From Rorate Caeli:
In the past few days this photograph has circulated among some Catholic blogs (and at least one Orthodox blog):
It shows Cardinal Marx spreading chrism on what surely has to be one of
the strangest altars ever consecrated for a Catholic church in the past
60 years.
This event, the consecration of this altar, actually took place in 2010 for Munich's Jugendkirche ("youth church"). More pictures of the event can be found here. The altar is not as light as it appears: it is made of galvanized bronze and weighs 160 kilos all in all.
This event, the consecration of this altar, actually took place in 2010 for Munich's Jugendkirche ("youth church"). More pictures of the event can be found here. The altar is not as light as it appears: it is made of galvanized bronze and weighs 160 kilos all in all.
Below we see the altar in use during a Youth Mass in 2011 led by Bishop
Engelbert Siebler, at that time an Auxiliary Bishop for Munich and
Freising (source):
Speaking of youth churches: all in all there are more than a hundred
Catholic "youth churches" in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and
Luxembourg. There is a website on the activities of the various Catholic
and Protestant "youth churches" in German-speaking lands: Jugendkirchen. There are no words to describe many of the pictures. For example:
Coming back to Cardinal Marx and his attitude to strange altars: he consecrated or will be consecrating 2 of them this month.
On the 10th of November, he consecrated a new altar for the Church of
the Annunciation in Traunstein-Haslach, one of the oldest parishes in
the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, dating back to the 14th century.
(More photos here.)
Then on the 24th of November (today) he is scheduled to consecrate the following altar, for the church of St. Michael in Attel. According to the linked article, the altar is made of glass, with a metal framework inside.
These are no "isolated instances" but part of a wider trend that has not stopped at all in these past few years. This
is the continuing trend of permanently erecting deliberately "modern"
altars versus traditional and venerable altars, implanting dissonance,
rupture and ugliness in the middle of so many old churches in Europe.
This trend has continued and will continue, Benedict XVI or no Benedict
XVI, Francis or no Francis, with or without the blogs documenting them,
and despite the fantasies of some that insanity in liturgy and sacred
art is over.
To see more examples from Germany, the old version of Fides et Forma has a post with pictures of Archbishop Gerhard Müller consecrating five very "modern" altars as Bishop of Regensburg, all during the reign of Pope Benedict XVI, all in beautiful old Bavarian churches.
From France we have this blank-looking altar consecrated in May of this year for the 12th century Abbey of Leoncel, this monument to dissonance consecrated in 2011 for the 18th-century Sainte-Madeleine de Besançon, and this cramped little altar consecrated last year in the historical Église Sainte-Marguerite de Soppe-le-Haut. Want more? See this (from 2011), and this (the article doesn't say the year, but this was installed in the centuries-old Carmel of Angers in 2012), and this (the new altar, along with the new ambo and throne of the Gothic-style Cathedral of Nantes, consecrated in May of this year). And there are so many other examples on the Internet...
In neighboring Belgium, Archbishop Leonard of Malines-Brussels blessed a glass altar in 2012 in the splendid neoclassical (18th c.) Église Saints-Jean-et-Étienne-aux-Minimes in Brussels.
For examples from Italy, we have this cube altar consecrated only last month for a neoclassical church, a new asymmetrically designed altar consecrated in August this year for an 18th century church in Trent (!), and yet another cube altar of rough stone consecrated in December last year for the 16th-century parochial church of Montorfano.
The Gesù in Rome was not spared. This banality was installed only a couple of years ago, when Benedict XVI was Pope.
Rorate has other posts on this theme.
These aberrations can and will continue, as these are but symptoms of the profound dislocation of the sacred liturgy of the Roman Rite. This dislocation cannot be set right either by purely voluntary movements for the promotion of the sacred from among the clergy and the laity or by the "good example" and "encouraging words" of any Supreme Pontiff.
And the "Liturgical Art and Sacred Music Commission" that was supposed to have been set up in the Congregation for Divine Worship late in 2011? No one seems to have heard of it after its creation was announced... Has it already joined the long list of aborted liturgical projects from the last two pontificates?
To see more examples from Germany, the old version of Fides et Forma has a post with pictures of Archbishop Gerhard Müller consecrating five very "modern" altars as Bishop of Regensburg, all during the reign of Pope Benedict XVI, all in beautiful old Bavarian churches.
From France we have this blank-looking altar consecrated in May of this year for the 12th century Abbey of Leoncel, this monument to dissonance consecrated in 2011 for the 18th-century Sainte-Madeleine de Besançon, and this cramped little altar consecrated last year in the historical Église Sainte-Marguerite de Soppe-le-Haut. Want more? See this (from 2011), and this (the article doesn't say the year, but this was installed in the centuries-old Carmel of Angers in 2012), and this (the new altar, along with the new ambo and throne of the Gothic-style Cathedral of Nantes, consecrated in May of this year). And there are so many other examples on the Internet...
The new altar and ambo of Sainte-Madeleine de Besançon
In neighboring Belgium, Archbishop Leonard of Malines-Brussels blessed a glass altar in 2012 in the splendid neoclassical (18th c.) Église Saints-Jean-et-Étienne-aux-Minimes in Brussels.
For examples from Italy, we have this cube altar consecrated only last month for a neoclassical church, a new asymmetrically designed altar consecrated in August this year for an 18th century church in Trent (!), and yet another cube altar of rough stone consecrated in December last year for the 16th-century parochial church of Montorfano.
The Gesù in Rome was not spared. This banality was installed only a couple of years ago, when Benedict XVI was Pope.
Rorate has other posts on this theme.
These aberrations can and will continue, as these are but symptoms of the profound dislocation of the sacred liturgy of the Roman Rite. This dislocation cannot be set right either by purely voluntary movements for the promotion of the sacred from among the clergy and the laity or by the "good example" and "encouraging words" of any Supreme Pontiff.
And the "Liturgical Art and Sacred Music Commission" that was supposed to have been set up in the Congregation for Divine Worship late in 2011? No one seems to have heard of it after its creation was announced... Has it already joined the long list of aborted liturgical projects from the last two pontificates?
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