Good and Bad Catholic Church Architecture

When I became Catholic, I was astonished how over 1700 years of tradition as to Catholic Church architecture went out the window. It seems though that we are all suppose to think that this is all grand and really is helping us somehow. However there are reason that people don't build office buildings and homes in a style that was the craze in the 1970's. Mainly because well it sucks. It is incredible to think that people built these things and thought "this looks great!!" However that is an example of not going with the current craze and taking a big breath before you build something.

I love the people at my first parish in Ruston Louisiana. It was a Church that was very connected to the Campus of Louisiana Tech. However let me say the Church architecture and the inside of the Church was to say the least blah. This was brought home to me by a English professor that recounted his first visit to the Church. They had just moved and wanted to find the Catholic Church. He got directions and went inside the place that he was told was the Catholic Church. He came back out to his car and told his wife this was the wrong place and that this was the Funeral Home!!!!

Sadly, his experience can be duplicated thousands of times. Some Catholic Churches do look like funeral homes or worse. If your Parish is going to build a new Church I plead with you to pray, bribe, and force your way on the building committee.

Go to the older downtown Catholic Churches. You will not see a bunch of the haves and the very rich. Often you will see the working poor and those that come to be uplifted and want to have a time in truly sacred space. Church Architecture and the Liturgy does that. It also tells us about our theology.

Anyway Unam Sanctam blog has this great post comparing the good and the bad located here. Now some of those beautiful Churches cannot be duplicated of course in many small towns. For instance Ville Platte Louisiana However I have seen beautiful simple Catholic Churches that do quite well.