Rome's Jubilee Church for the Third MillenniumAt a time when contemporary culture and the Church can often seem far apart, the Pope has suggested that art can serve "as a kind of bridge to religious experience." After several trips to Rome's Jubilee Church, Breda Ennis concludes that Richard Meier's modernist experiment falls woefully short. more...
Ave Maria's Hothouse in Hurricane AlleyAve Maria Univeristy recently unveiled plans for a campus oratory. The huge chapel's retro style of the 1960s is but another example of the persistent disregard for history that has characterized most church architecture of the past half-century: in other words, it's an outdated "novelty." more...
LA's New Cathedral Can't Get Out of the BoxIt has been applauded as a "landmark of remarkable architectural intelligence." But most critics are evaluating the new Los Angeles cathedral according to the canons of modernist architecture - i.e., what the building says about itself. But how does it measure up as a Catholic cathedral? more...
A Giant Retractable Clamshell for Oakland Did you hear the one about the giant clam in Oakland? I refer to the newest cathedral proposed for the San Francisco Bay area: It looks not like a church, bien sur, but like a giant clam, or perhaps a ribcage or the jaws of whale that open and close. That's right: It's also designed to be the first cathedral with a retractable roof. more...
Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle UniversityA primary canon of orthodox Modernism intends to repudiate history. In order to pursue a negation of truth, the modus operandi of Modernism depends on an aesthetic of representational sterility and tectonic reductionism. Evaluated as a work of orthodox Modernism, Stephen Holl's St. Ignatius Chapel is a rip-roaring success. more...
San Juan CapistranoBuilt to replace the original mission parish church that was destroyed by earthquake in 1812, this faithfully Spanish Colonial church is an eloquent opus sacrum, one among a growing number of works that presage the rebirth of Classicism, in all its manifestations of form and style, in the architecture of the Roman Catholic Church. more...
Gem of the Archdiocese of BostonSt. Catherine of Genoa Church in Somerville, Massachusetts — designed by architects Maginnis, Walsh and Sullivan over the period 1907-1920 — represents a collaboration between two men who shared spirituality and piety, one bringing resources to the project, the other providing design talent of uncommon quality. more...
