Bah, humbug

I know we're supposed to be happy that the former St. Joseph's Church in Albany was reused for an art show, but from what I can see from the linked photos I'm glad I didn't show up for the event. It's not exactly that the skulls, labored conceits and other typical contemporary art products desecrate a sacred space, but that they are manifestly inferior aesthetically to the remaining religious art they partially obscure on the walls and windows. 

I don't have any bright, hopeful resolution of all this. Catholics lost the right to complain when their diocese abandoned the building years ago -- and contemporary Catholic leaders have often showed as little aesthetic sense as their secular art-world counterparts. And the photos of the white exhibition-goers make me doubt they will connect any better to the church's inner-city neighborhood on the edge of Arbor Hill.

Comments

[Johannah Turner]

That building is magnificent, a treasure. It was irresponsible to abandon it for the use you described. Canon 1222 §1 says: "If a church cannot in any way be used for divine worship and there is no possibility of its being restored, the diocesan Bishop may allow it to be used for some secular BUT NOT UNBECOMING purpose." [emphasis added] That may not apply after the building has been sold, I don't know. I examined the photos. As far as I'm concerned it's all part of the D&F of WC.

In 2006 The Times (UK) reported that over the five previous years, 2000 churches, sold by cash-strapped ecclesiastical authorities, had been remodeled into private homes, and that church-to-home conversions were even more popular than barn conversions.

In the "nothing new under the sun" department, the following--published in 1876.

DECONSECRATION OF A LONDON CHURCH

What is called a "deconsecration" service was held in Alhallows Church, Bread street, recently, by order of the Bishop of London, preliminary to the removal of the edifice. This church is one of a large number in the city which were rebuilt after the fire of London by Sir Christopher Wren, and its history is noteworthy from the fact that its Rector in 1555, Rev. Lawrence Saunders, was burned at Coventry for preaching in defense of the doctrines of the Reformation, and that Milton was baptized here in December, 1608. There was a crowded congregation at the service, the Lord Mayor and Sheriff's attending in state, accompanied by one or two aldermen and common councilmen. Bishop Claughton preached the sermon, choosing for a text St. Luke ix. 59: "Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God."

While the bishop was ascending the pulpit an elderly person in the aisle near the door called out in a loud tone, "I protest against this service in God's name," but had scarcely finished the sentence ere one of the guardians of the peace appeared on the scene and promptly escorted him to the street.

--The New York Times, November 3, 1876

[Bob Conner]

Amen.