September 7, 2002
Excerpt from New York Times

A Critic Takes the Catholic Church to Task for Its Architecture
By FRED BERNSTEIN

[website editor: applies to Episcopal and other Churches as well.]

In the second half of the 20th century, as large numbers of American Catholics moved from cities to suburbs, urban churches, some filled with irreplaceable artifacts, were closed. The new churches that sprang up near freeway exits looked, to some critics, as much like pancake houses as like houses of worship.

The resulting controversy has pitted Catholic against Catholic.

Now, in a withering book, "Ugly as Sin" (subtitled "Why They Changed Our Churches From Sacred Places to Meeting Spaces — and How We Can Change Them Back Again"), Michael S. Rose argues that religious devotion among American Catholics has declined as a direct result of the new church architecture.

To support his thesis, Mr. Rose — who has degrees in both art and architecture — describes the experience of a tradition-minded Roman Catholic at a modern church. This pilgrim, Mr. Rose writes, cannot find the front door (which may look no different from the back door), and when he does, he is likely to wind up in a lobby that gives no clue to the purpose of the building. In the worship space, the baptismal font resembles a hot tub, the tabernacle resembles a bird feeder and, worst of all to Mr. Rose, there is no crucifix.

The visitor "is neither awed nor humbled," said Mr. Rose, who maintains that both attendance at Mass and fervor among those who do attend have been affected. Even more telling, he contends, is that modern churches are hardly ever used for prayer except at Mass time — unlike the traditional Catholic church, which, he says, is for religious Catholics "a home away from home."

Mr. Rose worships at Old St. Mary's, a 100-year-old church in Cincinnati. From his experiences there and at Europe's great cathedrals, he has derived three principles of church design.

First, he argues, Catholic churches must be vertical, their exteriors serving as beacons, their interiors "reaching toward the heavenly Jerusalem." Second, they must seem permanent, in both materials and style — solidly constructed "perpetual reminders of Christ's presence." Third, Catholic churches must display iconography, which he defines as "representations that point beyond themselves to religious truths."

Mr. Rose says he does not hate all modern architecture. Even concrete buildings, he said in an interview, can be transcendental, if they follow his three rules.

He is (also) dismissive of a new cathedral in Los Angeles, designed by the Spanish architect Raphael Moneo, which he describes as "by objective standards an ugly building." Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who shepherded the Los Angeles project, has praised the design for its ability to accommodate celebratory Masses, and the building has received rave reviews.

Mr. Rose says a modern cathedral in downtown Oakland, Calif., designed by Santiago Calatrava, who is also Spanish, looks like "a giant clamshell." Brother Mel Anderson, who was part of a team that chose the architect, wrote in an e-mail message, "Though we all admire the Gothic and Romanesque cathedrals of Europe, we wanted something new for a new century."

But Mr. Rose, whose book was published by the conservative Sophia Institute Press, says that even an impressive church building is inappropriate if it "repudiates history" and "does not grow organically out of the past two millennia of churches."

In his view, American bishops, emboldened by the Second Vatican Council in 1962-65, began "moving toward a secularization of the church." Acting through "liturgical design consultants," they encouraged churches to dispose of crucifixes and other religiously significant objects.

Some Catholic churches are now buying back the religious art they gave away, which, Mr. Rose says ruefully, can sometimes be found on eBay or at usedchurchitems.com. As for the new, modern church buildings, Mr. Rose says he wishes their parishes would turn them into social halls or gymnasiums, "which is what they resemble anyway."