SACREDARCHITECTURE · Sacred Architecture Fall 1998 1 SACREDARCHITECTURE Fall 1998 Journal of The Institute for Sacred Architecture

Sacred Architecture Fall 1998 1

SACREDARCHITECTUREFall 1998

Journal of The Institute for Sacred Architecture

2 Sacred Architecture Fall 1998

Cover— The Cloister (Built in AD 1223-30 by Vassalletti) of the basilica of Saint John Lateran — the first Christian basilica inRome founded by Constantine; from Churches of Rome — Vendome Press NY; — see review on page 20. Drawings through-out this issue are from Edifices de Rome Moderne by Paul Letarouilly, pub. AD 1840. Other photos are as attributed.

A R C H I T E C T U R A S A C R A“If I was able to do some good to those far away from the Church when I was Archbishop of Cracow,it was because I always began with the cultural heritage, which has a language everyone knows andeveryone accepts and using this language I was able to start a dialogue which would not have beenpossible otherwise.” John Paul II

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Sacred Architecture, a journal committed to the promotion of thecultural heritage of the Church. Approaching the brink of the new millennium we are witnessing a

great outburst of construction of Catholic churches and other structures. Numerous parishes have told meof their plans to renovate, or build anew in honor of the Great Jubilee. I would say that this is a most appro-priate response. You are doubtless aware of the great wellspring of popular support for perpetual adorationin our parishes which is resulting in the construction of many new chapels. Perhaps the most positive signis the general revival of interest in sacred architecture by architects, clergy and the laity, a topic oncethought to be the sole domain of liturgical consultants and finance committees. Why are the faithful so in-terested in this subject? In part because there is an awareness that what we have been praying in, for thepast few decades, has not measured up. There is a recognition, even a demand, on the part of the faithfulthat a house dedicated to God should have a sense of the sacred. As Monsignor Guardini noted in Medita-tions on the Mass, “the Church sets aside a place that has been severed from all other connections and pur-poses in order to belong to Him in a very special way. Here man is meant to become aware of somethingdifferent both from nature and from human works: of the holy.”

The Sacred Architecture journal was conceived in response to the many phonecalls and letters I have re-ceived from pastors and laity requesting literature to read or architects to hire. The people of God have ex-pressed a great desire for an architectural publication which will draw on the riches of the Catholic patri-mony and articulate the principles for a sacramental architecture. Not long ago a respected cleric pointedout to me that while we have drama, music and art critics in our major journals there is little serious criti-cism of contemporary church architecture. Thus the intention of this journal is to sponsor substantive de-bate about this crucial subject. Catesby Leigh and Duncan McRoberts have provided us with thoughtfuland incisive analyses of the John Paul II Center in Washington and the Chapel of St. Ignatius in Seattle,projects which have received only uncritical promotion thus far. The interview with Daniel Lee offers aview of architecture grounded in Scripture which Protestants and Catholics will find equally compelling.

In publishing a variety of articles and news items, Sacred Architecture sees its mission as keeping you upto date on how bricks and mortar are being used to build up the City of God. We are pleased to feature anaddress of His Excellency, Archbishop Marchisano of the Vatican’s Beni Culturale, given to the NotreDame seminar on Sacred Architecture this summer. It will also be of interest to read about the renovationsof Pope John Paul II’s Redemptoris Mater chapel, the cleaning of the facade of St. Peter’s basilica, and thepreservation area around St. Peter’s tomb. This is to say that this first issue, as all publications on RomanCatholic architecture should be in part, is dedicated to the architecture of the city of Jubilee, the EternalCity. I hope you find Sacred Architecture of great benefit, that you will send us your comments and, if youhave not already done so, that you will subscribe today.

Tertio Millennio Adveniente!

Duncan StroikNotre Dame, Indiana

Fall 1998


Fall 1998

SACREDARCHITECTUREC O N T E N T S

E D I T O R I A L

2 �Architectura Sacra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Duncan Stroik

N E W S

4 �Constructing a New Cathedral . . . . . . . . . . . Christopher Zehnder�Design of Confessionals �Saving St. Peter’s Tomb

5 �Sacred Architecture in Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Denis McNamara6 �US Cathedral Study �Pope Perplexed �Vatican Chapel Upgrade7 �Canonization for an Architect? �Conferences and Seminars

F E A T U R E

8 �The Church’s Historic and Artistic Heritage. . . . . . . . . . . . Archbishop Francesco Marchisano

A R T I C L E S

10 �Ten Myths of Contemporary Church Architecture. . Duncan Stroik12 �The John Paul II Cultural Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Catesby Leigh15 �Christian Architecture from a Protestant Perspective. . .Daniel Lee16 �Tectonics and the Chapel of St. Ignatius . . . . Duncan McRoberts

B O O K S

18 �The Pilgrim’s Guide to Rome’s Principal Churchesby Joseph N Tylenda SJ. . . . . . reviewed by William Heyer

19 �Art and Spirituality in Counter-Reformation Rome:The Sistine and Pauline Chapels in Santa Maria Maggioreby Steven F Ostrow . . . . . . . reviewed by Noah A Waldman

20 �Churches of Rome by Pierre Grimal, photos by Caroline Rose. . . . . . . . . . . . reviewed by John S. Stroik

C O M M E N T A R Y

22 �Change and Eternity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Piotr Choynowski

J o u r n a l o f t h e I n s t i t u t e f o r S a c r e d A r c h i t e c t u r eThe Institute for Sacred Architecture is a non-profit organization (pending) made up of architects, clergy, educators and others interested in thereporting, analysis and review of significant issues related to contempory Catholic architecture. Sacred Architecture is published three times ayear for $12.95 a year. Address subscriptions, manuscripts and letters to the Editor.ADVISORY BOARD: John Burgee; Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M.,Cap.; Cassian Folsom, O.S.B.; Ralph McInerny; Thomas Gordon SmithEDITOR: Duncan Stroik, Institute for Sacred Architecture, P.O. Box 556, Notre Dame IN 46556

voice: 1(219) 631 5762 ; fax: 1(219) 271 0522 ; eMail: [email protected] EDITOR: John Stroik, 1638 Wainwright Dr., Reston, VA 20190-3431 1998 The Institute for Sacred Architecture


C O N S T R U C T I N G A N E W C A T H E D R A Lby Christopher Zehnder

Cathedral building has been no easytask for Los Angeles archbishop RogerCardinal Mahony. Three years ago, HisEminence proposed to build a newcathedral for the Archdiocese of LosAngeles on the site of then currentcathedral, St. Vibiana’s. Claiming that thedamage sustained by St. Vibiana’s duringthe 1994 Northridge earthquake forbadeany realistic hopes of saving the oldcathedral, the archdiocese proposed razingthe structure at Second and Main indowntown Los Angeles and, in its place,building a new “cathedral complex” thatwould include, along with the newcathedral, a conference hall, rectory, andplaza. The cost of the proposed project wasestimated at $50 million. The Los AngelesConservancy, an historical preservationistgroup that seeks to preserve what is left ofLos Angeles’ significant architecture(including, on one occasion, a 1950s carwash), hearing of St. Vibiana’s imminentdemise, sought a court injunction to stopthe demolition of the cathedral. Since itwas erected in 1876, St. Vibiana’s wasprotected as a state historical monument.Thus, argued the Conservancy, the cathe-dral structure could not be demolishedwithout a six months’ environmentalimpact study. The Conservancy furtherargued that retrofitting the cathedralwould cost a mere $5 million, as opposedto the archdiocese’s estimate of $20 million.The difference lay in that the archdiocese’sestimate was projected on the cost of aninterior retrofitting of the cathedral,whereas the Conservancy claimed that anexterior bracing system would besufficient.

On June 1, 1996, the archdiocese com-menced the demolition of St. Vibiana’s, butwas halted by a Los Angeles city inspectorwho claimed the archdiocese had not ob-tained the necessary demolition permit. OnJune 19, Superior Court Judge RobertO’Brien ruled in favor of the Los AngelesConservancy, and ordered an environmen-tal study be conducted before demolition.

Not wishing to delay his cathedralproject, which he wished completed by theyear 2000, Cardinal Mahony decided to sellthe land at Second and Main and buy prop-erty elsewhere in the city. His Eminencesettled on a 5.8 acre plot at the corner ofTemple and Grand Avenues, downtown,over-looking an icon of Los Angeles life—afreeway. The September 21, 1997groundbreaking was greeted by protesterswho, from the beginning had opposed theproject. One group, the Los Angeles Catho-lic Worker, opposed spending $50 millionfor a new cathedral, since the money could

better be invested in the needs of the poor.On June 19, 1996, five Catholic Work-

ers with an Episcopalian priestess hadscaled the walls of St. Vibiana’s Cathedraland from the bell tower hung a banner,which read: “We Reclaim the Church forthe Poor.”

The second group who opposed thecardinal’s project were Catholic traditional-ists who protested the cardinal’s choice ofthe architect, Rafael Moneo, 59, of Madrid,Spain. Traditional Catholics also fearedthat the new cathedral would reflect, archi-tecturally, the principles for liturgical re-newal that Mahony laid out in his Septem-ber 1997 pastoral letter, “Gather FaithfullyTogether.”

A third protest group, however, wasnew to the scene—the Gabrielino Indiantribe. Vera Rocha, chief of the Gabrielinotribe, claimed that the cardinal’s cathedralsite was an ancient burial ground of herpeople. This was based on the discovery, in1957, of the fragments of an “ancient hu-man skull” on the site when it was exca-vated for a parking lot.

Rocha demanded that archaeologicaltests be done before construction on the ca-thedral complex would begin. In April1998, the Gabrielino tribe along with theSpirit of the Sage Council filed a lawsuitagainst the Los Angeles archdiocese, theCommunity Redevelopment Agency andthe City of Los Angeles for alleged viola-tions of the California EnvironmentalQuality Act and of land use. Rocha wantedan injunction placed on the cathedral con-struction. The Gabrielinos, however, didnot fare as well as the Los Angeles Conser-vancy. On June 5, Superior Court JudgeRobert O’Brien ruled against the injunc-tion.

As many had predicted, the price ofthe cathedral complex did not remain at$50 million. Claiming that the original esti-mate applied to the Second and Main prop-erty, and not the Temple and Grand site,the archdiocese announced on March 20,1998 that the cathedral project would cost$163.2 million. As with the first estimate of$50 million, the archdiocese stated that the$163.2 million would come only from pri-vate donors. According to the archdiocese,$110.5 million had, by March, already beencontributed. The Dan Murphy and theThomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundationstogether contributed $35 million, with theremaining monies coming from the WaltDisney Corporation, Peter O’Mally (formerowner and current chairman of the Los An-geles Dodgers), comedian Bob Hope, LosAngeles mayor Richard Riordan, BetsyBloomingdale (of Bloomingdale’s depart-

ment store fame), and Roy and PattyDisney.

