CATHOLIC POSITION PAPERS
No. 235 - January 1995
What happened to the glory? - Henry Hardinge Menzies
Scepter Publishers, Inc., Princeton, N.J.
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Commentary
Divine Truth, in itself one and simple but complex in terms of man's
limited knowledge, is presented to all the people of God by the
Magisterium of the Church in the name and authority of Jesus Christ.
Faced with this revelation, man can only submit with faith. "Obedience
of faith must be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man
entrusts his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of
intellect and will to God who reveals, and freely assenting to the
truth revealed by Him. If this faith is to be shown, the grace of God
and the interior help of the Holy Spirit must precede and assist, moving
the heart and turning it to God, opening the eyes of the mind and giving
joy and ease to everyone in assenting to the truth and believing it."1
In his October 11, 1992 address <Fidei Depositum>, in which he
presented the Catechism of the Catholic Church, John Paul II notes that
after its conclusion the Council did not cease to inspire the Church's
life. He states that in 1985 he was able to assert: "For me, then - who
had the special grace of participating in it and actively collaborating
in its development Vatican II has always been, and especially during
these years of my Pontificate, the constant reference point of my every
pastoral action, in the conscious commitment to implement its directives
concretely and faithfully at the level of each church and the whole
Church."2
In the same address the Holy Father concludes: "I beseech the
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word and Mother of the
Church, to support with her powerful intercession the catechetical work
of the entire Church on every level, at this time when she is called to
a new level of evangelization. May the light of the true faith free
humanity from ignorance and slavery to sin in order to lead it to the
only freedom worthy of the name (cf. Jn 8:32): that of life in Jesus
Christ under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, here below and in the
kingdom of heaven, in the fullness of the blessed vision of God face to
face (cf. 1 Cor 13:12; 2 Cor 5:6-8)!"
In every age people have been tempted to accommodate the Faith to
their own particular desires, an error which the Holy Father has
denounced repeatedly. "In an attempt to adapt religious concepts to the
mentality of the modern world, the guidance of the Church Magisterium is
ignored, theological speculation is given a radically historicist
direction, the testimony of Sacred Scripture is audaciously stripped of
its historic and sacred character, and attempts are made at introducing
a so-called post-council mentality among the people of God.... What
would remain of the content of our Faith and of the theological
virtues... if these attempts, absolutely condemned by the
ecclesiastical Magisterium, were to prevail?"3
It is in this context that these Catholic Position Papers,
originated in 1972 by the Seido Foundation in Japan, are being continued
under the auspices of Scepter Publishers. These considerations are not
intended as an exhaustive treatise on the truths of Faith, but rather as
a presentation of certain timely aspects of Catholic thought and
doctrine. Familiarity with these truths will enable the Christian to
understand, explain and demonstrate with conviction and without error
what a true Christian outlook on life entails.
All people harbor in their hearts a longing for eternal life. They
look to Christians they encounter for a clear message of our Faith as
well as the example of that Faith lived in the course of our daily life
and work. We as Catholics should want all people to know and believe
what God has revealed, so that acting in accordance with it they may be
saved.
_________
1. Vatican Council II, <Dei Verbum>
2. John Paul II, Address of January 25, 1985: in <L'Osservatore
Romanum>, Jan. 25, 1985
3. Paul VI, Apostolic Address, <Petrum et Paulum>, February 22, 1967.
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WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GLORY?
by Henry Hardinge Menzies
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Liturgical architecture and the sacred arts can mightily reinforce
the sense of God's presence with the beauty of their design.
__________________________________________________________________
I. The Trashing of the Sacred
Years ago when I was being interviewed for an architectural job to do
a seminary and a chapel for a religious order, I met with a bishop of
that order. In the course of the conversation,I asked him what he
expected from me in the design of the chapel. After a few moments, he
said, "Make us pray!" I have often thought of those words, and have
realized that indeed architecture, as well as the other arts, does
indeed have a tremendous impact on us...particularly on how we pray.
Good art can help us to pray and bad art can can turn us away from
praying.
Of course the purpose of Church architecture has always been to make
us pray. The Church building has always been considered a sacred place
where the People of God go to worship him through participation in the
Holy Mass, to confess their sins, to pray before the tabernacle, to
attend Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, to be baptized, to get
married and to die...the most intimate acts which any person performs in
life.
