It seems to me that a pretty good example of this is Our Lady of the Angels
so-called Cathedral in Los Angeles:
http://www.olacathedral.org/The website doesn't show much in photos, and that's for a reason. The more
you see of it the more it becomes obvious that it's ugly. So they use a
minimalist approach in the images to make you confused. You have a
curiosity that naturally desires to see more images so you can decide
what to think of what you're looking at, but you don't get that. You get
half-images and odd angles that do not show the whole of what you are
trying to see. So you come away "wanting to see more," and that makes
you think that you liked what you saw. Clever, no?
As for opinions, there are two kinds of impressions you will get from
people. People with little or no religious faith tend to think it's a great
building, because it's so modern. People with a fervent Catholic faith
are not pleased with it, because it does nothing for their appreciation
of their faith to be in this place. They do not feel any desire to pray
there, only to leave. Of course, this is what I have found, and my
opinion could be biased. That is to say, of those to whom I have
spoken about this who think it's a good building for the Archdiocese
Cathedral are people whose sense of being Catholic is very different
from mine, so I would say that "they're not Catholic," but then they
would say the same about me, because my faith is not like theirs.
This is what the NovusOrdo has done to the Church: it has divided it.
Guess what this thing is:
I won't torture you. It is the "tabernacle." Surprise!! It is not easily
found. If you don't know where to look for it, you'll probably have
to ask for directions from someone. But if you have a map, and you
now know a clue for what you're looking to see, you might hunt it
down on your own. It's in a sort of "room" all by itself, literally in
exile. There is no way for anyone in the "nave" area to see when
someone is putting something into it or taking something out of it or
using some spray paint or a hammer to vandalize it. I'm sure that is
why it looks the way it does, because they must have used workers
with vandalism experience to give it the look it has already. It is entirely
out of sight from every possible location in the building, except for right
in the passageway that goes into the "room" and that means space for
about 10 people max. to see it unless you're actually IN the "room" when
you're looking at it. With people packed like sardines in there, you'd get
around 30, I suppose, in the "room." So it's not really big enough to hold
a disco dance, let's say.
The floor plan and wall design have a number of "passageways to nowhere"
built in. It's as though they are deliberately encouraging teenagers to hang
out in separate groups, talking in church.
When you enter through the "large brass doors" that are normally open,
you find no holy water font. You have to A) ask someone where to find it,
or B) already know where to go. You cannot ever guess where it is on your
own, so Catholics with normal Catholic sense thereby feel unwelcome right
away. You have to walk about 60 feet in a direction you were not going
to go, to dip your hand into the
jacuzzi - sorry, I mean baptismal
font. Needless to say, just as genuflecting once a year on Christmas day
for the Credo lost followers after about 3 years, so too, now nobody bothers
to go get holy water there anymore, but for possibly 10 people a day, and
maybe 15 on Sunday.
Topic: Ugly Churches (Read 1834 times)