�Christopher Zehnder is a journalist & the Editor ofthe L.A. CATHOLIC MISSION

DESIGN OF CONFESSIONALS

Under most circumstances, priestshave the right to insist on hearing confes-sions only through a screen, the Vaticansaid. The Pontifical Council for the Inter-pretation of Legislative Texts said that evenif a penitent requests a face-to-face confes-sion, the final decision is up to the priest.The council’s decision was published in theJuly 13-14 issue of L’Osservatore Romano,the Vatican newspaper, with the approvalof Pope John Paul II. “For a just reason andexcluding cases of necessity, the minister ofthe sacrament can legitimately decide, evenin the event that the penitent asks other-wise, that sacramental confession be re-ceived in a confessional equipped with afixed grill,” the council said.

�Vatican City (CNS)Today’s Catholic, August 2, 1998

SAVING ST. PETER’S TOMB

Discovered and unearthed in the1940s, the tomb of St. Peter has beenarchaeologically surveyed, visited bypopes, documented, enshrined, andopened to the public. Now it is about to ac-quire a late 20th-century badge of distinc-tion: a corporate sponsor.

The Italian electric company, knownby its acronym ENEL, is chipping in about$1.7 million to restore and relight the tombof the first pope and other graves in the an-cient underground cemetery beneath St.Peter’s Basilica.

One big problem, according to ENELexperts, is the heat generated by thepresent lighting system and by the bodiesof some 200 people who take guided toursof the site each day. The warmth draws outmoisture from the walls of the tombs, gen-erating mold, mildew, salt deposits, andgeneral decay. The complex will be closedduring the initial phase of the work, ex-pected to be finished by the year 2000; aftera pause for the Holy Year, the restorationwill resume and continue for an indefiniteperiod.

�Vatican City (CNS), National Catholic Register, June 28-July 4, 1998

N E W S


.

The University of Notre Dame Schoolof Architecture sponsored an intensiveseminar entitled “Sacred Architecture inItaly: Rome and Florence” during a twoweek period in the summer of 1998. Partici-pants, including architects, artists, gradu-ate students, two Carmelite friars, a univer-sity president and people otherwise inter-ested in sacred architecture, were led by ar-chitect and professor Duncan Stroik. TheseItalian cities served as classrooms for thisdiverse group of students, brought to-gether by their love of the Church and theirunderstanding of the important role whicharchitecture plays in her liturgy and sym-bolic presence in the larger world.

Thirteen days each began at seven a.m.and ended near eleven p.m., with an orga-nized schedule of church visits, daily Mass,discussion, and wonderful Italian cuisinein the “outdoor rooms” which form thestreets of Florence and Rome. Beginningwith the earliest architectural remains ofancient Rome, the seminar included visitsand discussion of the Roman Forum andearly Christian basilicas and catacombs.Each day presented new architectural, his-torical, and theological discussion as thechronological trip through centuries ofChristian architecture enlightened manyeyes to the concurrent unity and diversity

of Catholic architecture. Guest lectures byhistorians John Alexander and JohnStamper, liturgist Cassian Folsom, O.S.B.,and a closed-to-the-public archaeologicaltour of San Clemente by Paul Lawlor, O.P.added to the intellectual content. Many ofthe participants, experts in their own right,presented guided tours of some churcheson the itinerary. One particular highlight ofthe trip was a two-hour visit with Arch-bishop Marchisano of the “Pontifical Com-mission for the Conservation of the Artisticand Sacred Patrimony,” who spoke elo-quently of the Vatican’s plans for preserv-ing the Church’s artistic patrimony, andwho listened patiently and attentively tothe participants’ concerns and questionsconcerning the state of architecture in theChurch.

Visits to the great Renaissance and Ba-roque designs of St. Peter’s Basilica,theGesu, the Chiesa Nuova, and San Andreaal Quirnale were followed by stops at thetwentieth-century classical churches ofsome of Rome’s newer neighborhoods.This juxtaposition of classicism old andnew led to the inevitable discussion con-cerning the place of traditional architecturein the modern world. Florence’s Duomo, aswell as its great mendicant churches, pro-vided evidence of the contrast and continu-

ity within Catholic architecture. Visits of-fered ample time for individual explora-tion of each building. Several participantsnoted how part of the difficulty in round-ing up the group to visit its next site wasgathering people off of their knees fromtheir devotions at chapels and shrines.

Professor Stroik’s diligence and guid-ance to Rome’s best restaurants as well asits best churches provided relaxing forumsfor discussion of each day’s lessons. Nospare moments went unfilled with intellec-tual discussion, good wine, solidarity inshared core beliefs, and occasional debatesabout religious and artistic topics. By theend of the first week there was talk of a “re-union” of the participants. Though educa-tional in nature, the tour provided an op-portunity for an intellectual and faithfulpilgrimage rather than a mere sight-seeingtrip. From the treasury of ecclesiastical artand architecture the Church offered, par-ticipants gathered knowledge of the thingseternal which they will continue to presentin their individual service to the Church.

�

Denis McNamara is a graduate of Yale Universityand is presently working on a dissertation in Archi-tectural History at the University of Virginia

SACRED ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY: SEMINAR HELD IN ROME AND FLORENCEby Denis McNamara

N E W S


U S CATHEDRAL STUDY

The typical U.S. Catholic cathedralwas dedicated in 1930, was last renovatedin 1986 and seats 800 people, says a newstudy by the Center for Applied Researchin the Apostolate.

The study found that 82 percent of thecathedrals also serve as regular parishchurches—typically with more than 2,000parishioners and some 1,500 worshipers at-tending weekend Masses.

Most have at least five weekendMasses and two or more daily Masses aswell. They get an average of around 50worshippers per weekday Mass.

The study found that nearly two-thirds of the Catholic cathedrals in thecountry have completed their most recentrenovation since 1980. Most of the rest un-derwent their last renovation in the 1960sor ‘70s

Ten percent of the cathedrals werebuilt before 1850; 27 percent between 1851and 1900; 42 percent between 1901 and1950; and 21 percent since 1950.

Only 43 percent of the cathedrals wereoriginally built as cathedrals. The rest wereoriginally built as parish churches.

In architectural design, about 13 per-cent are modern, 7 percent Spanish or mis-sion style, 1 percent Byzantine, 35 percentClassical or Romanesque and 44 percentGothic or neo-Gothic.

The “National Cathedral Profile Sum-mary Report” is available for $15 fromCARA, Georgetown University, Washing-ton, DC 20057. Telephone 202-687-8080.

�

Excerpt from Today’s Catholic, February 22, 1998by Jerry Filteau

POPE PERPLEXED BYCHURCH ARCHITECTURE

Pope John Paul II is often “thoroughlyperplexed” by contemporary church archi-tecture, according to his vicar for Rome,Cardinal Camillo Ruini. “There is littlesense of the sacred in the new churches,”lamented the cardinal, during an interna-tional conference on liturgical arts. Heasked the other participants in the discus-sion to explain why renowned artists, whoseem to have command over their craft,cannot penetrate more deeply into theriches of the Christian cultural heritage,and design churches that appeal to thesense of the sacred.

�

Vatican (CWN) 11/97

VATICAN UPGRADE

While Pope John Paul II has empha-sized a spiritual cleansing in preparationfor the Holy Year 2000, both the city ofRome and the Vatican have been movingdirt—with pressurized hoses and bulldoz-ers.

Many of the major churches andmonuments pilgrims will visit in the HolyYear currently are under scaffolding, in-cluding the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica.Jets of treated water are being used to washaway the grime of time and air pollution.

For example, “The Activity of the HolySee: 1997” reports that construction of thenew Year 2000 entrance to the Vatican Mu-seums involved first removing 1.4 millioncubic feet of dirt from the side of the hillwhich will host the new entrance hall.

The other big dig within the Vaticanwalls is the hole on the hill above the backof St. Peter’s Basilica. It will become athree-level underground parking garagewith spaces for 250 cars driven to work byVatican employees.

The project is in addition to the largepublic parking complex the Vatican andthe city of Rome are building on Vatican-owned property on the nearby JaniculumHill. The Vatican also had to do somedemolition on the site, tearing down thebuilding which once housed the VaticanMosaic Studio. The structure, completed inthe 1930s was judged to be of “modestmonumental and historical relevance,” ac-cording to “The Activity of the Holy See.”

�

Vatican City (CNS)Today’s Catholic, August 16, 1998

N E W S

REDEMPTORIS MATERCHAPEL IN THE VATICAN

In what is likely to be the most impor-tant artistic work done under the patron-age of Pope John Paul II, a Russian Ortho-dox artist is covering the walls and ceilingof a chapel with mosaics.

Aleksandr Kornooukhov, a 50 yearold, internationally-recognized artist, be-gan working November 1996 in the chapelof the Apostolic Palace.

The Pope said the work “once againunites us: Rome, Moscow, Constantinople,West and East ...the one church of Christ.”Already in the studio Kornooukhovshares with Orthodox and Catholic art-ists from Eastern Europe, temporarilyframed sections of mosaic were assembled.Each section portrayed three saints com-mon to Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Adrawing of the design for the wall, depict-ing the New Jerusalem, was taped aboveKornooukhov’s work bench.

“The work, executed by a Russian art-ist, envisages a decoration with mosaics inthe Eastern style and will remain as a giftof the College of Cardinals in memory ofthe (1996) 50th anniversary of the priestlyordination of Pope John Paul II,” the booksaid. No other details were given. WhenPope John Paul first ordered the redecora-tion of the chapel — known as the MatildeChapel since the time of Pope Gregory XIIIin the late 1500s—he named it after his1987 encyclical, “Redemptoris Mater,”(“Mother of the Redeemer”).

The 1988 work on the chapel was rela-tively minor; two huge Gobelin tapestries,which were a gift in 1805 from Napoleon Ito Pope Pius VII, were removed from thewalls; 14 Stations of the Cross in bronzewere put up; a new altar built on the baseof an ancient column was installed; and abronze crucifix by the artist who sculptedthe stations was hung above the altar.Kornooukhov’s work reflects more closelythe new name of the chapel and the con-tents of the papal encyclical it commemo-rates.

The first detailed descriptions ofKornooukhov’s work in the chapel and thefirst public photographs of it were pub-lished in mid-April in the popular Italianweekly magazine Oggi. In the Oggi article,labeled a “WORLD-WIDE EXCLUSIVE,”the magazine reported, “Halfway betweenthe pontiff’s apartment and the SistineChapel, for two years, a great Russian mo-saic artist has been working secretly on theend-of-the-millennium masterpiece of reli-gious art.” Oggi said the new chapel will becompleted by the year 2000.

�

Excerpt from Today’s Catholic, April 26, 1998by Cindy Wooden


N E W S

C A N O N I Z A T I O N F O R A N A R C H I T E C T ?

All told, artists, as a class, are notknown to be the most promising materialfor canonization, which is why so manypeople were caught off guard whenRicardo Cardinal Carles of Barcelona re-cently endorsed a local (Barcelona) cam-paign to beatify Antoni Gaudi, widely con-sidered to be Spain’s greatest architect, andone of modernism’s most original and ec-centric masters.