The Church was the kind of place that aroused the kind of devotion
expressed by a Protestant years ago. He was making a his first visit to
a Catholic church with a Catholic friend. After entering the front door
and looking around, the Protestant expressed admiration for the beauty
and warmth of the Church. He noticed that up at the far end there was a
"table" which appeared to be placed in a position of importance. Over
the table was a crucifix...and on the table was a gold box...with
candles on each side...it appeared to be the focal point of the
decoration. He turned to his Catholic friend and asked, "And what is in
that box down there on that table?" And the Catholic answered, "That is
called a tabernacle and we believe that Jesus Christ himself is really
present in that box." Stunned silence followed. Then the Protestant
said, "If I believed that, I would go down that aisle on my knees!"
The Church was a sanctuary. In every Sunday bulletin of the First
Presbyterian Church in a southern city where I grew up, there was this
quotation: "I came here to find God because it is so easy to loose Him
in a busy world." I don't know how the Presbyterians are faring these
days, but I do know that today in many churches things have changed.
There are many Catholics who come to church looking for God and are
disappointed and dismayed because he doesn't seem to be there anymore.
They find themselves entering into what appears to be a department
store, a school auditorium or a hotel lobby or a combination of all
three. They have difficulty in finding where the Blessed Sacrament is
located. They are bewildered by the loud talking immediately after Mass;
they are put off by parishioners attired in jogging suits and tennis
shoes; they are disappointed with bare walls and lack of any
recognizable liturgical art or candles. They find no quiet, devotional
spot in which to kneel and pray. They find the atmosphere similar to the
secular spaces of their everyday life, devoid of any sense of devotion
or sanctuary. They wonder what happened to that sacred place they used
to know, and they ask, "What happened to the glory?"
It is no wonder that devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and
confessions are way down, since the tabernacle is hidden away somewhere,
and the rooms of reconciliation are completely out of sight. Why
shouldn't people chatter away after Mass, appear in jogging outfits, or
seldom dream of kneeling in prayer, if they don't feel as if they are in
a sacred space but in a school auditorium? Blank walls, abstract art,
banners and chairs are poor objects for devotion.
There are possibly two reasons for this great loss of the sense of
the sacred. The first is that the designers, in their zeal for change,
have so twisted the established norms that they have created only
secular art while eliminating the sacred. At the same time, they have
used "Vatican II" as a warrant for taking these liberties. Secondly,
they have done this by utilizing bad art to the point of producing works
which, in the words of one Vatican II document, "are repugnant to faith,
morals, and Christian piety, and which offend genuine religious feeling
either by depraved forms or by lack of artistic work, mediocrity and
pretense."1
Many Catholics wonder if this loss of the sacred is what the "Post
Vatican II Church" intends? desires? mandates? Fortunately the answer is
NO. Initially many reforms to the sacred liturgy were set in motion by
several Vatican II documents. A few of these were:
(1) Pulling the main altar away from the back wall and placing
it closer to the congregation in order that the people could see and
participate more fully by "gathering around" the altar,2
(2) seats for the celebrant and ministers were to be provided,3
(3) the Blessed Sacrament was to be reserved either on the altar or
in a side chapel or other suitable place4 and
(4) the number of sacred images was to be moderated.5
These liturgical reforms began to be reflected, quite naturally, in
the design of new church buildings and in the renovation of existing
churches. Altars facing the people sprang up as the "wedding cake"
marble ones disappeared; altar rails vanished; tabernacles traveled to
side niches, columns, walls, and tons of decorations vanished; pews
circled new altars; handsome pulpits were abandoned or eliminated;
confessionals disappeared or were relocated; and baptisteries and
sacristies switched places.
Many of these liturgical reforms have produced good results in their
architectural solutions. Unfortunately, however, many of them exceeded
the established norms to the point where the sacred dimension was
eliminated altogether. This trend was basically a reflection of the
"secularization" and "desacralization" underway in those days. For
instance:
(1) The highly desirable idea of placing the main altar in a more
central location became an excuse to turn the church into a mere
auditorium or public meeting room.
(2) Seats for the celebrant and ministers were not always
satisfactorily arranged...sometimes the "president's chair" looked more
like a throne, even though this was specifically prohibited by these
norms.3
(3) The re-location of the tabernacle from the "old" back altar to
some other, undistinguished place without nobility or decoration has had
a disastrous effect of an increasing disregard for the Sacrament
itself, although this was certainly not the intention.4
(4) The moderation and the relative positions of sacred images has
resulted in eliminating most if not all sacred art leaving blank walls,
though the norms5 indicated that at least some should be maintained.
