Three (unrelated) tidbits: On intrinsic evil, Anglicans and the new National Liturgical Architecture and Art Board, respectively

Firstly, Happy New Year!, and I hope that you had a merry Christmas. Now in his latest Making Sense Out of Bioethics column (which I read in the Sydney Catholic Weekly recently), The Rev. Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk gave an interesting quotation:

Bioethicist Paul Ramsey put it well in suggesting that any man of serious conscience, when discussing ethics, will have to conclude that, “there may be some things that men should never do. The good things that men do can be made complete only by the things they refuse to do."
[http://64.105.206.27/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1021]

An interesting fact regarding the so-called Church of England was related in a recent British Daily Telegraph article (which I found first at Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s blog):

The Revision Committee for women bishops, after all, dropped proposals for legal protection for them in the wake of the Pope’s initiative.
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/6792671/Dr-Rowan-Williams-taking-a-break-from-Canterbury-travails.html]

The “them” refers to Anglicans opposed to ladybishops, and the “initiative” is, of course, Anglicanorum coetibus and its related provisions. Now the choice confronting Anglican traditionalists could no longer be any starker; surely this move by the Revision Committee would have to disabuse traditional Anglicans of the notion that Anglicanism can somehow accomodate those who uphold the doctrine of a male-only hierarchy.

Finally, the News from the November 2009 Plenary meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (December 4, 2009) mentioned the following:

On other liturgical matters, the Bishops voted to approve the establishment of a National Liturgical Architecture and Art Board which will concern itself with researching and advising Bishops and others who request assistance on the matter of ecclesiastical architecture and sacred art.
[p. 8,
http://www.catholic.org.au/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=935&ItemId=158
(P.D.F. document)]

It will be interesting to see whom the Bishops appoint to this Board.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Circumcision of Our Lord, A.D. 2010

Another new parish church that is a monument to modernism, of both the architectural and theological varieties

Yesterday’s Sydney Catholic Weekly had a parish profile of St. John the Baptist’s Parish, Woy Woy, whose curate is Rev. Fr. John Hill. The parish has a new church building; from the outside it makes one think of a steel version of the Colosseum, with a large wedge attached with a cross surmounted (presumably this portion is the equivalent of a traditional spire). It does not say so in the article, but presumably the building is meant to evoke the early Christians martyred in the Colosseum. No doubt the designers were quite pleased with their cleverness. And I suppose it is refreshing to see a church building that makes some allusion, however vague, to sacrifice. The problem is that the building is quite ugly. But of course this is to be expected from a building designed chiefly for functionality, as Fr. Hill himself says:

We needed a church that had a good gathering area that would double as an overflow area in certain circumstances. It has been very effective that way … We didn’t want it bigger; we wanted it more flexible so that it would look alright for Sunday Mass and weekday Masses, and then allow us to adjust to extra numbers.

The article contains nothing to suggest that a church ought to glorify God even when not in liturgical use, so we have another example of the pervasive post-Vatican II architectural utilitarianism. The church’s interior is no better either; it reminded me of the scene in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade where Indy and his dad are getting tickets for a blimp trip. Indeed, from the outside it is somewhat reminiscent of a Nazi German Zepellin terminal as well. As for the furnishings, it is a predictably minimalist affir, with the seating ‘in the round’, a semi-circle with the sanctuary (if one can call it that) jutting into it from the diameter, evoking that other great post-Conciliar theme of anthropocentrism. As you can imagine, the altar is really more of a table. What a sad state of affairs.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Andrew Avellino, 2008 A.D.