"one true faith"
Gerald at The Cafeteria is Closed posts a link to St. Maximilian Kolbe Church. Being that it is a church in California I though it might prove fruitful doing a bit of sillyness-mining and it was just about as challenging as shooting fish in a barrel.
This is a snapshot of their home page. I rate it about -10 on the POD scale. I really wish my own parish's site had an icon of a skater dude or is that Sk8er? Looking at the picture to the right of the ring-around-a-posy'ers based on the angle and the lack of proportional indicators I had at first thought they had installed a nice ramp for the Sk8er dude. My mistake, it is of course the Baptismal font.
Theologically I kind of like the idea of a cross shaped baptismal font, though not one that could pass as a plus key on a calculator. As Gerald noticed the sanctuary is of course crucifix free and contains an unadorned cross instead. And of course they have a labyrinth on the grounds. Their map of the church lets you click on numbers and popup windows appear with a picture and a description. Most of the furnishings were done by the same woodworker for the L.A. Cathedral. All the pieces are interesting looking and obviously well crafted, though they might have saved some money by shopping directly at Ikea. The Ambo reminds me of a old fashioned radiator made out of wood, but I guess the word is to be radiated and we are to be warmed by the readings.
There page on spirituality had this paragraph.
Spirituality is not exclusive to the Catholics. While Catholicism once took the position that it was the “one true faith”, the Second Vatican Council made it clear that Almighty God was much more open minded than that. The Council welcomed each person and faith that seeks the truth. In the mystery of God all creation is one. Christians believe that the fullness of God is revealed in the person of Jesus. Christian spirituality is Christ centered.
Well partly true and I almost fell off my chair when I read "that Almighty God was much more open minded than that." Now I know this is not fair but I will quote a text from an actual VII document.
We believe that this one true religion subsists in the Catholic and Apostolic Church, to which the Lord Jesus committed the duty of spreading it abroad among all men. -DH
They said the the position of “one true faith” (notice their scare quotes) is was once held and that the council changed that and yet the Council also reaffirmed it. But like I said not fair to quote actual VII documents of which is guaranteed to get a deer-in-the-headlights look from most liturgists and Religious Ed teachers.
Ironically their spirituality page includes a link to the book "Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post-Conciliar Documents" Their bookshelf also include a book by Father Anthony De Mello, SJ. The book is in a group of his latest works of which the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith signed by then-Cardinal Ratzinger said "one notices a progressive distancing from the essential contents of the Christian faith. In place of the revelation which has come in the person of Jesus Christ, he substitutes an intuition of God without form or image, to the point of speaking of God as a pure void." A reviewer at Amazon reviewed this specific book very succinctly "Awareness is watered-down yogiism, with a dose of EST & a little bit of Simon & Garfunkel thrown in."
This is always something that has amazed me in the recommendation section of so many Catholic web sites is that with the amazing, beautiful, and wonderful history of the Catholic Church's spiritual tradition is that the only thing they can find is fast food akin to chicken nuggets where you have no idea what part of the chicken they might have come from.
Now to be fair their web site is no St. Joan of Arc dissent and all. Just "welcoming" Catholicism with mission and vision statements. Funny thing is I thought we already had a mission statement. It goes "Go out in to the whole world..." or something like that.
Update: L.A. Catholic points out that the parish's website was designed by no other than L.A.'s openly 'gay' deacon, Eric Stoltz.
Known as 
"Once finished, the reservation chapel will facilitate quiet prayer before the Blessed Sacrament."
Everything else seems to be done.. Where is the Blessed Sacrament reserved now? Are the faithful even able to visit?
For all their silliness, it is refreshing to see the baptismal font at the back of the church, where it was traditionally placed.
I tried hard to find a crucifix. They have this big cross to the side, nothing in the middle (there's a altar view on their title page). So they obviously spent a ton of money but couldn't "afford" Christ.
Maybe we should all email them. I already did, asking where Jesus was ;)
Money quote:
The chairs for the presider [sic] and the deacon ... serve as the focal point for the leaders of the liturgy.
Things like this make me glad I don't live in LA.
And did you see - they've got huge banners - professionally made, too, not whipped up by the Altar Society.
Banners are *so* 1975, man.
Poor St. Kolbe. I hope there's no such thing as embarrassment in Heaven.
Other than the word Catholic for the web site, there was nothing that gave you the indication that this was Catholic. It might as well have been a Church of Christ, on Baptist Street in Utah.
Is there a blog somewhere dedicated to ugly churches?
The "ring-around-the-rosey" picture is a good metaphor. The old folks are all facing inward toward eachother, while the kids face out, almost looking like they want to run from the circle.
This generation is passing, thank God.
I caught a documentary on Chartres Cathedral. It was a mixed bag (some questionable "cosmic" comments were made), but they showed the labyrinth. Is this a traditional Catholic symbol (they claimed it pointed to the fact that all things lead to a center, God), or was this added recently?
I think they lost me when I read their introduction phrase at their main page: "We are Church"
The altar is simply hideous, but to be fair, it would have look good in a contemporary arts museum of some sort. It makes the idea of having an Ikea table as an altar not sound so bad after all... God have mercy on my soul.
