Our King Deserves the Best

I have mentioned before that, although Fr. Robert Barron's "Catholicism" DVD set has some stunning photography, in other ways (as in liturgical and theological issues) I am disinclined to use the program as a tool for evangelizing potential converts to the faith. 

The images in "Catholicism" certainly show what the Church is "made of", so to speak, in terms of art and architecture. Fr. Barron presents the Church as being capable of creating and inspiring great works of art (and it has been), but he fails to recognize that unfortunate fact that the current Church he describing is not capable of any such thing. Look at current Church art, architecture, and music, and you see something so banal and trivial that it isn't capable of inspiring anthing but banners and collages and culture not even up to the level of kindergarten.

   VS  

It’s one thing to show beautiful photographs, and another to make the shift from Rome to the Diocese of Baker.

For instance, consider the discrepancy between the visually breathtaking scenes Fr. Barron shows, like this:

...and the reality of the parishes in my diocese, which is more like this:

While the first photo might speak to the grandeur and majesty of the Church, the second says "1970's dining room decorated by Grandma".

And instead of awesome altars, reverently "vested" and adorned, like the ones we might see in "Catholicism", such as:

...in our diocese we are much more likely to see something like this:

Admittedly, the above photo did convince the pastor of the need for a new approach to altar frontals!  

As for exterior architecture, Fr. Barron shows us scenes like this:

...while we look around at buildings that are barely recognizable as churches:

In our diocese, we have traded lovely churches like this:

...for handball courts like this:

I like looking at photographs of Catholic churches that look like Catholic churches inside and out. It's just too bad that we have so few examples here.

The best we can do is the Cathedral, and to be fair, it has been restored from a '70's wreckovation to something more appropriate:

Not bad, eh? This photo, though, does not show the usual decor of the sanctuary though; that antependium was "imported" of one Mass (and it is actually violet, not blue or black). A more usual altar arrangement at the Cathedral would look like this:

...or this, with the floral and other decorations completely obscuring the altar:

And that's only one church in the diocese, too. The others can't hold a candle to the Cathedral. 

Yet, it would be so easy to make a few minor adjustments to enhance the dignity of the altar and sanctuary in any church.

We went from this:

...to this:

...and from this:

 ...to this:

...and from this:

...to this:

...with much less time, effort, and expense than you might think. 

Isn't it worth doing that kind of a "make-over" for the King of the Universe?