What Catholics Lost When They Started Tearing Down Their Great Altars

[Wingnut]

Watched it happen and was sad.   They tore down beauty to put up a parking lot to bullshit alters and hippies with guitars to sing songs of more bullshit.   

--

 For most of the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year history, it has been known for its magnificent churches. In the popular psyche, the stereotypical Catholic church has high, arched ceilings, statues of saints, massive crucifixes, incense that seems to pour from the walls, and gilded, beautiful, and (sometimes) obnoxious altars.

There is perhaps no better example of this than St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Vatican itself, which fulfills every Catholic stereotype to the highest degree. If any building could embody the very essence of Catholicism, it would be the Vatican.

But those stereotypical churches are fading into the pre-Vatican II past and being replaced with churches that are, simply, bland. Statues of saints have been removed, the incense is gone, the ceilings and walls have a color palette comparable to Starbucks, and the Great Altars have been replaced with simple blocks of marble, or sometimes even wood. These losses may be aesthetic, but they reveal something deeper about the changes in the Catholic Church following the tumult and fallout of the Second Vatican Council.

Very long read.  It will bore you.  Don't bother if you are a fish eater hater...

http://thefederalist.com/2017/08/28/catholics-lost-started-tearing-great-altars/

[jmyrlefuller]

Contemporary Masses may be more accessible in a literal sense, but too often their priorities are in the wrong places. Why must every song sound like something from a low-budget Christian movie? And why must the altar and tabernacle be so plain?

To answer the question in all sincerity and seriousness:

As someone who comes from a Protestant background, it has been our perspective that the elaborate “beauty” of man is nothing compared to that of God. Jesus did not come to us from the Temple, the icon of Judaic beauty. He came from carpentry and nomadic ministry―a man of dirt. Gaudy displays of wealth and ostentatiousness are things Jesus specifically preached against. The Judaic leaders of his time were notorious for such things.

In short, our Lord Himself was plain.

The one thing a church, Catholic or otherwise, can do is to use light, warm colors and bright light to convey the light from Heaven in a simple manner. Establishing focal points can be achieved without massive, gaudy icons.

[Wingnut]

To answer the question in all sincerity and seriousness:

As someone who comes from a Protestant background, it has been our perspective that the elaborate “beauty” of man is nothing compared to that of God. Jesus did not come to us from the Temple, the icon of Judaic beauty. He came from carpentry and nomadic ministry―a man of dirt. Gaudy displays of wealth and ostentatiousness are things Jesus specifically preached against. The Judaic leaders of his time were notorious for such things.

In short, our Lord Himself was plain.

The one thing a church, Catholic or otherwise, can do is to use light, warm colors and bright light to convey the light from Heaven in a simple manner. Establishing focal points can be achieved without massive, gaudy icons.

WTF are you going on about?  We are talking about beautiful wood work. Craftsmanship. Art.  They tore it out and put up mortuary slabs as alters.   

[Smokin Joe]

WTF are you going on about?  We are talking about beautiful wood work. Craftsmanship. Art.  They tore it out and put up mortuary slabs as alters.   

Yep. The grand altars reflected an offering to the majesty of the divine, they did not supplant that majesty. The best craftsmanship man could offer was in turn offered as that which we had most suitable in worship of The Almighty and Our Saviour.

If you want to admire Our Creator's handiworks, there are places enough from the broad prairies to the mountaintops to seashores, but when men built a house for God, they put together the best they could muster, reflective of their devotion to the Risen Christ, a King for all the ages, often in locations chosen for their beauty as well.

Only the best for Almighty God. 

Yes, Jesus spent His time from the waterfront to the Temple, generally among the plain folk, but that belied His Godhood at the same time it emphasized His message: that Salvation had come for all who invoked Him and followed His way, also the way of His Father. Risen, He claimed that throne in Glory, and gave us all access in His name.

You can worship in Notre Dame or a tin shack, but why tear down the Cathedral to build the latter? Which pays fitting homage to The Almighty? Works inspired by His majesty or rough hewn planks? These works of art were crafted out of devotion, a reminder that The Almighty deserves our very best in our service to Him, no matter what we do.

[Wingnut]

Jesus was the son of a Carpenter.

[roamer_1]

I am not much for Catholic cathedrals, or high order protestant churches.
I think they are gaudy and that they stink.
Protestant churches, chapels, and synagogues, far less so, but same thing.

The beautiful altar is within the threshhold of the heart, and is the only one that matters. No works of man can even compare.
All the rest is pomp and misplaced reverence.

But I do recognize that at one time, the highest edifice in town was a steeple, and that had a lot to say about where men's hearts were, misplaced or not.