Mount Tabor in Motor CityArchitect Gunnar Birkerts teamed up with the Archdiocese of Detroit to effect the renovation of Blessed Sacrament Cathedral. In doing so he embraced "passing tastes" and "strange or unbecoming expressions," pitting complementary concepts against one another in the transformation. Architect William Heyer provides a critique. more...
The Renovation of the Milwaukee CathedralThe cathedral’s new liturgical design seems to repeat what so many renovations have done in the recent past. There is a subtle attempt to turn the long nave floor plan sideways, with parts of the liturgy occurring here and there. This direction, says Fr. William Turner, could disintegrate liturgy into acts of showmanship and entertainment. more...
Renovating or Ruining the Cathedrals?Curiously, cathedral rectors across the country seem to be discovering en masse that their bishops' churches are in need of some urgent repair--a leaky roof, an eroding foundation, an outdated mechanical system, and so forth. In each case these "urgent" practical repairs have led to a full-scale liturgical remodeling. more...
The Future of Restoration and RenewalWith the wisdom of hindsight, many are waking up to the fact that the experimental church architecture designed and built in the latter half of the twentieth century has miserably failed the Catholic people. Michael S. Rose suggests that now is the time to correct the missteps of recent decades and presents the blueprint to do so. more...
Church 'Re-Renovation' & the Third MillenniumA new trend is emerging: churches that were drastically altered decades ago are now being 're-renovated' to reflect their original designs. From rural churches to urban cathedrals, the sacred is being restored by a new generation of architects and patrons who realize that the archi-liturgical experiment of recent decades has been a failure. more...
Who's renovating our traditional churches?For several decades running, Catholics have been asked to accept denuding renovations and new church designs on the basis of subjective and contrived opinions that are passed off as authoritative mandates of the Church. Michael S. Rose tells you who's behind this "archi-liturgical revolution" and what it is that motivates them. more...
Church renovator thrives on manipulationFather Richard Vosko, a priest of the Diocese of Albany, has been making a comfortable living for the past three decades, travelling the United States and Canada—parish by parish—promoting his liturgical indoctrination program for the renovation of traditional Catholic churches as well as for the design of new Catholic churches. more...
Bait and Switch Drama at the Covington BasilicaAccording to the accepted standards of historic preservation, additions and alterations made subsequent to the construction of a building are generally regarded as important to the historic character of the structure. This is especially true when such additions are of artistic, cultural, or historic significance. more...
Church Renovation: A Crisis of FashionIn the case of countless churches, fashion has audaciously fitted into the wounds of traditional architecture its wretched gewgaws of the day — its stage platform, its rearranged pews, its dry-wall sanctuary, its emasculated baldacchino and so on… Even so, looking to Notre Dame de Paris, we understand there is hope of a renaissance. more...
Preserving our Patrimony, Protecting our FaithMichael S. Rose debunks what he calls the "three waves of justication for church renovation" - a false appeal to the documents of Vatican II, an appeal to the nebulous authority of the 1978 U.S. bishops' document 'Environment and Art in Catholic Worship,' and most recently "inclusivity," the disingenous appeal to be sensitive to the handicapped. more...
The Church Renovation Resistance MovementLorem ipso ad horem ex post in dolor et quinque gloria patri et fili et spiritus est. Ad quorum sunt corpus ad.ProjecLorem ipso ad horem ex post in dolor ProjecLorem ipso ad horem ex post in dolor et quinque gloria patri et fili et spiritus est. Ad quorum. ProjecLorem ipso ad horem ex post. more...
