paris, belong to a diocesan association.
To gdg203: Don’t know where you get your information from but Notre Dame cathedral IS legally owned by the government of France. The Church is “allowed” to use it in perpetuity. There have been numerous public/private collaborations. But as this article points out, President Macron already rejected the Venice Charter’s rejection of a new modern altar which he wants, as pictured in hideous hard dark tones. So it is still unclear to me from article who is going forward with what now. But with Macron there it doesn’t look good. Maybe after Olympics fiasco, his reign may be shortened by public sentiment.
We can be thankful that they have yet to determine how to occupy the looming empty pointed window frames with flatscreen monitors. New interpretations of old world myths could be generated on a twenty-four hour cycle. Just think of what the cultural elite and their ecclesial sycophants could do to “evangelize” the masses into the new paradigm, the synodal enterprise about to be generated.