A coalition of scholars and clerics,backed by the bishops of Catalonia—the re-gion of northeastern Spain of whichBarcelona is the capital—has been advocat-ing Gaudi’s cause for canonization since1994.

Gaudi is the creator of Barcelona’smost identifiable landmark, the Church ofthe Holy Family, or Sagrada Familia. Thechurch is a modern Gothic fantasy-scape with sand-castle spires andhoneycomb towers—a virtual em-blem of the artist’s deep faith, hisCatalan roots and his profound ha-tred for the straight line. Gaudi leftthe work unfinished when he diedin 1926.

Cardinal Carles gave thearchitect’s beatification campaignhis approval in an essay publishedin the August 23 issue of the dioc-esan newsletter, writing that whilethe Catalan architect’s achievementwas widely acknowledged, “thereare also some lesser known as-pects”—namely, “Gaudi’s intimatespiritual life.” The prelate extolledthe artist’s “great spiritually” andaffirmed that Gaudi “conducted[his] life on the highest levels ofmysticism.”

Postulators of the architect’scause say that devotees are alreadyreporting medical cures and spiri-tual consolations attributed toGaudi’s intercession, and that hisexample has inspired conversions toCatholicism—notably that of theJapanese architect Etsuro Sottoo, aShinto Buddhist until his studies of Gaudipersuaded him to enter the Church sevenyears ago.

By the early 1890s, Barcelona’s Catho-lic artists, Gaudi foremost among them,found themselves increasingly at oddswith the morals as well as the ideals oftheir secular counterparts. The result wasthe formation of the Artistic Circle of St.Luke, a group of poets, painters, sculptors,and architects who worked under the di-rect patronage of the Church.

Gaudi constructed his 1904 Casa Batlloapartment complex to be a poem to St.George’s victory over the dragon. More im-pressively still, his famous 1906 Casa Mila,or Pedrera building was armed with a roof-

S a g r a d a F a m i l i a C h u r c h i n B a r c e l o n a

top full of Darth Vader-like devils meant inhis original (unfinished) design, to be over-come by a giant 40-foot-tall colossus of theBlessed Virgin.

The 1860s were seen by contemporar-ies as a time of unmitigated disaster for theChurch. The papal states had been lost toliberal, anticlerical forces under the leader-ship of Garibaldi, leaving the Pope a “pris-oner of the Vatican.” In Spain, liberal forceshad driven Isabel II from the throne, andcivil war had broken out. Lay Catholic as-sociations in Catalonia began to propagatespecial devotion to St. Joseph and the HolyFamily as a way to secure the triumph ofthe Church amid these perils.

In 1866, this association bought land inan unfashionable part of Barcelona in orderto build a church where people could pray

Work continues on the structure to thisday, although hampered by the destructionof Gaudi’s plans and drawings during theSpanish Civil War.

A life-long bachelor, Gaudi lived withhis ailing father and sister in a modesthouse in Guell Park, devoted to his workand to long hours spent in prayer. On thestreet, he had long been a colorful, if re-spected figure, shuffling along in an ill-fit-ting suit, munching an orange or a drycrust of bread, absorbed in thought.

Is Gaudi a saint? Some of his fellowBarcelonans have little difficulty imaginingit.

“What a wonderful thing that wouldbe,” a local devotee said in a recent inter-view on Gaudi’s prospects. “If Don Antoniwere canonized, then everyone wouldwant to be an architect!”

�

National Catholic Register, 9/6-12/98,by Gabriel Meyer

CONFERENCES & SEMINARS

“Liturgy and Culture” conference washeld at Holy Name Cathedral in ChicagoSeptember 24-27, 1998. Addresses byFrancis Cardinal George, Geoffrey Wain-wright, Rev. Michael Morris, O.P. and oth-ers. Sponsored by the Society for CatholicLiturgy. The proceedings will be publishedin the 1999 issue of Antiphon.

“Seminar on Sacred Architecture inItaly” to be held at the University of NotreDame Rome Studies Center in the historiccenter of Rome, June 4-17, 1999. The semi-nar will study and visit some of the mostsignificant places of Christian worshipfrom the catacombs to the baroque. Theseminar is designed for pastors, architectsand educated laity. Sponsored by the Uni-versity of Notre Dame School of Architec-ture. For further information please callBernadette Stein at 219/631-3096.

“International Congress on LiturgicalArchitecture” to be held in Rome, ItalyOctober 12-15, 1999. The Congress will bedivided into three parts: 1) a presentationof the theological-liturgical tradition, 2) adescription and evaluation of the presentsituation, and 3) proposals for the future.The Congress is being sponsored by Pon-tifical Liturgical Institute of San Anselmoin Rome, Rev. Cassian Folsom, O.S.B., Di-rector.

and do penance against the evils of the age— hence, the church’s name: The ExpiatoryChurch of the Holy Family.

Construction did not begin until 1882,and by 1884 the association had hiredGaudi to complete the church. Upon recov-ering from an attack of undulant fever in1911, Gaudi abandoned all other work anddevoted himself entirely to the project.

With periodic work stoppages due tolack of funds, Gaudi finished the church’seast transept devoted to the Nativity in1893, but construction on the west transeptdedicated to the Passion wasn’t started un-til 1954—decades after the architect’sdeath—on designs Gaudi had drawn up in1917.


ON THE CHURCH’S HISTORIC AND ARTISTICHERITAGE

by Archbishop Francesco MarchisanoSecretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Conservation of the Artistic and Sacred Patrimony

From an address to representatives of Notre Dame University, June 22, 1998 at the Palazzo Cancelleria

The Pontifical Commission was insti-tuted by John Paul II back in 1988, so thatan entire Decastery of the Curia could lookafter the area of the cultural heritage of theChurch, which includes, by our definition,Church monuments and sites; artistic col-lections and Church or diocesan museums;

F E A T U R E

historical collections and Church archives;and Church libraries. Previously, thesesame headquarters housed an office for theSacred Art in Italy. Now the new PontificalCommission’s task is to serve the CatholicChurch in all nations of the world. In layterms, you could equate the PontificalCommission to a government Ministry forthe Cultural Heritage (or the equivalent inthe United States of the National Endow-ment for the Arts — with the differencethat they have money to give, and wedon’t).

Its mandate is to supervise, aid, en-

courage, and stimulate initiatives in theconservation and promotion of theChurch’s Cultural Heritage within eachParticular Church (a term we use for theCatholic Church in every nation).

It therefore operates on two main lev-els: on a “national” level through the Epis-

copal Conference set up in each countrywhere the Catholic Church is present; andon the “diocesan” level through the indi-vidual Bishops and those individuals ap-pointed by him to work in this area. Oftenboth the Episcopal Conference and the in-dividual dioceses have established a spe-cific Commission or Committee in order tofacilitate the management and planning ofprojects which makes the coordination ofactivities, and contacts, even easier.

Before I give you a run-down of someof the major projects conducted by ourCommission over these past years, you

might ask yourself why has the Church fo-cused on the cultural heritage throughouther history as part of her pastoral mission?

Theologically speaking, the reason liesin the essential Mystery of the Incarnation.Our Lord has wanted to make himself vis-ible to us, to incarnate Himself within theconfines of humanity, to become part of itshistory, to be perceived by our senses as amaterial reality thus to leave us Hismemory and His image (as most probablyin the case of the Holy Shroud).

Speaking in pastoral terms, historicand artistic heritage means for the Churchmuch more than a simple gathering of pre-cious objects with property rights. For theChurch it represents a necessary and vitalinstrument for exercising Her evangelizingand pastoral mission, since Christ’s pres-ence through the church has reached justabout all corners of the earth, so the pri-mary role of the Church remains basically amissionary one. The artworks located in aplace of worship are envisioned from theirconception with a particular functionwhich goes beyond the mere purposes ofembellishment, but is inherent to the reli-gious cult itself. We are dealing, in the caseof Sacred Art, with a particular process ofwhat we may call “osmosis” between artis-tic expression and the religious feeling im-bedded in the sacred space of worship. Inthe light of this tradition, Sacred Art flour-ished with three major aims:

- first, to play an active role in the riteof worship;

- second, to provide a didactic meansto pass on the Gospel message andChristian doctrine;

- third, to witness to the exercise ofcharity and charitable works, as theconsiderable artistic tradition associ-ated with religious confraternities,hospices, and hospitals has testifiedthrough the ages.

These works then, constitute the his-toric memory of the birth and developmentof a local community of faith, but oftenthey also become precious visual testimo-nies of the growth and development of thelocal society in general.

For a lack of time I cannot recall all theextraordinary efforts made by the Churchhierarchy as well as the community offaithful in both the areas of preservationand restoration of cultural heritage, as wellas the promotion of all forms of human cre-ativity produced in the society of everyage. But besides the well-known traditionof the Church commissions in this respect,you might be slightly less familiar with

St. Peter’s from the river Tiber with the Ponte Sant. Angelo in the foreground. (photo-Chuches of Rome-Vendome Press NY)


some of the initiatives carried out by nu-merous Church authorities in the area ofrestoration and re-ordering of Churchmonuments and sites, already beginning asearly as the IInd century A.D. Let me justmention a few which are rather interesting:

• Pope Zefirin who by the end of the2nd century had appointed a deaconfor the care and protection of theChristian burial grounds;

• Pope Calisto the First who becameknown for his administrative andmanagement capacities regardingthese same monuments;

• Pope Damaso 1st who by the 4thcentury had launched a major resto-ration campaign which included adidactic program, as dedicatory in-scriptions were placed in order toidentify the martyrs buried in the ex-isting basilicas and cemeteries;

• the initiative of issuing ApostolicConstitutions back in 400 A.D. re-garding the construction of churches;

• much later the efforts of Pope MartinV (in the Quattrocento) to include inthe Apostolic Constitution an entiresection on the reconstruction of ma-jor monuments and buildings;

• during the same period, the extra-or-dinary deeds of Pope Sixtus IV whobecame known as the UrbisRestaurator, which also included de-crees which foresaw severe sanctionsfor anyone who touched or alteredthe interior decoration or the stonestructure of Churches and sacredbuildings;

• the splendid intuitive and wise deci-sions of Pope Julius II (in theCinquecento) who recommended notonly a policy of conservation but alsosponsored a campaign for the resto-ration and repair of buildings, whichwould take into consideration theoriginal foundations of the old struc-tures.

This extraordinarily rich legacy of ex-periences and efforts made by our forefa-thers in the faith, must be kept alivethrough a deeper awareness of our respon-sibility to keep our commitment towardsan active use of the cultural heritage as avalid and primary vehicle of our pastoralactivity. And I must say that this in fact hasbeen a real striving concern in our Post-War era. One just needs to remember thestimulating reminders made by Pope PaulVI on so many occasions, especially in hisfamous address delivered in the SistineChapel, and the comment that our currentPontiff has told me personally on severaloccasions: “If I was able to do some good tothose far away from the Church when Iwas Archbishop of Cracow, it was becauseI always began with the cultural heritage,which has a language everyone knows andeveryone accepts and using this language Iwas able to start a dialogue which wouldnot have been possible otherwise.”

