In the reconfigured interior of the 150-year-old Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, the apse is empty apart from new organ casework, because the sanctuary—with its high altar, baldachin, and communion rail—is no more. The tabernacle has been moved to a side chapel. The former sanctuary thus resembles an orchestral platform, as befits the renovated cathedral’s suitability for "nonliturgical events."If Archbishop Rembert Weakland and the renovators in his employ wished to relieve worshipers of "distractions" from the liturgy's "primary symbols," one wonders why they hung a truly histrionic sculptural composition above the altar--which, by the way, they brought out to the crossing and surrounded with the antiphonal arrangement of chairs Seasoltz advocates. This composition consists of a very large crown of thorns taking the form of a multitude of metallic spikes, through which a skewed spike-cross with a long, thin shaft is pitched on a diagonal, with a spindly, primitivized corpus precariously tacked onto it. It is obviously a major distraction. (Seasoltz acknowledges this criticism in his text, without rebutting it.)
Try and reconcile the design with Bishop Sklba's critique of the crown of thorns in Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ.
Update: So you can judge for yourself, I've added links from the virtual tour of the Cathedral (via Get Up, and Get Moving....).
P.S. There's no link to a picture of the Cathedral Treasury. I wonder what they did with my donation to the Cathedral Preservation Foundation. Obviously, the Cathedral was not and now cannot be preserved as it was when they solicited the money from me.
¶ 7/26/2006 07:01:00 AM
Tell us, Bishop: exactly WHAT is "subtle" about the final movement of Beethoven's 9th?
Or what is "subtle" about the Brahms Requiem's turning-point, the victory over Death?
...for that matter, what is "subtle" about destruction of the Cathedral in Milwaukee?
: 7:35 PM<< Home
