Here is the Cathedral of St. Vibiana as it looked in 1940: the former Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
This is what replaced St. Vibiana's: the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, aka the Taj Mahoney.
This is the Madonna and Child atop Notre Dame de la Gare in Marseilles, France.
This is the Madonna and Child atop Notre Dame de la Gare in Marseilles, France.
Would you guess this is supposed to be the same person, sans Child, guarding the entrance to the Taj Mahoney? (Would you even guess it's supposed to be female?)
This is the tabernacle over the high altar at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Uniontown, Washington, the oldest consecrated church in the state of Washington. It was built by German immigrants at the turn of the last century. They didn't have a huge operating budget, so almost everything that looks like marble in this picture is actually wood, painted to look like marble. (Photo by Gordon Thomas)
This is the deliberately hideous "tabernacle" at the Taj Mahoney, built by people who had money to burn (or at least spent it as though they did). It's a good thing the Lord has somebody to comfort Him over having to live in such a junkheap.
Fortunately, we don't have to look at stained glass windows like this one anymore...
...now that we have this. (In fairness, this comes from a Catholic church in Germany.)
Here is St. Michael the Archangel casting Satan out of heaven, by Guido Reni.
And here is an angel at the Taj Mahoney who, along with his 11 similarly situated brothers, would probably have flown out of the building a long time ago if he had been given aerodynamically efficient wings.
And that's progress!
Is it any wonder, then, that we've gone from this...
...to this?
My heart aches, and my spirit weeps at the depths to which we've fallen.
ReplyDelete1st rate post. The "Roj Majal" in LA is yet another example of what the meaning of cleanse with fire is all about.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, I had the privilege once of singing in the choir loft at St. Vibiana's back when Cardinal Manning was the Archbishop, and even then, I was struck by its beauty. It was a fitting resting place for St. Vibiana, whose remains were actually interred there. It is staggering to think that a prince of the Church should have despised a church built by so much love and reverence. The present cathedral is a fitting monument to Mahoney's legacy -- and that does not reflect well at all on Mahoney.
This from the cathedral's official website:
The Cathedral is built with architectural concrete in a color reminiscent of the sun-baked adobe walls of the California Missions and is designed to last 500 years.
Do I hear echoes of "this ship is unsinkable"...?
Makes me so annoyed at the destruction and lack of appreciation of real beauty.
ReplyDeleteBTW nice blog
I think Cardinal Baloney has been watching Sci Fi channel way too much. The statue supposing itself to be the Blessed Mother reminds one of the character in Star Gate (the movie) played by the actor/actress who gained popularity in Crying Game. Some would say I'm reading too much into it. I don't think so. There's nothing to "read" into...it's all out in the open. If any one word fit Baloney it's corrupt.
ReplyDeleteXLNT post.
I have attended the new LA "Cathedral" for the past few Christmas Eve Masses. It is much too stark. Ihad my hopes up for a beautiful Church, and instead, it's cold and barren, with nothing glorious offered to the Lord. It not only makes me hurt spiritually, but emotionally.
ReplyDeleteAgreably, I understand your picture of the priests surrounding the altar in the earlier picture, just last year we only had 4 priests ordained.
MaPHONy's Walled Mall is more like it.
ReplyDeleteAnd a sword shall pierce your soul...
ReplyDeleteChurches are supposed to be built by communities, not by contractors. But we have no communities anymore, only collections of random individuals who happen to be living close together.
ReplyDelete