The work of our Pontifical Commis-

sion, abiding to our mandate and in tunewith the essential approach set by SecondVatican Council, has focused on strength-ening coordination and participation of allthe Particular Churches — the CatholicChurch in every nation — through a seriesof activities. The latter have been concen-trated so far on three major areas: informa-tion, awareness-raising, and training.

As I look upon each of you before mehere today, I cannot but hope that your pro-fessional activity will foresee an importantcontribution to the preservation and pro-motion of the Church’s cultural heritage,through sound and model projects which

F E A T U R E

The nave of the basilica of Saint Peter, the largest in Christendom. (photo-Churches of Rome-Vendome Press NY)

which soars to give praise to Our Creator.Can I just make a final remark in this re-gard which I hope will be thought-provok-ing someday somehow in your own work— I refer to the Gospel passage “the re-jected stone has become the corner stone...”

I want to express once more my bestwishes for the success of your professionalcareers which should also become a visualmeans to bring about a better world ofpeace, brotherhood, mutual respect andunderstanding.

�

can speak to the community of faithful ofthe intrinsic values of the cultural heritageof the Church in the past while offering aninnovative artistic language which can beunderstood and can captulize that “noblebeauty and harmony” fit for architecture

Archbishop Francesco Marchisano is Secretary of thePontifical Commission for the Conservation of theArtistic and Sacred Patrimony. The Commission,which was founded by Pope John Paul II in 1988, wasinstituted to look after the wide areas of the Church’scultural heritage.


1. The Second Vatican Council requiresus to reject traditional church architectureand design new churches in a Moderniststyle.

This myth is based more on what Ro-man Catholics have built during the pastthirty years than on what the Church hastaught . Even by professional accounts, thechurch architecture of the past decades hasbeen an unmitigated disaster. However, ac-tions often speak louder than words, andthe faithful have been led to believe thatthe Church requires buildings to be func-tional abstractions, because that is what wehave been building. Nothing could be far-ther from the intentions of the Council fa-thers who clearly intended the historic ex-cellence of Catholic architecture to con-tinue. It is important to keep in mind that“there must be no innovations unless thegood of the Church genuinely and cer-tainly requires them, and care must betaken that any new forms adopted shouldin some way grow organically from formsalready existing.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium)

Just as to do Catholic theology meansto learn from the past, so to design Catholicarchitecture is to be inspired and evenquote from the tradition and the time-tested expressions of church architecture.The Second Vatican Council makes thisclear in stating that ...“The Church has notadopted any particular style of art as herown. She has admitted styles from everyperiod, in keeping with the natural charac-teristics and conditions of peoples and theneeds of the various rites. Thus in thecourse of the centuries she has brought intoexistence a treasury of art which must bepreserved with every care. The art of ourown times from every race and countryshall also be given free scope in theChurch, provided it bring to the task thereverence and honor due to the sacredbuildings and rites. Thus it is enabled tojoin its voice to that wonderful chorus ofpraise in honor of the Catholic faith sungby great men in past ages.” (SacrosanctumConcilium)

2. New churches must be designed inaccordance with the document Environmentand Art in Catholic Worship, published bythe Bishop’s Committee on Liturgy in 1977.

Due to the lack of any alternative, thispamphlet has become the veritable biblefor many new and renovated churches.This document, which was never voted onby the American Bishop’s conference andholds no canonical weight, is based moreon the principles of Modernist architecturethan on Roman Catholic teaching, or herpatrimony of sacred architecture. Amongits weaknesses is an overemphasis on a

TEN MYTHS OF CONTEMPORARY CHURCH ARCHITECTUREby Duncan Stroik

A R T I C L E S

congregational view of the Church, an an-tagonism towards history and tradition,and a strident iconoclasm. Because of thecontroversial nature of the document, theBishop’s Committee on the Liturgy is pres-ently drafting a new and hopefully im-proved version.

Also to the point, there are any num-ber of churches which have been built overthe past two decades which exemplify theprinciples of durability, convenience andbeauty including: San Juan Capistrano inCalifornia, 1989; Brentwood Cathedral inEngland, 1992; the Benedictine AbbeyeSainte-Madeleine in France 1989; theChurch of the Immaculate Conception inNew Jersey, 1996; the Church of Azoia inPortugal, 1995; the Church of St. Mary’s inTexas, 1997; the Church of St. Agnes inNew York City, 1997; The Pittsburgh Ora-tory, 1996, etc.

4. We can’t afford to build beautifulchurches today. The Church doesn’t havethe money it had in the past.

In fact, Roman Catholics are thewealthiest denomination in the country to-day. We have more CEO’s and civic leadersthan any other religious group. We havenever been wealthier, yet we have neverbuilt such cheap churches. This reflectsAmerican giving priorities; from 1968 to1995 the portion of personal income mem-bers gave to the Church dropped 21 per-cent. The people of God need to be encour-aged to generously support the construc-tion of houses of prayer. Bishops and dio-ceses should be encouraged to promote thehighest quality rather than placing a cap onconstruction costs. The faithful should bewilling to spend more on the house of Godthan on their own houses and build with aquality exceeding other public buildings.One story of great philanthropy concernsHoly Spirit Church in Atlanta which re-ceived a generous sum of money from afew of its parishioners enabling them tobuild a very elegant substantial brick Ro-manesque church in the early 1990’s. Otherparishes, in order to build a worthy andbeautiful church, have taken the time toraise substantial budgets or have chosen tobuild in phases.

5. The money spent on churches is betterspent on serving the less fortunate, feedingthe hungry and educating the young.

If the church were merely a meetingplace this view would be legitimate. How-ever, a beautiful church is also a house forthe poor, a place of spiritual feeding, and acatechism in stone. The church is a beaconand a city set on a hill. It can evangelize, byexpressing the beauty, permanence, andtranscendence of Christianity. Most impor-tantly, the church building is an image ofour Lord’s body, and in constructing aplace of worship we become like thewoman anointing Christ’s body with pre-cious ointment. (Mark 14:3-9).

Plan of a new parish church in Californiafor 620 people (by Duncan Stroik)

3. It is impossible for us to build beauti-ful churches today.

This is a bit like saying that it is impos-sible for us to have saints in the modernage. Of course we can and should buildbeautiful churches again. We live in an agewhich has sent men to the moon and largesums of money are spent on museums andsports arenas. We should also be able toconstruct buildings of the quality of theearly Christian basilicas or Gothic cathe-drals. In recent secular architecture we arewitnessing a great revival of traditional ar-chitecture, craftsmanship and construction.There are a growing number of young tal-ented architects who are designing build-ings in the classical tradition (many ofwhom would be delighted to design sacredbuildings). Students at the University ofNotre Dame, who are all trained in theClassical tradition, are in great demand byarchitecture firms and clients.


A R T I C L E S

6. The fan shape, in which everyone cansee the assembly and be close to the altar,is the most appropriate form for express-ing the full, active and conscious partici-pation of the body of Christ.

This myth comes out of the extremeview that the assembly is the primary sym-bol of the church. While the fan shape is awonderful shape for a theater, for lectures,even for representative government — it isnot an appropriate shape for the liturgy.Ironically, the reason often stated for usingthe fan shape is to encourage participation,yet the semicircular shape is derived froma room for entertainment. The fan shapedoes not derive from the writings of theSecond Vatican Council, it derives from theGreek or Roman theater. Up until recently,it was never used as a model for Catholicchurches. In fact, the first theater churcheswere 19th century Protestant auditoriumsdesigned so as to focus on the preacher.

7. The church building should be de-signed with noble simplicity. Devotionalchapels and images of saints distract andtake away from the liturgy.

This principle has beenused to build and renovatechurches in a most iconoclasticmanner. The art historian,Winckelmann used “noblesimplicity” as early as 1755 todescribe the genuine work ofart that combined sensual andspiritual elements as well asbeauty and moral ideas intoone sublime form — which forhim was embodied in classicalGreek art. Thus “noble sim-plicity” must not be confusedwith mere functionalism, ab-stract minimalism or crude ba-nality. Sacrosanctum Conciliumstates that sacred art shouldturn men’s minds devoutly to-ward God , and “that in en-couraging and favoring trulysacred art, they should seek fornoble beauty rather thansumptuous display.” The Gen-eral Instruction on the RomanMissal (GIRM) states that “church decorshould aim at noble simplicity rather thanat ostentatious magnificence.” The concernover distraction grows out of the Modern-ist aversion to figural images and a desireto be didactic rather than symbolic. But theGIRM states that “buildings and appurte-nances for divine worship ought to bebeautiful and symbolic.” The SecondVatican Council states that “the practice ofplacing sacred images in churches so thatthey can be venerated by the faithful is tobe maintained.” The GIRM elaborates“from the very earliest days there has beena tradition whereby images of our Lord, hisholy Mother and of saints are displayed inchurches for the veneration of the faithful.”

8. The Catholic Church should bebuilding the most avant-garde archi-tecture of its day, just as it has throughouthistory.

For fifteen hundred years, and evenup until World War II, the Roman CatholicChurch was considered the finest patron ofart and architecture. The Church formedChristian artists and architects who in turninfluenced the architecture of the secularrealm. During the last half century, how-ever, the roles have changed, and theChurch has been following the lead of thesecular culture and architects who havebeen formed in a non-Catholic world view.Whereas previously the development ofCatholic architecture was inspired by andin continuity with works from the past, theModernist concept of the “avant-garde”means progress through a continuousbreaking with the past.

The Church documents ask bishops toencourage and favor truly sacred art and toimbue artists “with the spirit of sacred artand of the sacred liturgy.” The present re-vival of interest in liturgical architecture by

9. In the past, people saw the churchbuilding as the domus Dei or “house ofGod”, today we have gone back to the earlyChristian view of the church as domusecclesia or “house of people of God”.

Catholicism, it has been pointed out, isnot a religion of “either/or” but of “both/and”. In contrast, it is an antinomial view,derived from the Enlightenment, whichclaims that a church cannot be both God’shouse and the house of his people, who aremembers of his body. When the church isthought of merely as house of the people ofGod, it becomes designed as a horizontal liv-ing room or an auditorium. These two his-toric names, domus Dei and domus ecclesia,express two distinct but complementary na-tures of the church building as the presenceof God, and the community called togetherby God. “These visible churches are not sim-ply gathering places but signify and makevisible the Church living in this place, thedwelling of God with men reconciled andunited in Christ.”(The Catechism)

10. Since God dwells everywhere, He isjust as present in the parkinglot as in a church. Therefore,church buildings should nolonger be seen as sacred places.

This is a very attractivecontemporary idea which hasmore to do with pop theologythan with Catholic tradition.From the beginning of time,God has chosen to meet Hispeople in sacred places. The“holy ground” of Mount Sinaibecame translated into the tentin the wilderness and theTemple in Jerusalem. With theadvent of Christianity, believ-ers constructed buildings spe-cifically for the divine liturgywhich would reflect the heav-enly temple, the upper roomand these holy places. InCanon Law “the term churchsignifies a sacred building des-tined for divine worship towhich the faithful have a rightof access for divine worship,

especially its public exercise.” As “a placeset apart” for reception of the sacraments,the church itself becomes sacramental hav-ing as its focus the sanctuary, which meansa holy place. Just as the ceremonies, ele-ments such as the altar and ambo, and theart are all referred to as “sacred” so are thebuildings designed for them. Therefore toseek to remove the distinction of the churchas a sacred place for sacred activity is to di-minish our reverence of God, which thebuilding should help to engender

.�Duncan Stroik, A.I.A. is an architect and an associateprofessor of Architecture at the University of NotreDame.

