[Gamecock]

Is this a British thing or are there similar issues in the US?

[Hoosier Catholic Momma]

My mom’s church in central Indiana is well...yuck. She’s actually thinking about changing parishes to one just a little further up the road.

Our parish church is quite beautiful (built around 1895): http://www.icchurch.com/ The stained glass windows are really nice. And it’s often quite packed on Sundays. There is another older Catholic church here that is pretty, and then the Catholic church just across the street from me, well, at least they have a good priest :)

[Lorica]

Acknowledging the ugly modern Catholic church design which is self-inflicted, it’s still ironic to read this in the British press, considering the beauty of the art and architecture of Catholic churches which was destroyed during the English reformation. Beautiful stained-glass windows, high altars, statues, etc. - lost forever.

[big'ol_freeper]

The trend (that appears to have been reversed) was caused by the creeping "protestantization" of the Catholic Church (primarily in western countries) where, instead of building church buildings that inspired awe and a sense of the heavenly, they were bland structures designed as meeting houses focused on the "congregation" where people gathered for all sorts of things in addition to participating in the Mass.

Not to say all protestant churches are bland and uninspiring, because they over the years have built some incredibly inspiring churches, but to a large degree the smaller congregation facilities are built on the cheap as gathering places vice places of awe.

During my twenty plus years in the Army I was unfortunate to have belonged to a few parishes that had built such buildings and I always felt like I was in a protestant church. Having since retired, the parish I attend has a beautiful Gothic structure built by the parishioners in 1917.

The trend in the Catholic Church is back toward building appropriate places to celebrate the Mass with the proper focus.

An example of this trend is a church recently built near where I live: