[Siobhan]

The pictures we were shown were much better than this model came across. We will have to wait and see the finished product. I am the kind of person who wants to build Romanesque-Byzantine Cathedrals, so this is not my cup of tea. But I do think the end result will be far better than Michael Rose imagines.

Now that Fr. Fessio is celebrating Mass facing God (facing East) I am wondering how the Altar will look in the end. Everything will focus upon the Altar and Holy Mass, with walls and ceilings having more to do with sky and weather. It would be too easy to denounce it because it looks unlike what one would expect. I must restrain myself and remind myself that there is an enormous difference between this and the grim air hangar for the spirits of the lost that passes for a cathedral in Los Angeles.

[Maximilian]

But I do think the end result will be far better than Michael Rose imagines.

Have you read Michael Rose's books, "The Renovation Manipulation" and "Ugly as Sin"? Michael Rose has a degree in architecture. He has studied the issue of church architecture in modern America probably more than anyone else. He has earned the right to be taken seriously. And he is using objective standards to judge. It's not simply a matter of taste. This church does not meet the objective standards for anything approximating "traditional Catholic culture." But it does meet the standards for "fantasy of a megalomaniac," just like the "Crystal Cathedral" of that televangelist in Orange, CA.