Elevation of a new parish church in California (by Duncan Stroik)

the faithful indicates that Holy MotherChurch may regain her rightful place as thepreeminent patroness. In this role she has“always claimed the right to pass judgmenton the arts, deciding which of the works ofartists are in accordance with faith, piety,and the laws religiously handed down, andare to be considered suitable for sacreduse.” Also, “bishops should be careful toensure that works of art which are repug-nant to faith, morals, and Christian piety,and which offend true religious sense ei-ther by depraved forms or through lack ofartistic merit or because of mediocrity orpretense, be removed from the house ofGod and from other sacred places”(Sacrosanctum Concilium).


A R T I C L E S

Strictly speaking, the Pope John Paul IICultural Center, which soon will be un-

der construction in the nation’s capital,does not qualify as sacred architecture. It isconceived, first and foremost, as a high-tech museum of the Catholic faith whichwill educate and inspire Catholic and non-Catholic visitors alike. It also will serve as aresearch institute accommodating a dozenscholars from around the world. Both mu-seum and institute will be housed in a100,000-square-foot building designed by ateam of architects from the Washington of-fice of Leo A. Daly, under the direction ofRichard Clarke.

The John Paul II Cultural Center Foun-dation, whose headquarters are in Detroit,is financing the $51.8 million projectthrough private donations. Thefoundation’s president is Adam CardinalMaida, the archbishop of Detroit, whose fa-ther immigrated to the United States fromPoland. The site for the cultural center is awooded, 12-acre lot located next to thecampus of the Catholic University ofAmerica and close to the National Shrine ofthe Immaculate Conception. Proximity tothe shrine, a highly popular tourist destina-tion, is one of the principal advantages ofthe cultural center’s location. Constructionis expected to be completed in the latterpart of 2000.

When Cardinal Maida first got theidea for the cultural center a decade ago, hewas thinking in terms of an institutionsimilar to our presidential libraries. But his

THE JOHN PAUL II CULTURAL CENTER, WASHINGTON DCWil l The Medium Be The Message?

by Catesby Leigh

original idea has undergone considerabledevelopment. Thus the museum’s perma-nent exhibition has been designed byEdwin Schlossberg Incorporated of NewYork City as a multimedia vision of theChurch’s past, present, and future — andof how they relate to the history of theworld, and to modern scientific interpreta-tions of the cosmos. This exhibition is in-tended to emphasize basic themes or idealssuch as the unity of Christians and theunity of the world; Pope John Paul II’s“prophetic humanism;” human dignity;the Church as defender of human rights;and John Paul II as “a pope of the [SecondVatican] Council, a pope for the ages.” Thecultural center also will offer temporary ex-hibits drawing mainly on the Vatican’s col-lections, along with conveniences such asgift shops, a café, and even an “Earth PlayArea” for children seven and under.

The cultural center may not qualifyunder the heading of sacred architecture,but it is hardly a secular institution. It is in-tended to propagate the faith, while per-petuating the incumbent pontiff’s legacy.And its design raises interesting questionsabout the way in which the sponsoringfoundation is seeking to carry out this mis-sion. “The cathedrals of the Middle Agestold a story in stained glass,” CardinalMaida was quoted as saying in the Wash-ington Times last year. “This museum willtell a story with technology and scholar-ship.” Modernist design is also part of theformula.

View of a model of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center from the northeast. To be completed late in the year 2000, the design is emphatically asymmetrical, as with the placementof the cross and the “rotunda”. To the rear, the chapel wing extends across a reflecting pool, a gesture intended as a reference to baptism. (Photo by Michael Fisher/Leo A. Daly)

The cultural center will be set wellback in its lot, facing a generous expanse ofgreensward to the east. Perched on a ter-race of black-and-white Polish granite, thebuilding will be an architectural synthesis,in limestone and glass, of a number of fa-miliar themes from the oeuvre of the pio-neer French modernist Le Corbusier.

Towards its north end, a large cylindri-cal volume projects from the model’s mainrectilinear mass and serves as an entrance“rotunda.” On the terrace, a reflecting poolruns along the length of this mass, and isinterrupted near its southern end by achapel wing which juts out from the build-ing at a perpendicular angle. The chapel it-self is a little box housed within an oddsculptural arrangement consisting of twoperpendicular wall-planes which read, inplan, as an asymmetrical cross. Rectilinearopenings are punched out of these planes,however, and it is very unlikely that manyvisitors will appreciate this distorted ref-erence to the principal symbol of Chris-tianity, whose formal inspiration would ap-pear to lie in the supremely abstract realmof constructivist art.

The copper-sheathed chevron formsuspended over the main building mass,for its part, has been likened to angel’swings. But the roof-metaphor, too, is com-promised, if not negated, by the chevron’sasymmetrical configuration. The roof restson a row of large, vertical, tapering rein-forced-concrete beams which rise throughthe building from its foundation. Second-


ary support is provided by metal struts onthe building’s east side. At the north end ofthe building, the roof cuts an ugly V-shaped indentation into a large limestone-sheathed service block, housing stairs, el-evators, bathrooms, and mechanical func-tions, which receives distinct articulation inthe design. At the chapel end, in turn, theroof is pierced by a cross.

On the other side of the cultural centerfrom the entrance cylinder, a secondary,western facade faces a granite terracewhich serves as a disembarkation point forbus passengers, and, beyond the terrace, aparking lot. This elevation is dominated bya large expanse of curtain wall of sand-blasted glass. But on this side of the build-ing, a couple of expressionistic gestures, inthe form of two walls which protrude fromthe main building mass, offer some con-trast with the dominant rationalist geom-etries.

One of these walls runs alongside thenorth end of the building atan oblique angle. It boasts thesort of disordered, seeminglyrandom fenestration LeCorbusier employed at hispilgrimage chapel atRonchamp, France — scat-tered glazed slot-openingsand little square holes ratherthan what one would nor-mally think of as windows.This massive wall rises fortwo of the building’s threestories, and encloses theatrium of a lobby situated be-low grade as well as an exit.Pierced by another wall-planejutting straight out from thebuilding, it bends back to-ward a sunken court as aroofless segment, sloping in-ward on its inner side in a

manner that recalls the Ronchamp chapel’sinterior. It is a baffling gesture. On theother side of the glass curtain-wall, anotherirregular wall protrudes less boldly fromthe building mass, this one undulating inplan and tapering off toward the building’ssouth end. Endowed with the same sort ofpicturesque, Ronchamp-style fenestration,this wall encloses the Papal and PolishHeritage Room on the main level, and,above, a gallery for temporary exhibits, aswell as the library of the studies center,which occupies the building’s third floor. Anarrow, glazed curtain wall extends be-tween the undulating wall and a serviceblock sheathed in corrugated copper pan-els, which anchors the cultural center’ssouth end.

In the chapel, too, the ribbon windowrunning right under the ceiling, and thewall-openings below, with their deep,splayed reveals, take after Ronchamp. Thepews are pushed off to one side of the

A R T I C L E S

View of a model of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center from the northwest. The undulating wall in foreground boasts fenestration in the manner of Le Corbusier’spilgrimage chapel at Ronchamp, France, as does the lower, protruding wall in the background. (Photo by Michael Fischer/Leo A. Daly)

nave, a conventionally asymmetrical Mod-ernist arrangement.

Inside the cultural center, the designershave devoted particular attention to accom-modating the circulation of large numbers ofpeople who will respond to the options themuseum offers in a variety of ways. Theyalso have sought to impart a sense of spatialopenness and transparency in the buildingthrough the painstaking manipulation ofnatural light. Visitors’ interest is to be stimu-lated not only through the latest in audio-vi-sual and interactive technologies; but alsothrough introducing novel, tactile experi-ences, such as the touching the positivebronze casts of hands of the pope and otherCatholics from around the world. These willbe arrayed along the railings of the circula-tion ramps as “signs of peace.”

The permanent exhibition will be in-stalled on the building’s main and lowerlevels. Visitors will have the option of us-ing the bar-coded cards in the small hand-

books they will receive uponpaying admission to obtain aparticular theme to exploreduring their visit, as well as toaccess interactive displays.The spaces harboring this ex-hibition include, on the mainlevel, a Gallery of Mary,which will offer artifacts andimages of the Virgin as she isvenerated by different cul-tures, along with a “worldfamily mural” with life-size,black-and-white photographsof Catholics from around theworld. The principal feature ofthis gallery will be six floor-to-ceiling, three-dimensional, au-dio-visual “doorways” withpainted steel frameworks, eachone devoted to a particular cultof Mary. On the lower level


there will be a Gallery of Church and PapalHistory, a Gallery of Faith, a Gallery of Com-munity, a Gallery of Wonder, and a Gallery ofImagination.

Visitors will be able to retrieve the mate-rial they have stored in the museum’s infor-mation system when they arrive at the Reso-lution Café, where tables will be equippedwith monitors and card-swipes. They willalso be able to obtain “certificates” — com-puter print-outs of their activities at the cul-tural center — and even purchase videos orCD-ROM’s reproducing the inter-active dis-plays which engaged their interest. Near thecafé, moreover, a group of monitors will givevisitors a chance to inform themselves aboutopportunities for fuller participation in theChurch, and cultural and charitable activitiesit supports, where they live.

A final “exit experience” on the mainfloor involves touching the positive cast of ahuman hand in order to hear the message“Peace Be With You,” and then walkingthrough a light-beam projected down fromthe ceiling. When the beam is interrupted,the same phrase will be heard in a foreignlanguage. A series of hands and light-beamsand foreign tongues will be encountered inthis space.

The cultural center’s decorative pro-gram has yet to be worked out in detail, andwill depend largely on donations. An abun-dance of stained glass is anticipated — for in-stance, on a large glazed expanse on the entrycylinder — as well as numerous pieces ofsculpture outside the building. A statue of thepope is to rise out of the reflecting pool nearthe main entrance. The artistic treatment ofthe stained glass and sculpture has yet to bedetermined and one is left to wonder howthe decoration will mesh with the very ab-stract architecture. Will stained glass that tellsa story — beautifully — fit in here? The land-scape design, on the other hand, has been ca-pably handled by Michael Vergason of Ar-lington, Virginia, in collaboration with the ar-chitects. Vergason has struck an appropriatebalance between the formal arrangement oftrees and shrubs along the main road and pe-

So what are we to make of the formula,or general concept, behind the cultural cen-ter? Well, it confirms that McLuhan wasright: the medium is indeed the message. Tobe sure, the messages imparted by the cul-tural center’s high-tech displays have beencarefully adjusted to Church doctrine and theprinciples John Paul II has emphasized dur-ing his papacy. But is it just because I flunkedthe course that the concept for the “exit expe-rience” inspires unpleasant memories ofPsych 101 and the Skinner box? Or has thetouchy-feely sensibility gotten a little out ofhand here? And once the cultural center’svarious electronic media are passé — as theyinevitably will be not long after it opens —will anybody be interested in the messages?If not, the sponsoring foundation will find it-self engaged in an interminable fund-raisingcampaign in support of technological ratherthan spiritual renewal.

And though some might regard it as thewave of the future so far as our museums areconcerned, one might wonder whether allthis electronic gadgetry amounts to a sort ofinstinctive by-product of, or compensationfor, the reductive architectural character ofthe building. For here, too, the medium is themessage. That is, modernist architecture’s es-thetic poverty lies precisely in the dogma thatthe medium — the mechanical facts of con-struction — is architecture’s message. Adogma, by the way, which Michelangelowould rightly have regarded as hopelesslyperverse. Next time the architects (or their cli-ents) opt for an academic design, perhapsthey should cast their net a little further afieldthan the last 70 years of architectural history,which, truth be told, have been distinctly in-glorious.

�

Catesby Leigh is a writer and architectural criticresiding in Washington D.C.

Section model of exhibit spaces and ramps in Pope John Paul II Cultural Center. Farleft, sunken court, to be planted with ginkgo trees and enriched with sculpture, sepa-rates area reserved for center’s administration and ramps connecting exhibit spaces.

(Photo — Michael Fischer/Leo A. Daly)

destrian path to thebuilding, on the onehand, and a more ro-mantic, informal ap-proach else-where.Flower gardens willbe planted near thebuilding, and thecafé should offer apleasant view. OurCorbusian machinewill be ensconced inan inviting Eden.

The culturalcenter’s architecturaldesign amounts to athoroughly academicscheme produced bytalented people whohave managed thepractical aspects of avery demanding pro-gram, with great in-telligence. Ronchampaside, Le Corbusier’sinfluence is evident in the combination of el-ementary geometric volumes on the east sideof the building, which recalls the City of Ref-uge the Frenchman built in Paris for the Salva-tion Army during the Depression. The roof, inturn, evokes his Nestlé Pavilion of 1928 as wellas his Youth and Cultural Center at Firminy,which was designed three decades later. ThePope John Paul II Cultural Center model evenboasts a typically Corbusian gutter spoutshooting out of the roof’s valley at the northend. (It has been eliminated from the design.)

But in their effort to liven up the planargeometries of the City of Refuge by introduc-ing the expressionism of Ronchamp, perhapsthe most celebrated building of the post-warphase of Le Corbusier’s career, the architectshave inevitably diluted the primitive ferocityof the latter in order to keep their design fromdissolving into complete incoherence. The re-sult, unfortunately, is not terribly convincing,and probably would elicit little more than astring of mumbled profanities from LeCorbusier himself.

A R T I C L E S


ARCHITECTURE’S ROLE INCHRISTIANITY

Church architecture serves to frameand enhance our worship in a way thathonors the One we worship. Churchesare buildings shaped, crafted, and setaside for the very special purpose of ourcorporate communion with our covenantGod. But as works of art, they also speakto the larger culture around them. This isbecause architecture symbolizes, withinthe fabric of a community, the socialhierarchy and aspiration — or theactual position—of the institutionhoused within it. It reveals,through artistic means, the rela-tionship between larger transcen-dent constants and the immanentissues we confront in daily life.And, it provides a meaningful set-ting for our daily social and spiri-tual interactions.In the past, churches were oftenthe most prominent architecturaledifices of a community, andChristians gladly served aspatrons of church architecturebecause it proclaimed their faithand affirmed their world view. Buttoday things have changed.

CHRISTIANARCHITECTURE TODAY

What I sense and see in myown involvement in the religiouscommunity, and in my reading, isthat most Christians cannot begina conversation on architecture.Several years ago I met a highlyregarded Christian poet, who inresponse to a question I posed,answered, “I really don’t know, ar-chitecture is such an esoteric artform.” Her comments surprisedme by illustrating well the currentstate of affairs. The architecturethat churches are building todayis as confused as the tastes, andfaith, of building committee mem-bers.

Building committees, or otherdeciding powers, want inexpensive con-struction that solves basic functionalneeds. As they select their architect, theyare often most concerned with how manychurches he has designed, or whether heis well known. It would be nice if thearchitect is a believer, but they are looking,first, for a safe choice. They feel inadequateto assess philosophical or artistic aspectsinherent in their task and simply hopefor the best. The results we are seeing aredisappointing, and the church is missingimportant opportunities to create signifi-cant new architecture.

C H R I S T I A N A R C H I T E C T U R E F R O M A P R O T E S TA N T P E R S P E C T I V Eby Daniel Lee

A R T I C L E S

and sorrow from peoples’ hearts towardone they loved. Should not our expres-sions of love for our Savior be of a muchgreater kind? Judas Iscariot complainedwhen Mary bathed Christ’s feet, justbefore his death, in a perfume valued at ayear’s wages. As we know, Jesus rebukedJudas for his greed and false economy.We have been commanded to care for thepoor and to share the gospel. We havealso been commanded to love and honorGod with all of our being. Here in the West,we have more than enough resources todo all three.

THE ROLE OF THE ARTS AND SYM-BOLISM IN CHURCH BUILDINGS

Arts and symbolism should help usunderstand life as it really is, our sin,and the gospel. In the book of Numberswe read how God’s people, when leavingEgypt, grew tired of manna, the breadfrom heaven, and became bitter againstGod. So God sent deadly serpents amongthe people and many died. Then thepeople came to Moses, confessed theirsins, and asked him to pray that God

would remove the serpents. Godresponded to Moses’ prayer by in-structing him to cast a serpent inbronze and raise it high above thepeople on a staff. Moses obeyed,and when the people looked uponthis work of figurative art, theywere healed. It is important to un-derstand that the bronze serpentdid not heal them. The bronze ser-pent served as a potent symbol oftheir grave sin and God’s powerfulwork of redemption. Later, Jesusnoted that it also represented hisown day, when he would be raisedup on the cross to redeem hispeople from their sin for all time.

This was a correct use of awork of art in the life of God’speople. It represented both thelaw and the gospel and was evan-gelistic in a most powerful sense.But, generations later the Israel-ites began worshipping the bronzeserpent, offering incense before it,leading King Hezekiah to destroyit. Such use and misuse demon-strates both how valuable as wellas how dangerous works of artcan be in the life of the church.The Protestant reformers reactedto idolatrous use of art in thechurch in their day.

I believe we should see the lawand the gospel conveyed throughworks of art in the Church, and onour church buildings. We shouldhave murals depicting the historyof God’s people through the ages;

we should have stained glass honoringthe heroes of the faith; we should make useof symbols, provided they are understood.But if they are worshipped, they shouldbe removed. And our teachers and eldersbear great responsibility in helping us keepthis balance.

�

Daniel Lee is an architect in private practicein Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.

This essay is based on an interview pub-lished originally in REGENERATION QUAR-TERLY Winter-Spring 1998

W H Y S P E N D M O N E Y O NCHURCHES?

Events surrounding the death ofDiana, Princess of Wales illustrate mythoughts on this. To express their grief overher passing, the public spent over $40million on flowers alone. She was a liv-ing symbol of important virtues to manypeople around the world. Could you everjustify on practical grounds alone suchan expense? Of course not. But, this wasa spontaneous expression of affection

Main Entrance ElevationCathedral of Christ the Redeemer

Architect — Daniel Lee


A R T I C L E S

Our senses are the means by which wereceive information. Without them, no

information would pass to us; that is to say,there would be no knowledge, intuition ortranscendence. It should be noted that insensation, the corporal emerges as the coreof subjective and objective cognition.

In terms of architecture, it is our aes-thetic apprehension of the corporal that in-forms us, through our senses, of the cul-tural value and content of a building.Buildings invariably are signifiers, they re-veal, represent, resemble and express. They

TECTONICS AND THE CHAPEL OF ST. IGNATIUS AT SEATTLE UNIVERSITYby Duncan McRoberts

cause Modernist architecture, I would sub-mit, lacks a theoretical foundation to createa representational, expressive or meta-phorical discourse to signify the well-spring of customs, rituals, sacraments, re-membrances, essences, catechisms, sym-bols, miracles or atmospheres for worshipthat embody the Catholic faith.

To explain this, it must first be statedthat the canon of Orthodox Modernism in-tends to repudiate history. In order to pur-sue a negation of truth, the modus oper-andi of Modernism depends on an aes-

Marco Frascari, in his essay “The Tell-the-Tale Detail”, argues that through tectonicdetail one can see the process of significa-tion; the attachment of meaning to man-made objects. The narrative and charactercreated by tectonic detail alludes to multi-faceted measures of meaning and is thelink that makes the invisible, visible.

Unfortunately, in Modernistarchitecture’s preference for tectonic ab-straction, there are no elements which canact as a symbolic link to the transubstantiveand eschatological content of Catholicism.

Modernist architects, in other words, eithermisunderstand or refuse to use symbolicconvention and signification to open com-munication between existential planes. Asan abstraction, it becomes an architecturethat forces the Catholic liturgy to occupyan otherwise empty, unknowable place.

As an example, let us consider the newchapel of St. Ignatius, by the well-knownarchitect Steven Holl, located on the cam-pus of Seattle University. As a work of or-thodox Modernism, none of its architec-tural characteristics transcend an industrialappearance which seems to mean that tech-nology and its gadgetry actually transcend

thetic of representational sterility and tec-tonic reductionism.

So viewed, Modernism’s denial of his-torical meaning then, means that it canonly claim to lie within a secularist archi-tectural mode. One of the things whichModernism denies Catholicism, is integralto historical religious content: tectonics.Tectonics in architecture has been definedas the poetics of structure. To reveal a poet-ics of structure is to give back to reality andthe set of programmatic, economic andphysical rules it gives us, an art form whichis essential. An art form, moreover as nar-rative, that people need and appreciate.

are, without question, artifacts or physi-cal proponents of larger paradigms.

What and how something is signified,is the most important question for architec-ture and for any community which builds.

