Articles

Editorial: Nova Contrareformatio

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 34

We need a new Counter-Reformation in sacred art and architecture. What was the Reformation’s effect? First, it preached iconoclasm, the rejection of the human figure in religious art. Second, it reoriented worship, so that people gathered round the pulpit rather than the altar and the baptismal font became more important than the tabernacle. At the same time, it lessened the distinction between the clergy and the laity, creating more equality and decreasing hierarchy.

Editorial: Ab Urbe Condita

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 33

When you go to a great European city, you find beautiful spacious piazze, outdoor cafes, charming shops, fountains to sit near, and people to watch. For many today, that symbolizes the good city.

Editorial: Regulae Americanae

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 28

Have you ever noticed the incredible number of ways Catholic churches include iconography? From signs and symbols to images of the saints and angels, from paintings of the Trinity to sacra conversazione, biblical scenes, and even historical scenes (i.e., the battles of Lepanto and Vienna), the imagery of Catholic churches is rich and varied. So, when a colleague recently journeyed to Rome in search of sacred architecture, I challenged him to find one church with the “American church formula.” What is the American formula? A life-size crucifix centered behind the altar, with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the left and Saint Joseph on the right. Many American Catholics see this as the “traditional” solution for a church layout, because it is all that they know. Yet in over five hundred historic churches I have studied in Rome, Florence, and Venice, I have seldom seen the formula (so ubiquitous in the U.S.) employed.

Editorial: Ecclesiae Pro Pauperibus

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 26

We all know that the poor need food and clothing, decent education and good jobs. But what about their spiritual and cultural needs? Can a church building serve the poor spiritually through the material? It is an expensive proposition, but I would suggest the answer is yes. Which leads us to the question, how can we design a church for the poor?

Editorial: Sanctum Paupertatem

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 25

What is the architectural corollary of Saint Francis of Assisi’s “holy poverty”? Is it the shantytowns of the third world or the stylish minimalism of first-world condiminiums? When we build churches, schools, and soup kitchens, should they be cheap or at least look cheap?

Editorial: Quo Vadis

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 21

Three miles from Disneyland there is another famous theme park, which proclaims itself as “America’s Television Church.” The Crystal Cathedral, perhaps the first mega-church in the United States, is about to undergo conversion classes so that it can finally get the cathedra and bishop it has always wanted.

Editorial: Estote Ergo Vos Perfecti

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 19

A well-known architect, who was really an artist, was asked to design a cathedral. The project did not go smoothly. He was difficult to work with, had his own ideas, lost his temper when things did not go his way, and kept asking for more money.

Editorial: Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam et Beatae Mariae Virginis

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 15

Unemployment is at a high level, and the economy is in recession. In order to give thousands of people jobs, the state embarks on some major infrastructure projects designed by an award winning architect. A parable for how the U.S. government can get the economy back on track? No, the story of how Pope Alexander VII and Gianlorenzo Bernini built Piazza San Pietro, the greatest public piazza in the world.

Editorial: Catechismus in Lapidem

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 14

People often ask me why we have not been building beautiful churches in recent decades. It is not a simple answer of course: there are the changes from Vatican II; the embrace of modernism by the architectural profession; the expense of craftsmanship; the parsimony of the faithful; and the belief that the church is merely a functional building. Today, when laity and clergy alike desire to build beautiful churches again they are confronted with a limitation that their great grandparents did not have to contend with: the strict monetary policies of the diocese.

Eucharistic Tabernacles: A Typology

by M. Francis Mannion, appearing in Volume 3

An examination of the art of Eucharistic tabernacles in Catholic liturgical history yields a considerable variety of operative meanings. In this brief essay, I want to suggest that tabernacle design may be categorized under a five-fold typology: ark, building, treasury, tower, and a

The Spirit of Mediator Dei

by Denis McNamara, appearing in Volume 4

Despite the prevailing belief that architectural modernism was the only available option for the modern church, the early twentieth century provides considerable evidence of representational, historically-connected and often beautiful architectural designs responsive to the same principles canonized in the documents of Vatican II.

Catholic Architecture and New Urbanism: An Interview with Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk

by James C. McCrery, appearing in Volume 4

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk is dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture and a partner in the design firm Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company. She is an ardent promoter of New Urbanism, a movement that has been successful in designing new communities as towns rather than subdivisions and revitalizing older communties. Among Duany Plater-Zyberk’s best known projects are the towns of Seaside in Florida, Kentlands in Maryland and downtown West Palm Beach, Florida, all designed to be pedestrian-oriented with schools, churches, libraries and shops within walking distance of homes.

Editorial: Caveat Emptor

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 7

And Jesus entered the temple of God and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you make it a den of robbers.” And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. Matthew 21:12-14

Editorial: Domus Eucharistica

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 4

Over the years, church buildings have received numerous titles: domus Ecclesiae, domus Dei, temple of the most high, image of the eternal, holy place, and body of Christ. John Cardinal Newman called churches gospel palaces. In this Jubilee year dedicated to the Eucharist it is appropriate to reflect on the domus Eucharistica, the church as a Eucharistic house. Our churches are the places we gather to eucharist, to thank God for His marvelous gifts.

