Architecture Here and There

A recent visitor to Rome tells me that efforts are afoot to petition the Pope to issue some sort of encyclical or edict or whatever urging that Catholic institutions such as churches and diocese avoid modern art and architecture. Presumably, the grounds are that such work tends to undermine the Church, whose strength arises from its traditional values.

The petition, or appeal as it is known, is linked here.

I haven't had time to investigate the mechanics of how you vote by actually clicking on the link myself, but I gather that "Subscribe here" (as it says at some point) does not mean that you are sending all of your earthly belongings to the Mother Ship.

I will click the link now and report back ...

I am back. I clicked on "Subscribe here" and a page appeared with instructions to click an e-mail address and write your name, your professional affiliation and your address if you want to sign the appeal. When you click, a blank e-mail comes up, so you can write down all the information any way you want, and add a lengthy essay about why you want to sign if you are so moved.

I was not so moved, but I did provide the information, and so expect to see my name inscribed upon an official papal appeal for reason and beauty.

Signatures will be accepted after Nov. 21, but the pope meets with a large international delegation of artists in the Sistine Chapel on Saturday, and a large number of signatories to the appeal may affect what he will say to them.

All readers should sign the appeal, unless you are a masochist and you read this blog in order to pick at the scabs that line your soul. Even you should sign the appeal, if you want your scabs to disappear and your spirit to be eligible, someday, to rise. (I do not claim, hereby, the authority to actualize such an eventuality, but He who does may be watching...)

 Tags  architecture art Catholic Church modernism Pope Vatican

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