When the Catholic Church intends tobuild a sacred space, and chooses an archi-tect to conceive of a plan and image for thatspace, the community should take it veryseriously. If, for example, a Modernist ar-chitect is asked to actualize the what andhow of a sacred space — the communityshould be concerned about how he mightarticulate their experience of religion andwhat that experience might be. This is be-

The Chapel of St. Ignatius, completed in 1997, was designed to accommodate 250 people. (Photo by Duncan McRoberts)


A R T I C L E S

all other possible representational values. Ithas no ecclesiastical details, no sacred ar-chitectural ornaments or any recogniz-able tectonic symbolic forms. It aban-dons all religious architectonic dialecticswhich have endured the ebb and flow ofcustom and use, or that touch the deepestlayers of history — the domain of memory.To a passerby, it appears to be nothingmore than a nominal box with light scoopsthat in the past, illuminated tables of fabri-cators, technicians, objets d’art, seam-stresses, or even disco dancers. Further-more, though the light inside is describedas evocative, these light giving scoops, asformal elements, themselves reveal nomeaning. Unlike clerestory windows,domes, lanterns or rose windows, they arerepresentationally mute gestures. Thename given them doesn’t even have sacred

Designed by Steven Holl, the 6100 square foot chapel was constructed at a cost of $5.2 mill ion. (Photo by Duncan McRoberts)

epistemological or etymological status; orfor that matter, an extrinsic, cultural mean-ing. They are like utensils, literal state-ments of efficiency. Moreover, the onlyother notable aspect this structure offersthe spiritual being is a material variation ofits contrived randomness and wall surfacetreatment. Thus when compared to hun-dreds of the intricate forms and rich sur-faces of many traditional churches, thesupposed genius of this chapel’s formsamounts to very little. Though these varia-tions may, at first glance, be interesting, af-ter time they reveal nothing to us, or rather,nothingness.

The building’s lack of representationalpossibilities, admits that the technologicalprocess of making has become the destina-tion of the building itself, thereby changingthe metaphorical province of its program.Holl’s chapel thus refuses to respond to itsprogram by means of religious figuration.Aside from some candles, a tabernacle, thebaptismal font, a displaced crucifix, the al-tar and a kneeler, the building itself offersus a sober and positivistic dialogue withthe machine. So viewed, a building devoidof figurative elements and thus reduced tocleverly organized production line func-tionalism or even composed of novelshapes, bears little didactic presence. Thus,upon apprehension of this building fromboth within and without, our senses re-spond only to mechanistic metaphors,fundamental to a Modernistic discourse on

art, rather than to otherwise religious con-cepts of transcendence.

To conclude, Seattle University seemsto have solicited Holl, as a bold player in agame of novelty-seeking, in order to ap-pear progressive. In fact, this building’s ap-pearance seems emblematic of overvaluingthe importance of change. For many de-cades now the Church has chosen thebuilders of Modernism, which, as EdmundBurke said, “...have no respect for the wis-dom of others; but pay it off by a very fullmeasure of confidence in their own. Withthem it is sufficient motive to destroy anold scheme of things, because it is an old

one. As to the new, they are in no sort offear with regard to the duration of a build-ing run up in haste; because duration is noobject to those who think little or nothinghas been done before their time, and whoplace all their hopes in discovery.”

Meanwhile, what the Church is nearlosing is the true essence of its inextricablerelationship with architecture that keepswhat is sacred, sacred. In building thisbuilding, the University and the CatholicChurch have failed to question what Mod-ernism is unable to express; they havefailed to discriminate against what Mod-ernist architecture can only express andthey have failed to adequately representthemselves by defining what they can andought to express. The atmosphere of achapel is a sacred concept in itself. It is anatmosphere that deserves great depth of

thought, and requires great care in its mak-ing. So stated, it is very odd over the pastdecades that the Catholic Church wouldforsake the architecture it has grown upwith for one which has no articulate theoryof universals, ideals or beauty. Perhaps areconsideration of the tectonic in express-ing these ideals will lead us forward to therealization of a chapel as sacred place.

��

Duncan McRoberts is an architect living and work-ing in Seattle.


B O O K S

The Pilgrim’s Guide to Rome’sPrinciple Churchesby Joseph N. Tylenda, S.J.The Liturgical Press,Collegeville, MN, 1993, $14.95

Reviewed by William Heyer

American pilgrims planning to visitRome for the Jubilee year, in this age of

web browsers and information overload,might be a little disappointed with the sim-plicity and black-and-white imagery in Fr.Joseph Tylenda’s The Pilgrim’s Guide toRome’s Principle Churches. There are notropical-colored photographs and almostevery page is just plain text. But thosepilgrims who are looking formore than a tourist’s guidewill appreciate this quiet andstrong companion. In fact,within the austere pages of this340 page soft-cover guide is arich and yet concise andeasy-to-follow description ofthe treasure of Christian his-tory, architecture and art com-posed in 50 of Rome’s most im-portant churches.

Fr. Tylenda has fully orga-nized this guide. The churchesare listed in the book alphabeti-cally so pilgrims can find theright pages quickly with the ex-ception of the seven main ba-silicas which are placed at thebeginning of the book. Eachchurch essay is organized intothree sections; history of thechurch, description of the exte-rior, and description of the inte-rior—all of which Fr. Tylendaoutlines clearly for each site.The history of the church isgiven, of course, chronologi-cally. Descriptions of the exte-rior follow a visual path aroundthe facade and descriptions of the interiorbegin with an overview from the entranceleading, usually, into a counter-clockwisesequence through the church taking in ev-ery bit of detail along the way.

For pilgrims, who come to pray, theguide is a quiet companion that is so wellorganized that it never leaves the user inconfusion or frustration. The Pilgrim’s Guideto Rome’s Principle Churches concisely de-scribes items in easy-to-find sections leav-ing time for the pilgrim to look, think andpray in quiet. The author also keeps to thefacts without souring the journey with po-litical correctness or misleading humor, asone finds in other guide books. This ishelpful when approaching the great doorsof the basilica, the relics of the great saintsor the Blessed Sacrament.

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO ROME’S CHURCHESIn addition, the descriptions are not in-

complete or misleading for even the artistor architect pilgrim. Architects will find thedates of building and their architects to beprecise and will find the descriptions of fa-cades, volumetric concepts, statues and thelike to be straightforward, yet compelling.This leads to a wonderful ability of movingthe eyes from page to object and back withease and excitement. The noting of materi-als in the descriptions also is particularlyadmirable for it familiarizes the artist andlayman alike with the media in which theRomans worked. Alabaster, porphyry, trav-ertine, volutes and pilasters become famil-iar by sight rather quickly. For those less fa-miliar with the terminology, Fr. Tylendahas included a glossary at the end. The au-

them. This only increases the joy in experi-encing each church from the small detailsto the unifying concepts of the parti. Andwithout the Rome in-your-face language orpage layout of secular guidebooks, thispilgrim’s guide can disappear at your sidewhile you quietly pray to one of the greatsaints of Rome.

Only a few things could make thisbook better and more complete. A time-lineof artists and architects would be helpfulfor understanding at least where all thosementioned (and there are many) fit into thescheme of things. A small local area mapwould help the pilgrim to find each churchbetter and place it in at least an abstract set-ting to get a sense, from a plan view, of thebuilding in relation to the street, other sig-

nificant buildings or cemeteriesand catacombs nearby. But,more importantly, in additionto the wonderful translationsthe author provides for Latinand Italian writing on someworks of art, it would havebeen helpful to the pilgrim tohave translations of the plenaryindulgence plaques in variouschurches and—even more so—to have in the history section ofeach church, a brief outline ofprayers to be said in the indi-vidual churches for graces to begranted to the pilgrim, hisloved ones or for a good inten-tion. Being a guide to the prin-ciple churches, the traditions ofprayer in each church shouldhave been outlined for use.

In using the book person-ally, only one mistake wasfound in a description and onlyone disagreement was taken byan archaeologist at the site ex-cavations of one early churchregarding the story of an an-cient fresco.

In all, the pilgrim musthave time and patience—which are de-manded of any true pilgrim—to appreciateand use this book effectively. Each churchon the journey has more than the last itseems. Fr. Tylenda’s The Pilgrim’s Guide toRome’s Principle Churches is a useful guidefor the pilgrim who wishes to understandthe pilgrimage church for what it integratesand represents: architecture, liturgy, his-tory, site of saints and miracles, house ofGod and catalyst through prayer to thegreat Source of grace.

�

William Heyer is an architect and choir director inSouth Bend, Indiana.

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thor obviously has more of an understand-ing of architecture and art than most travelguide writers, which is an added blessingto what is entitled a “Pilgrim’s Guide”.

And yet, Fr. Tylenda makes no pre-tense at presenting an architect’s or artist’sguide. “In no way do these plans pretendto be architecturally exact drawings of theedifice...” Although from an architect’svantage point, the plans presented of eachchurch are accurate enough and, travelingthrough the various churches, I found themto be abstractly thoughtful. As an architect,I grew to admire this book with no photo-graphs or line drawings of art or architec-ture. It became clear that the author in-tended the pilgrim independently to dis-cover each painting, passageway, domeand ray of light and to be surprised by


B O O K S

Art and Spirituality in Counter-Reformation Rome: The Sistineand Pauline Chapels in S. MariaMaggioreby Steven F. OstrowCambridge University Press, 1996365 pages, illustrated, $90.

Reviewed by Noah A. Waldman

Until very recently, most art historicalscholarship on Counter-Reformation

Rome focused on the achievements of indi-vidual architects, such as Bernini,Borromini and Vignola, rather than on in-dividual basilicas, popes, or the Council ofTrent. Of course, we live in the age of theindividual, so this focus is not surprising.But it is heart-warming and healthy to dis-cover some recent books which treatTridentine art and architecture from anecclesiological perspective, in which thegreat building projects and renovations atthe major basilicas are studied in light ofthe popes and the Council which inspiredthem.

Cambridge University Press has insti-tuted a series of books, “Monuments of Pa-pal Rome,” to study the significance of theTridentine reforms as embodied in art andarchitecture. A year ago, I reviewed one ofthese books in this series, The Lateran in1600, in which author Jack Freiberg focusedon the personality of Pope Clement VIIIand his brilliant vision in the Lateran tran-sept. Now another book, of equal qualityand significance by Steven Ostrow, can beadded to this collection of superb books.

Ostrow deals with the two great tran-sept chapels in the basilica of Saint MaryMajor in Rome. The first transept chapel

T H E E Y E S A N D M I N D O F T H E C H U R C H(called the Sistine Chapel,because it was built by thegreat builder pope, SixtusV during the years 1585 to1590), is a stunning piece ofarchitecture: a compactGreek cross and dome,with a counterpoint of tri-umphal arch motifs at vari-ous interlocking scales, allsurfaces treated with a richpolychrome marble, statu-ary and frescoes.

But the genius of thischapel is the manner inwhich the architecture inte-grates many diverse ele-ments together to form abuilt expression of thepope’s personal faith, andthe universal Catholic faith.

Pope Sixtus V, Ostrowpoints out, was aFranciscan with a specialdevotion to Eucharisticadoration and to the Nativ-ity, both devotions creditedto St. Francis’ invention. The Sistine Chapelconflates both devotions in a vertical juxta-position, placing the great tabernacle of theEucharist above the relic of the Holy Man-ger, while the relics of Saint Jerome, theHoly Innocents, and Popes Sixtus V andPius V look on. This arrangement is, in fact,an iconic statement of the most powerfulmoment in the Christmas liturgy, in whichthe Host, Christ Incarnate, is placed uponthe relic of the Holy Manger, at the handsof the Pope. The formal arrangement of thechapel speaks of many mysteries crucial tothe Church after the fallout of the Reforma-

tion (Euchar-ist, Incarna-tion, saints, relics, the Popeas the primary guardian ofChrist and the Faith), but itdoes so under the unifyingsentiment of the Christmasliturgy: that the ChildJesus, the Incarnation Him-self, is made present onceagain in the basilica dedi-cated to Our Lady; theHoly Child is held onceagain in the bosom of OurLady.

