Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

May 28, 2012 is our liturgy and design issue, and in our culture section Michael E. DeSanctis of Gannon Unversity looks at the trend toward bulding new Catholic churches using elements of traditional design. You can read Professor DeSanctis's article here.

Accompanying the article is a slideshow featuring several churches not mentioned in the article. View the slideshow here.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Joan Carroll
12 years 6 months ago
It will be interesting to see how 85 year old priests climb the steps without hand railings to get to the altars in these churches.
Katherine McEwen
12 years 3 months ago
One thing I notice in the slide show is how disability unfriendly all the sanctuaries and seating in these churches are. Have the architectural provisions of the Americans with Disabilies Act been totally erased from these architects' mental databanks? As well as the parish committees who brainstormed these designs? Do the architects, planners and parishioners totally forget their compatriots with physical, movement or other disabilities? As well as baby boomers and other seniors? Or the regular people for whom traditional 20th century and earlier architecture and interior furnishings just doesn't work? What about clergy, lay ministers, musicians and worship leaders' access?

The latest from america

I use a motorized wheelchair and communication device because of my disability, cerebral palsy. Parishes were not prepared to accommodate my needs nor were they always willing to recognize my abilities.
Margaret Anne Mary MooreNovember 22, 2024
Nicole Scherzinger as ‘Norma Desmond’ and Hannah Yun Chamberlain as ‘Young Norma’ in “Sunset Blvd” on Broadway at the St. James Theatre (photo: Marc Brenner).
Age and its relationship to stardom is the animating subject of “Sunset Blvd,” “Tammy Faye” and “Death Becomes Her.”
Rob Weinert-KendtNovember 22, 2024
What separates “Bonhoeffer” from the myriad instructive Holocaust biographies and melodramas is its timing.
John AndersonNovember 22, 2024
“Wicked” arrives on a whirlwind of eager (and anxious) anticipation among fans of the musical.
John DoughertyNovember 22, 2024