This is a magnificent church in Innsbruck, Austria. It is inspirational looking, draws people in and despite the large, imposing space, it is inviting and captures the religious imagination with the awesome reverence that is presented:
But look at this fiasco placed in front of the traditional altar and then look at the traditional altar. There is nothing inspirational about it. It is cold and uninspiring compared to what is behind it and surrounds it. It is this type of thing repeated over and over in the 1960’s and 70’s and throughout the Catholic world that has driven people away from Mass—blah, unimportant, nothing to write home about—and I am not just speaking about the awful “communist” sterility of the look, but the liturgy that is celebrated on this monstrosity.
Talk about creating ambivalence in Catholics who prior to this mess would have been inspired by the architecture of this Church and the liturgy celebrated in it prior to it wreckovation.
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These sorts of changes seem to be symbols or actions commenting on the state of the Church in the spiritual lives on the parish. Is it an act of atonement? Is it a statement of the dryness of the spiritual relationship the people have with Christ? It reminds me of a tattoo on on an otherwise beautiful person; self mutilation as a cri de cœur for an ineffable inner anguish.
The new altar symbolizes perfectly a Church that has lost the Faith
Father McDonald,
Over at Rorate Caeli there is a letter from Father Cipolla to Bishop Barron. It is a magnum opus. Here is just a taste of it:
Yes, Evangelization is the central issue. But as Pope Benedict XVI knew, you cannot evangelize the world with a Novus Ordo Mass whose roots and rationale are locked in the 1960s. That is why he issued the Motu Proprio that un-cancelled the Traditional Roman Mass. It is indeed ironic that you who understand so well the role of beauty in the Christian faith, you who understand that one of the names of God is Beauty, refuse to acknowledge that the very heart of the Church’s liturgical life has been emptied out by the disastrous reforms after the Council that had little to do with Sacrosanctum Concilium and everything to do with those with itching ears and a puffed up sense of their own intelligence and afflicted with the mid-century hatred of the past combined with a grossly sentimental understanding of the Christian faith --–they had never heard that Newman called sentimentality the acid of religion—-nearly destroyed the organic whole of the Liturgy of the Catholic Church.
Stonehenge for druids. And a MODERN interpretation of Stonehenge. How THILLING. What a STATEMENT.
That battleship grey altar reminds me of communism. I don’t know why, but that’s an honest first impression. I think the reason might be because it is cold and sterile, and also because it is something being forced on me.
Waste of time, money, uninspiring, low church, horizontal.....
As per usual, the chair/bench marathon lined up behind the liturgical workbench. This look is so boring, non-organic, disrespectful to the structure as it was conceived and built. Hopefully, they help this reach its full potential by marching the plus-sign processional cross with no corpus down the aisle and the clerics who bother to vest are wearing that coarse burlap material with the oversized floppy collar. The only thing missing are the three candles on one end of the altar and the contemporary flower arrangement on the other. Gather us in!
The kicker is there's a perfectly good, viable altar looking down at this mismatched inferiority screaming out "Use Me"! Ultimately, it won't matter when this becomes a night club.
Father, you should like this one. Dr. Larry Chapp (DeSales Univ. Theology/ret., owner Dorothy Day Worker's Farm) would say the altar was erected by dung beetles. And what a soft hearted essay this is.
https://gaudiumetspes22.com/2021/03/10/the-numbing-down-of-the-church-part-one-the-dung-beetles/
Interesting comment about Stonehenge. Some Welsh nationalists want the monument removed from Wiltshire and re-erected in Wales, because apparently some of the stones originated there.
Not that it has anything to do with the druids - that Celtic cult came much later. Like many other world-renowned monuments, such as the pyramids, Stonehenge is disappointing when seen close-up. However, you get a good view of it from the upper-floor classrooms of the nearby Royal School of Artillery at Larkhill.
Thank you for the druid name correction, Mr Nolan...perhaps I should have said Stonehenge for reinacting of ancient and very bloody sacrifices.
It would be fine with me if it were moved and put back into the quarries from which it came, but I somehow doubt the current complainers mean to be THAT precise on the return. I should think they will need prove theft to have any chance of that, which seems not to be the case as original builders simply migrated and packed along their monument.
I thought Stonehenge looked pretty interesting. I got to hear the story about some of the stones being from Wales, some even claimed Ireland (I’m skeptical a curragh (?) could make it with one of those stones). Likewise I had the pleasure to first see the Pyramids from overhead about 30,000 ft. I was impressed with how dark they are compared to the surrounding terrain. Both ancient site looked in place, unlike the Austrian altar.
The pyramids would have gleamed when new, sheathed all in white stone, limestone, as I recall. That was a long time ago, and I was only a tike at the time. Best check with Father if you want a more reliable adult eye witness.
If I'm not mistaken both Fr. Karl Rahner and Fr. Josef Jungmann are buried in the crypt of that church. Can anyone confirm this?
An American tourist, on seeing Stonehenge, is supposed to have asked if the builders had forgotten to put the roof on. Of course the American tourist is the butt of countless jokes. The Yeoman Warders of the Tower of London recount one asking why it was built so close to an Underground station. This is probably apocryphal, but I have personally witnessed an American woman boarding a London bus bound for Oxford Circus and asking the conductress if it went to Oxford. The latter, a West Indian lady, misheard and answered in the affirmative.
I was once asked for directions to Durham Cathedral by an American tourist standing on Palace Green only fifty yards from that monumental edifice, and, believe it or not, I encountered a middle-aged American couple in the Strand who confused the Law Courts with St Paul's Cathedral.
In defense of that tourist, wasn’t Stonehenge originally covered with a wooden structure? Perhaps the tourist was a descendent of colonists.
Yes, this is the burial place of Rahner.
Jesuitenkirche, Innsbruck, Innsbruck Stadt, Tyrol (Tirol), Austria
Jungmann, also a Jesuit, is probably there, but I can't find a reference.
Mr. Nolan, you must take into account that American tourists come from a land where for 60yrs now we have been building churches which appear to be prisons. Can you blame them for their confusion? Not helping matters at all, an American tourist can mistake a cathedral for a miniature golf course, and end up being correct.
The altar and furnishings:
Bauhaus meets Ikea
Romulus Augustus here, Austrians and Germans they both destroyed their churches in more ways that one, Gothic, Baroque and Rococo, so so sad and now they are mostly empty or tourist spots, however MOSQUES are all over Germany and Austria! Heck ISLAM itself it all over Europe.
Here is a video of an ordination Mass that took place in this church last October:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZqIzB6cYas&t=196s
Though I'd prefer that it were ad orientem with communion kneeling, the music is gorgeous and the ars celebrandi is good as well. I would have to grudgingly admit that it is a reverant Mass.
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