Vatican sources are reporting the establishment of a Liturgical Art and Sacred Music Commission by the Congregation for Divine Worship. Its task will be to collaborate with commissions in charge of evaluating church construction projects. The team will also be responsible for the further study of liturgical music and singing. Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, and Pope Benedict XVI consider this work “very urgent.” Critics charge that in recent decades churches have been replaced by buildings that resemble multipurpose halls or boldly shaped structures that risk denaturing modern places for Catholic worship. Too often, critics complain, architects do not use the Catholic liturgy as a starting point and end up producing avant-garde constructions that look like anything but a church. Tabernacles are obscured and sacred images are almost nonexistent. The new commission will be devising regulations on church design that will give precise instructions to dioceses.
New Roman Committee to Critique Churches
Show Comments (0)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Rev. Paul Nicholson, S.J., begins his homily for the Ascension with a striking image from Medieval art: Jesus’ feet dangling in the air, his body swallowed by clouds.
In an interview with America's Gerard O'Connell, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington said that Pope Leo XIV would "carry forward" the legacy of Pope Francis' pontificate "in its essential elements."
Pope Leo's quotation of Augustine after his election contains within it an important theological point about the nature of the episcopacy. The quotation signals Leo XIV’s approach to his role as bishop of Rome.
Despite widespread food insecurity, federal nutrition programs are under threat. The Catholic Church must step up its campaign against hunger at both the parish and national levels.