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My parish church (the one I actually belong to, not the one where I live) IS distracting in and of itself due to the images everywhere. Since it's the cathedral, exceptions must be made. The ceiling is mosaics, acres and acres, scenes from the Bible and the history of the church in the US. The west transcept is from tomorrow's gospel (this will be used in the homily as a visual aid). Take a look.
http://www.cathedralstl.org/tourism/tour.html
From the article posted above, they do everything by the book, unlike the parish I left which had a thing for creativity. The church there was wreckovated (the people don't realize it) and all of the features that made Catholic disappeared. At least one saint's statue and the confessionals were eliminated in favor of a "reconciliation room". Ick.