Some proponents of these changes used "Vatican II" as a warrant for
these excesses. However, nowhere do Vatican II documents mandate any
change of purpose much less desacralization. Quite the contrary, they
speak of "turning men's minds devoutly toward God."6 By 1970 it became
necessary for Pope Paul VI to warn that, "Liturgical reform is not at
all synonymous with so-called desacralization, and is not intended as an
occasion for what is called secularization. Thus the liturgy must keep a
dignified and sacred character."7 Still the trend continued until seven
years later the same Pope stated, "The course of these recent years
shows that we were on the right path (with liturgical reforms). But
unfortunately, in spite of the vast preponderance of the healthy and
good forces of the clergy and the faithful, abuses have been committed
and liberties have been taken in applying liturgical reform."..."As for
those who, in the name of a misunderstood creative freedom, have caused
so much damage to the church with their improvisations, banalities and
frivolities, and even certain deplorable profanations, we strongly call
upon them to keep to the established norm; if the norm is not respected,
grave damage could be done to the very essence of dogma."8
II. Retrieving the Sacred
How can we retrieve the sense of the sacred in sacred art? We are not
speaking here of the liturgy per se. This is a subject beyond the scope
of this article. We are speaking of the architectural and artistic
expressions of the liturgy in our churches.
We can and should follow the advice of Pope Paul VI in keeping to the
established norms which aim at "turning men's minds devoutly toward God"
by instilling a "dignified and sacred character" in the design. One way
to accomplish this is to start insisting on "good art," that is,
excellence in design. There is no substitute for excellence. We should
return to the idea that Our Lord deserves the best we have. Not that
excellence alone will bring back the sacred, but if we challenge the
artists to acquire a deep understanding of the liturgy and imbue them
with the idea that essentially sacred art is meant to give God glory by
fostering real piety in the faithful,9 then much progress can be made.
Excellence means having faith in the arts and artists of our own day.
Many people have the romantic notion that if we could just retreat to
the old days, we will somehow recapture the sacred. They want to copy
the old, "safe" styles, whether Gothic or Classic or Romanesque. But
this position ignores the discoveries and needs of this contemporary age
to which the Church must always speak. It is the ghetto mentality of
retreat. If this had been the mentality of the Abbot Suger in Paris, he
would never have had the creative courage to "invent" pointed arches,
usually supposed to mark the breaking point from the Romanesque to the
Gothic...and the Church of that time would never have approved them even
if he had!
The fact is that the Catholic Church had always been the mother and
patron of the "contemporary" art of every age in its history.10 Every
"style" was "contemporary" in its own time. If this had not been the
case, there would have been no creativity at any time; and all Catholic
churches today would be at best Roman basilicas or at worst, caves.
Today's artists are capable
Contemporary designers are just as capable of bringing forth the
sacred as the designers of the past. We should not make the mistake of
thinking that "contemporary" means only "Bauhaus," the glass-box
architecture parodied by Tom Wolfe. It is a much richer and varied
affair than that. In this age of "postmodern" architecture, there is a
well-founded freedom of creativity, utilizing many new technical
innovations. Certainly today the design field has gained a great deal of
experience which does speak to our times. We should, of course, preserve
the best of the past, especially objects of sacred art, and use them,
if sparingly. The Church has always had constant care for great art.11
Just witness the wonders of the Vatican Museum alone. An historical
church such as ours certainly believes in guarding the arts of its
history!
Excellence is the key
But the key is excellence in design, whether contemporary or of any
ancient "style." There are Gothic churches poorly designed and some
"contemporary" ones that are well designed, and vice versa. There are
criteria of good design, no matter what the style. If these criteria are
not followed, we get the "depraved forms, lack of artistic worth,
mediocrity and pretense" which the Vatican II Constitution warned
against.
Perhaps one reason why so many have been turned off by the "modern"
is because they have only seen mediocre or bad examples. There are so
few good examples because the top architects, artists and craftsmen have
been largely ignored and have not been invited to work in the liturgical
field. The competent liturgical craftsmen have either died or gone into
some other business.
When we do study the past, we are amazed at the geniuses the Church
employed to build and adorn the churches with magnificent paintings,
murals, sculptures, tapestries, stained glass windows and mosaics. But
where do you find a Michelangelo today? Since there are so few examples
of good work in the U.S., many still look to Europe for good art. But
after 200 years of existence, why do many Americans persist in believing
that only European art is good? The point is that this country does
possess many talented architects and artists who are capable of doing
excellent work, but they are not given the chance. And if they are given
that rare opportunity, they are expected to do their work practically
"gratis." Today they are employed to produce their best for office
buildings, museums, bathrooms with saunas, mansions, banks and Disney
Worlds...and our churches are left with barren walls and mediocrity.
Ultimately this demand for excellence, and the generosity to pay for
it, must come from the faithful themselves. When we, the faithful,
acquire a really deep, practical faith, then we will generously put our
money where our heart is.
