Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In a novel I was reading some time ago, a little boy brought up as a Baptist is taken into a Catholic Church. He gasps in awe at the grandeur and the beauty of the church and asks his Catholic friend, “Why is it so beautiful?” His friend shrugs and replies, “I don’t know. Catholics just build beautiful churches.”
As we plan our new church, I would like to use my pastor’s letter for a few weeks to explain why we build beautiful churches, and some of the principles we follow to build a church that is both beautiful and practical.
In the Catholic tradition, the church building is not simply a place for people to meet. If that were the case, it would be fine to just buy an old supermarket and put seats in it and add a good sound system. For Catholics the church building is a ‘sermon in stone.’ It helps to preach in a solid, visual way what we believe about Jesus Christ and the Catholic faith.
What should a Catholic Church teach about the faith? First that the faith is timeless. The church should therefore be solid and permanent. We should build churches that stand the test of time. They should be well constructed out of the best materials and with the best workmanship we can afford.
Secondly, the church should ‘look Catholic’. In other words, it should proclaim by its distinctiveness that it is not just an auditorium or a non Catholic place of worship. This is because we proclaim our Catholic faith with confidence and joy. A church building that ‘looks Catholic’ helps to do that.
Thirdly, a Catholic Church should express continuity with the past while being practical for the present and future. A Catholic church that is only ‘old fashioned’ will just be a quaint museum piece, that speaks of a faith that is cold and dead and never changes. On the other hand, a Catholic church that is only modern or futuristic in design will soon be out of date and corny. It will speak of a church that is trendy and modern and transitory.
Finally, a Catholic Church should be beautiful because our faith is beautiful. Our worship is a participation in the beautiful worship of heaven itself where all is beauty, truth and love. We should take time and expenditure to make the church beautiful and precious, true and lasting because our faith should be the most beautiful, precious, true and lasting aspect of our lives.
Yours faithfully,
Fr. Dwight Longenecker