Environment and Art in Catholic Worship - A Critique

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 2

By all accounts, the past forty years have produced few church buildings that the American laity are proud of and fewer of which the cultural establishment approves. No doubt some credit for the present state of architecture should be given to a small booklet entitled Environment and Art in Catholic Worship (EACW) presently being revised.

Editorial: Vocatio Architecti

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 2

One of the reasons that we are amazed by the beauty of architectural masterpieces is that they appear to go beyond the ability of mortals to conceive them. Their harmony and proportions seem to have been constructed by angels. In order to bring to fruition these sacred works, ranging from the nave of Amiens Cathedral to the exterior of San Vincent de Paul in Los Angeles, many hills have to be climbed.

Editorial: Architectura Sacra

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 1

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Sacred Architecture, a journal committed to the promotion of the cultural heritage of the Church. In publishing a variety of articles and news items, Sacred Architecture sees its mission as keeping you up to date on how bricks and mortar are being used to build up the City of God.

A Vacuum in the Spirit: The Design of the Jubilee Church in Rome

by Breda Ennis, appearing in Volume 9

While on my way in the car to see the new church built by Richard Meier on the outskirts of Rome, named 'God the Merciful Father" (in the original Italian, "Dio Padre Misericordioso"), two phrases kept coming into my mind from Pope John Paul II's Letter to Artists, in which he remarked: "even in situations where culture and the Church are far apart, art remains a kind of bridge to religious experience."

Basilica Costantiniana

by Lex Bosman, appearing in Volume 46

Anyone entering the present church of San Giovanni in Laterano for the first time will probably not immediately be aware of the historical importance of this place, nor of the history hidden in this great building.

Revelation: The Sacrament Altar in the Lateran Basilica

by Jack Freiberg, appearing in Volume 46

The profound spiritual renewal of the Counter-Reformation Church reaffirmed the central role of the Eucharist in Catholic faith and worship. Altars dedicated to the Eucharist were erected in major churches throughout Italy, often by local bishops, while in Rome, the popes assumed the patronage of sacrament altars.

Guarino Guarini: Celebrating 400 Years

by Susan Klaiber, appearing in Volume 46

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of the baroque priest-architect Guarino Guarini (1624-1683). Guarini, a Theatine priest active as a mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, as well as an architect, designed buildings throughout the Italian peninsula and across Europe.

A House of Prayer? The Basilica of Sagrada Familia

by Randall B. Smith, appearing in Volume 46

The Basilica of the Holy Family (Sagrada Familia) in Barcelona hosts some 14,000 to 16,000 visitors per day and some 2.8 million people every year, making it one of the most visited churches in the world. If you want to visit, you had better make arrangements days or weeks in advance.

Editorial: Mater Ecclesia

by Duncan G. Stroik, appearing in Volume 46

On July 14, 1902, when the great campanile of San Marco in Venice crashed 328 feet down to the piazza and was totally destroyed, the people were distraught. The response of the mayor was “dov’era e com’era”: we will rebuild it “where it was and how it was.” On April 15, 2019, when the great spire at the crossing of Notre-Dame de Paris crashed through the roof and fell 315 feet to the floor of the cathedral, the response of President Emmanuel Macron was that it should be rebuilt “geste architectural contemporain”: “with a contemporary architectural gesture.” 

America’s Notre-Dame: The Cathedral of Covington

by William J. Turner, appearing in Volume 45

Visitors traveling through the Cincinnati area might well stop to see the Greek Revival Cathedral Basilica of Saint Peter in Chains. However, they may not realize that across the Ohio River, in the city of Covington, Kentucky, can be found the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, a true architectural high Gothic jewel.

Beauty is Necessary for Prayer

by Randall B. Smith, appearing in Volume 44

Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance.

Victory in Lackawanna

by Joel Pidel, appearing in Volume 43

The story of Our Lady of Victory National Shrine and Basilica in Lackawanna, New York, is one that, like most historic Catholic churches, is intertwined as much with the legacy of a person as with an event that reverberates throughout Church history. 

The Dance of Rule and Invention

by Steven W. Semes, appearing in Volume 40

Thomas Gordon Smith, who died at age seventy-three on June 23, 2021, was an architect and teacher who over the course of his career inspired two generations of designers and scholars to pursue the revival of classical architecture as a corrective for the failings of the contemporary built environment.

The High Game of Classicism

by Craig Hamilton, appearing in Volume 40

I recall very well a freezing cold day in 2014, with snow thick on the ground, viewing with Thomas Gordon Smith his newly built courtyard of cinerariums in the cemetery at Notre Dame.

A Quintessential American Architect

by Rev. Noah Waldman, appearing in Volume 40

Having been honored to have known Thomas Gordon Smith for nearly thirty years, first when I was his student and later as a friend, I think of this very magnanimous and brilliant man as the quintessential example of what it means to be an American.

The Soul of a Church

by Dom Benedict Nivakoff, O.S.B., appearing in Volume 38

​In 2016, three earthquakes scattered over three months shattered the town of Amatrice in central Italy, killing 300 people, and continued its devastation through the towns of Umbria, bringing down houses, schools, shops, and churches.