And finally, what did Vatican II say about all of this anyway? "Very
rightly the fine arts are considered to rank among the noblest
activities of man's genius, and this applies especially to religious art
and to its highest achievement, which is sacred art. These arts, by their
very nature, are oriented toward the infinite beauty of God, which they
attempt in some way to portray by the work of human hands; they achieve
their purpose of resounding to God's praise and glory in proportion as
they are directed the more exclusively to the single aim of turning
men's minds devoutly toward God."12
If we are daring enough to push ahead in demanding excellence at the
source of the design process, we can can go a long way to salvage the
sacred. We can recapture the glory of the church as a place of
sacrifice, presence and beauty. Liturgical architecture and the sacred
arts can mightily reinforce the sense of God's presence with the beauty
of their design. And when we do sense his glory in his church, we'll
come closer to him, and we'll want to fall on our knees...and pray.
Notes
1. <Sacrosanctum Concilium> (Constitution on Sacred Liturgy) Vatican
II. Dec. 4, 1963. Chapter VII.124.
2. <Inter Oecumenici> (Instruction of the Sacred Congregation of
Rites on Putting into Effect the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy)
Sept. 26, 1964. Chapter V. I. 90. "In building new churches and in
repairing or adapting old ones great care must be taken to ensure that
they lend themselves to the celebration of divine services as these are
meant to be celebrated, and to achieve the active participation of the
faithful." 91. "It is better for the high altar to be constructed away
from the wall so that one can move around it without difficulty, and so
that it can be used for a celebration facing the people. It ought to
occupy a central position in the sacred edifice, thus becoming naturally
the focal point of attention for the whole congregation."..."The
sanctuary must be large enough to allow plenty of room for the
ceremonies."
3. <Ibid.> Chapter V. I. 92. "Taking into account the general shape
of each individual church the seats for the celebrants and for the
ministers are to be so placed as to be easily seen by the congregation.
The celebrant when seated should appear as truly presiding over the
whole gathering. At the same time, if the seat for the celebrant is
behind the altar all appearance of a throne must be avoided, since that
belongs only to the bishop."
4. <Ibid.> VI. 95: "The Blessed Sacrament is to be reserved in a
solid, burglar-proof tabernacle in the center of the high altar or of
another altar if this is really outstanding and distinguished. Where
there is a lawful custom, and in particular cases to be approved by the
local Ordinary, the Blessed Sacrament may be reserved in some other
place in the church; but it must be a very special place, having
nobility about it, and it must be suitably decorated."
5. <Sacrosanctum Concilium>, Chapter VII. 125. "The practice of
placing sacred images in churches so that they may be venerated by the
faithful is to be maintained. Nevertheless their number should be
moderate and their relative positions should reflect right order."
6. <Ibid.> 122.
7. <Liturgicae Instaurationes> (Instruction of the Sacred
Congregation for Divine Worship on Correct Implementation of the
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy), September 5, 1970, 1659.
8. Address of Pope Paul VI to the Secret Consistory on the Present
State of the Church, June 27, 1977. 1945 & 1946.
9. <Sacrosanctum Concilium> Chapter VII. 125. "all artists who,
prompted by their talents, desire to serve God's glory in Holy Church,
should ever bear in mind that they are engaged in a kind of sacred
imitation of God the Creator, and are concerned with works destined to
be used in Catholic worship, to edify the faithful, and to foster their
piety and their religious formation."
10. <Ibid.> 123. "The Church has not adopted any particular style of
art as her very own; she had admitted styles from every period according
to the natural characteristics and circumstances of peoples, and the
needs of the various rites."
11. <Ibid.> 123. "Thus, in the course of the centuries, she has
brought into being a treasury of art which must be very carefully
preserved. The art of our own days, coming from every race and region,
shall also be given free scope in the Church, providing that it serves
the sacred buildings and holy rites with due reverence and honor;
thereby it is enabled to contribute its own voice to that wonderful
chorus of praise in honor of the Catholic faith sung by great men in
times gone by."
12. <Ibid.> 122.
<Henry Hardinge Menzies, AIA, a registered architect, is a
graduate of the University of North Carolina and the School of
Design at North Carolina State. He was a Naval officer for four
years during the Korean War. Born a Presbyterian, he converted to
the Catholic Faith in 1955. He has practiced architecture with
extensive experience in liturgical design in Boston, New York
City and New Rochelle since 1964. He is a member of the American
Institute of Architects, holds an NCARB certificate, and is a
biographee in _Who's Who in the East_.>
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