The second chapel,called Pauline because itwas built by Pope Paul Vbeginning in 1605, is dedi-cated to housing an ancientand miraculous icon of theVirgin with Child. Thischapel, built in a similarform as the Sistine Chapel,also has many simulta-neous ideas which it mustintegrate, and Ostrow

makes a convincing argument that the li-turgical significance of the chapel was toembody the Queenship of Mary and Herrole as Co-Redemptrix. Taken together,both chapels complement each other in for-mal composition and in their meanings:The Sistine chapel reflects Mary as Mother;the Pauline Chapel represents the Mary asQueen. And as Mary is queen because sheis mother, the two chapels taken togetherare an iconic augmentation of that singlegreat image over the apse of the nave —the Coronation of Our Lady as Queen ofHeaven.

Ostrow is to be commended for his in-sight into understanding the architecture ofpapal Rome, namely, that it is first andforemost an architecture of Faith — a Faithrepresented through liturgy, history, anddoctrine. Ostrow is not a formalist, nor anideologue, and he sees the art and architec-ture of the Church with the eyes and mindof the Church. The refreshing undercurrentof Ostrow’s book is what it reveals aboutthe Council of Trent. Despite the commonperception that Trent imposed constraintson artistic expression, Ostrow reveals thegreat freedom of expression which wasgiven to the architects and artists of thattime, so that they could present the Faith ina manner simultaneously old and new.Todays architects should know from expe-rience that dogmas and certainties aregood for the soul and good for the art, sincethey provide a framework for invention. Isit not the truth that sets one free?

�Noah Waldman is an architect practicing in Washing-ton, DC. P lan o f the Pau l ine Chape l (F.Ponz io -1611) in S . Mar ia Magg io re

Plan of the Sist ine Chapel (D. Fontana-1585) in S. Mar ia Maggiore


B O O K S

Churches of Romeby Pierre GrimalPhotos by Caroline RoseThe Vendome Press, New York177 pages, 108 photos, $65

Reviewed by John Stroik

Pope Sixtus V had a vision for Rome thathas affected our perception of civilized

city planning ever since. Of course, the ge-nius of the Pope was inspired and matchedby the creators of the great church build-ings existing at the time. History is a pro-found teacher, especially when one is ableto see, walk, hear and feel the physical re-mains of past years. Rome is a perfect em-bodiment of history preserved, destroyed,exploited, ignored and enjoyed ... a city sofull of life that one cannot help but revel inits “dolce vita”.

We cannot help but be uplifted by thegreat church buildings as we walk throughthe city, but, before these churches existed

S A C R E D T R E A S U R E S O F T H E E T E R N A L C I T Y

and before the earliest was built during the4th century A.D., the city’s Christian con-gregations met in make-do buildings androoms; some were ex-synagogues, otherswere ex-residences, others perhaps wereex-pagan temples. This changed dramati-cally after Constantine started the greatchurch building boom that lasted for morethan thirteen centuries, resulting in con-structing, remodeling and reconstructingover 200 churches. Completed just before hedied, Pierre Grimal, the eminent Latinistfrom the Sorbonne in Paris, selected overthirty representative churches to illustratehis concise treatise on Rome as the capitalof Christianity.

Grimal explains, in his introductoryremarks, his method of relating thechurch’s birth, development, heresies,schisms, Reformation, and Counter-Refor-mation as a collection of memories. Includ-ing the period starting with the great ba-silica buildings by Constantine in the 4thcentury A.D. up to the end of the 17th cen-

tury A.D. culminating in the great Counter-Reformation, the churches are made ourwitnesses and guides.

Although Constantine moved toConstantinople, thereby weakening therole of Rome as capitol of Christendom, theChurch was firmly established by the endof the 4th century A.D. Constantine, how-ever, started construction in Rome of ba-silica churches that have served to be mod-els for all future churches in one way or an-other. San Giovanni in Laterano, Saint Pe-ter in the Vatican, Santa Croce, and othersmaller churches were originally built byConstantine.

The dominance of the basilica churchin Rome is explained as a natural confluenceof functional need, secular models and ap-parent sacred appropriateness. The Churchwas the mystical image of the heavenlyabode, separate from terrestrial life. TheConstantinian basilica of St. Peter in theVatican, for example, adapted the secularbasilicas and was entered through a qua-

Santo Stefano Rotundo, built by Pope St. Simplicius (AD 468-83) inspired by Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem. (Photo CHURCHES of ROME-The Vendome Press)


B O O K S

drangular peristyle courtyard, but in thecenter of which was a large fountain deco-rated with peacocks, symbols of the Resur-rection. The basilica of Maxentius had asemicircular apse at the western end hous-ing a statue of the emperor whose majestywas thereby glorified. After Constantinedefeated Maxentius, this royal basilica,made sacred by pagan religious ceremony,equipped with an axial apse housing a sa-cred image, was transformed as a model tobecome the sacred repository for the divinemystery with the altar in front of the apsewhich housed the seat of the bishop. Overtime, the basilica plan evolved with a tran-sept added to the nave, configured into aLatin cross. Atrium, baptistry, baldachino/ciborium, triumphal arch, pergola, anddome were added over time, ... “as reli-gious phenomenon that translated a pre-cise ideology through the polarization andsacralization of a sacred place, became acomplex microcosm imbued with the di-vine spirit.”

Grimal proceeds to expound on the re-lation of the physical church buildings tochurch history, dogma and faith. Continu-ing with topics including: Meditation, the

Virgin, Transfiguration, Iconoclasts, theCupola, the Facade, the Centralized Plan,and the Church Triumphant, Grimal is ableto provide a profound, yet concise exposi-tion (total pages of text is 34).

With the aid of the exquisite photo-graphs, each topic essay connects historicChurch accomplishments to the conse-quent church building details. For ex-ample, the Counter-Reformation and theCouncil of Trent encouraged new churchesto receive large assemblies with great cen-tral naves, domes with open cupolas to ad-mit an unreal diffuse light; images on allavailable surfaces (the triumph of Jesus isoptimistically portrayed).“...In the Gesuthere is hardly room any more for fear andtrembling. The Church is triumphant. It isenough to follow its teaching to attain eter-nal glory.” The Church gave primacy topreaching and spreading doctrine resultingin new decorations and architecture thatbanished the “temptations of austerity”.This was the time of Pope Sixtus V whoconnected all the basilica churches andshrines with great boulevards thereby giv-ing material form to the victory of theChurch over the secular world. “The very

soil of city is sacred. Here divine power ismanifest. From the first days of its founda-tion, Rome had been attentive to the di-vine. It was ready to hear the message ofrevelation and to welcome it. Two of itsmajor virtues, piétas and fides, are trans-lated into stone in its buildings.”

Churches of Rome is a coffee table bookwith a difference. That difference is theartistry of both Pierre Grimal and CarolineRose. Although the book has no index, in-adequate bibliography, and poor or non-existent floor plans, it provides the experi-enced reader with a fulsome and satisfyingtime of civilized enjoyment. The photo-graphs are particularly outstanding in clar-ity, color and composition.

Originally published in Paris 1997 bythe Imprimerie Nationale, as Églises deRome, the English edition is also printed byImprimerie Nationale who can take creditfor the fine quality of reproduction.

�

John Stroik is the Managing Editor ofSACRED ARCHITECTURE and an architectpracticing in Reston, Virginia.

Columns of the Basilica of Santa Sabina (AD 425) and arcades decorated in imitation of imperial palaces. (Photo from CHURCHES OF ROME The Vendome Press)


The British architect, Quinlan Terry’s beautiful invocation of the old myth of the divine origin of theClassical orders, certainly expresses the most profound truth. The truth about dependence and

grounding of the classical tradition in the Absolute, in God. This grounding must of necessity be evenmore important in the case of Sacred architecture.

Without the permanence of God, the change becomes all-important. By rejecting the spiritual dimen-sion of reality, man submerged himself in materiality which is ruled by change. Change that in due coursebecame deified in the idea of Progress.

However, change is a divine creation. Our way of salvation depends on change, not least in ourselves.The quick survey of the history of Sacred architecture shows types in evolution, in change. After all, thenew St. Peter’s is different from the old.

But, not everything changes. The Classical Orders, for instance, do not change, and neither do beauti-ful proportions. These unchanging elements remind us of Eternity. That is what Mr. Terry’s story catchesin a nutshell. Orders with their elements and proportions are, we believe, reflection of the divine aestheticwill, not unlike the laws of ethics and logic. After all, the ultimate proportional reference is the humanbody, created in the image of God.

So, it is not the change itself that is antagonistic to Eternity and Permanence, it is rather the modernistaberration which decrees that since it is only change that matters, the architect’s prime duty is pursuit ofNovelty. The rest of us have to bear in mind that although we are submerged in change and we shape ourworld and destiny through it, we are not of it. To be a constant reminder of this fact is the sacred task of ar-chitecture.

C H A N G E A N D E T E R N I T Yby Piotr Choynowski

Drawings, by architect Quinlan Terry, of the derivation of Classical Orders from the Temple of Solomon.

Piotr Choynowski is an architect practicing in Oslo, Norway.

C O M M E N T A R Y


Coming in future issues of SACRED ARCHITECTURE

� The New Monastery of Le Barroux� Reconstruction of the First Roman Catholic

Church in English America� New Churches for the Millenium

� Environment and Art in Catholic Worship� Church Documents on Architecture� Long Island Diocese vs Preservationists� Le Corbusier and Couturier at LaTourette

� Church of the Year 2ooo in Rome� The Placement of the Tabernacle� Costs of New Church Buildings

� News, Book Reviews, Seminars, Tours, Letters, Issues of Interest

If you are interested in a cultural dialogue onthe architectural heritage of the Church

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P.O.Box 556Notre Dame, IN 46556

THE SEMINAR INCLUDES:�� Round-trip airfare to Rome on Alitalia from Chicago or New York�� Eleven nights in Rome at the ✩✩✩ Hotel Senato (double occupancy)�� Two nights in Florence at the ✩✩✩ Hotel Porta Rosa (double occupancy)�� All breakfasts and seven reserved special dinners and one banquet�� Guided tours and daily liturgies at historic Churches and Basilicas.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME SEMINAR ON

S A C R E D A R C H I T E C T U R E I N I TA LY : R O M E & F L O R E N C EJUNE 4 – 17, 1999

The School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame is pleased to present its secondannual seminar on the history of church architecture in Rome and Florence. The focus of theseminar is on the interplay of tradition and innovation in the history of sacred architecture.Consisting primarily of on-site lectures, slide lectures and tours, the seminar is designed forarchitects, pastors, artists and other professionals. Prof. Duncan Stroik, along with notedexperts on liturgy, architecture and architectural history, will lead the seminar. The cost is$3450 per person. Registration is due by January 31, 1999.