From http://www.lessons4living.com/chartres_labyrinth.htm
"This labyrinth was meant to be walked but is reported to be infrequently used today. In the past it could be walked as a pilgrimage and/or for repentance. As a pilgrimage it was a questing, searching journey with the hope of becoming closer to God. When used for repentance the pilgrims would walk on their knees. Sometimes this eleven-circuit labyrinth would serve as a substitute for an actual pilgrimage to Jerusalem and as a result came to be called the "Chemin de Jerusalem" or Road of Jerusalem."
I am sorry to see that they don't use the term *sacrifice* in their rather verbose description of liturgy (which is, at points, quite entertaining)
I was happy to see that they have a Respect Life Committee in their outreach section!
I was disappointed to see that such a large and thriving parish only offers Confession for 45 minutes each week!
Hey, I live near this church. I think I'll pop in an take a look. I've been meaning to tour my local churches to see if anybody has a place where we can light a REAL candle (not push a button for a lightbulb to turn on inside the fake candle.) I guess this is not the place though.
I like the baptismal font; Just put the kid at the top and whoosh! in you go for a full submersion. Dad can be at the bottom to catch the baby. You can do it assembly line that way!
Those push button candles are unfortunate...fire regulations gone amuck... I remember my first time seeing those things in San Diego. We don't have those in Canada.
I wonder what else we will be able to do with the push of a button at our churches in the near future
Quote: "Poor St. Kolbe. I hope there's no such thing as embarrassment in Heaven."
This was my first thought too. St. Max is my favorite saint, I named my second son after him. It really saddens me to see his name connected with this kind of parish.
I was first disappointed to see these candles in Chicago - actually in Suburban Chicago, and the priest might get tired of paying the light bill, so he goes and unplugs it after Mass! But then I went to Rome and various churches in Italy and I saw these ridiculous things! push button votive candles! What will they thinkn of next - no no, wait, please don't tell me!
"This is a snapshot of their home page. I rate it about -10 on the POD scale."
Okay: what's a POD scale?
I saw an electric sanctuary lamp once. It was for a chapel in a niche separated from a Catholic school multiple-use gymnasium by hanging partitions. I suppose it made sense from a fire safety point of view. Still depressing, though.
Why are candle flames an insurance risk, but not huge open pools of water surrounded by tile and marble???? Hmm....
Not to "dis" the Jester, but the "plus sign" comment, I dunno. That's a legitimate cross shape.
Baptism pools don't bug me on principal. But I've seen ugly ones. This one's not so bad.
The St. Francis Chapel in Boston in on the ground floor of the 50-story Prudential (as in insurance) Tower. They have real candles, and people walk in and out all day and light them.
POD stands for Pious Over Devotional.
Oh. I thought it meant "Piece of Dung." Thanks for the correction.
No one ever bothers to ask me before they put my name on these things.
Boy oh boy.
To their credit...
"Designs have been approved for stained glass windows and for the corpus (Christ-figure) for the high cross in the sanctuary."
At least Jesus is on order. But it shows where their priorities are. Labyrinth, then corpus.
I love love LOVE the actual quaote from Vatican II about the one true church. I wonder if anybody from the 60's ever actually READ the documents???
Brad Haas -- ahahaha. I'm picturing the saints dissing each other over ugly churches. "Aw man! Don't name that thing after me! Dude, St Peter's NEVER gonna let me forget this one!"
St MMaximilian Kolbe is my hero. Perhaps his intercession will bring good from this silliness.
RE: electric sanctuary "lamps" -
When my classmates and I were on Pilgrimage, our hosts in Rome (who shall remain nameless) provided us with a meeting room to be used as our chapel [they didn't heat their patriarchal church in January] complete with a tabernacle and an electric "sanctuary lamp." One of the first things I did in the Eternal City was to purchase a supply of seven day votive candles and a red globe! Nobody objected (of course Bro. Sacristan didn't speak much English...)
You know Jeff, I was thinking a "plus sign" is a lot better than a question mark! at least it looks like a cross!
"Once finished, the reservation chapel will facilitate quiet prayer before the Blessed Sacrament."
Everything else seems to be done.. Where is the Blessed Sacrament reserved now? Are the faithful even able to visit
The Blessed Sacrament is hidden in a small closet to the side and towards the rear of the nave. Makes it kind of hard to genuflect there, not that you would see that from the regulars anyway. Of course they want no part of having the tabernacle in sanctuary but most Amchurches that have a chapel put the tabernacle in there. Apparently they have no interest in doing anything with Blessed Sacrament but putting Him in a closet. I hope they don't also store their brooms and mops in the same closet. But cheer up! While you can't go to the chapel and pray before the Blessed Sacrament you can go pray on a Pagan inspired labyrith!
I suppose they take their cue from the Archbishop who also hides the tabernacle in a closet in his 285 million dollar monstrocity he built to surround the closet where he keeps the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ.
Like many parish web sites, this one is out of date.
There is now a corpus on the cross.
Also, every Sunday evening Mass ends with a Eucharistic Benediction. Complete with Monstrance, chanted Tantum Ergon(yes, in Latin!), procession and everthing.
"Tantum Ergo".
Does anyone have a good cure for FFS (Fat Finger Syndrome)?
Jeff, it really isn't fair to quote the actual VII document. You know that in the "spirit" of VII we don't actually read anything.
And St. Max, did you actually say that "we are church" as you offered up your life for another man?