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Views from the Choir Loft

This Is a Cathedral, Not Disneyland

Fr. David Friel · September 15, 2019

ORE THAN one medieval English cathedral hosted an unconventional exhibit this summer. Three sacred spaces, all of them in the hands of the Church of England, were transformed by particularly peculiar amusements.

Rochester Cathedral gave over the floor of its nave to a nine-hole course for miniature golf (or “crazy golf,” as it is commonly called in the UK). The BBC reported on this attraction in July.

In Norwich Cathedral, the rear of the nave became the site of a 55-foot helter-skelter (a slide that spirals down the exterior of a large tower). The BBC ran a story on this display in August.

The floor of the nave in Lichfield Cathedral was refashioned to resemble the surface of the moon, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. According to the description on the church’s website, the One Small Step installation “allows us to contemplate and observe one of the most significant journeys that humanity has taken and allows us to imagine possibilities for humankind.”

Amusements_Rochester Amusements_Norwich Amusements_Lichfield

Arguments in favor of these displays and in opposition to them made their way into a piece in the New York Times last month.

Another story describes how one man’s opposition prompted him to unleash a rant, during which he observed that cathedrals should not be managed as though they were Disneyland.

As noted above, these three spectacles were on display in cathedrals of the Church of England. Such capering, however, is not entirely unknown in Catholic churches (e.g., the light show in residence at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal). Contrary to what their organizers might argue, these frivolities do little to attract new disciples of Christ, while doing much to cheapen our Christian heritage and to obliterate the reverence that is God’s due.

The exploitation of these sacred spaces for such profane purposes is quite a tangible manifestation of the death of Christianity as the life principle of Western culture.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Sacred Architecture Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Fr. David Friel

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America.—(Read full biography).

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Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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