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Fearful of our Architectural Patrimony By Thomas Gordon Smith |
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A document on church architecture drafted by U.S. bishops proves unwilling to learn from history.
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The draft document of Domus Dei was presented to the Catholic Bishops of the United States at their November 1999 meeting. It is intended to be a properly sanctioned replacement for Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, a 1978 tract that is generally acknowledged to be outdated in its promotion of bland Modernist structures and iconoclastic liturgical settings. The current draft of the more aptly titled Domus Dei is an improvement on its predecessor. However, the draft document falls short of its purpose. This is particularly clear in view of the growing body of architects who prefer to speak the Church’s timeless Latin in contemporary ecclesiastical buildings, rather than the trendy vernacular of Modernism.
Domus Dei recognizes that many architectural forms have been developed over the past two thousand years. It hints that this...
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