In another post, I praised the San Francisco Solemn Sung Mass for the Eucharistic Revival pilgrimage. I even praised the ultra-1970’s-modern San Francisco Cathedral, which I do like, except…
The San Francisco Cathedral’s sanctuary is a time capsule of 1970’s thinking, which is itself a going backwards to how basilicas in Europe, which once were pagan temples, were converted into Catholic houses of worship after Constantine allowed the Church to flourish and trappings of the royal courts were incorporated into the liturgies of both the west and east as a sign of the Kingdom of Heaven.
As you look at the San Francisco Cathedral, the bishop’s throne is on the highest level, eclipsing the altar and everything else on the floor-plan of this edifice.
Ancient basilicas had this sanctuary floor plan, the bishop’s throne at the highest level and the altar lower. It did not take too long for the Church of the East and West to see the folly of this and that local bishops should not be elevated over Christ as represented by the altar. Thus the altar was placed where the throne was and the throne placed on a lower level and to the left of the altar when viewing it from the nave.
Then in the 1970’s the Church went backwards prior to almost every Council of the Church and recovered putting the throne of the bishop, but also now, of the local priest, at the highest level of the building and behind the altar. How tragic was that especially as the Church was at the precipice of seeing just how unworthy so many Catholic clergy and laity were.
I hope that Archbishop Cordilione rips out that 1970’s throne, for it is ugly and ostentatious, places the altar, maybe a lovely new one, where the throne is and moves the throne to the lower level and to the side. That would be a great iconoclasm of 1970’s backwards thinking to the 3rd century.
2 comments:
I've gotta disagree with the history, Father. Relatively very few pagan temples were converted past maybe sites and stonework reused for new building, as pagan temple layouts were not compatible with Christian worship. There were so many assorted cults in Roman times which came and went that even the Roman army in pre-Christian times was recycling abandoned assorted temples.
Basilicas were Roman government admin sites in every Roman settlement, whose layout was much more amicable to Christian worship, and no few of those were converted to Christian use after the collapse of the Empire.
As for converting original basilicas to Church use, I wonder if the original Roman judgement seat was left in place and used by the local bishop. I HAD thought those were generally outdoors in a court-yard to keep the unruly rebellious local natives outside the fortress/basilica, as in Jerusalem, but an expert in original basilicas, I am not.
And, it seems the end of the apse was where the tribunal for the local magistrate was mostly located, throne/judgement seat and all, which later in classic church architecture was where the fancy altars were placed, and the nave for the worshippers.
So, it seems the high throne was OEM, and only later moved as people gave the layout and symbolism more thought.
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