"The organisation of the Portuguese ecclesiastical community, and the mentality of its members, need to be changed in order to have a Church in Vatican II's rythm, in which the function of the clergy and the function of the laity are properly established, bearing in mind that, since we were baptised and made part of the family of the sons of God, we are co-responsible for the growth of the Church."Here is a link to the full address (in Portuguese)
For most Catholics, Portugal is particularly known as the home of the Marian shrine at Fatima. In 2004, a Hindu ritual was carried out at the Capelinha with the full co-operation and encouragement of the shrine authorities who described critics of the event as fundamentalists.
More recently, the new Church of the Holy Trinity was completed:
Apparently this meets the needs of modern worshippers since it has lots of doors, lavatories, and a café
14 comments:
The "church" looks more like a WWII Bunker to me.
JARay
The texts of the Portuguese liturgy are even more of a travesty of the Latin than our own.
Father - here are more pictures of the interior of the new basilica for your viewing displeasure.
unny how the rector doesn't bat an eye-lid when pagans desecrate and offer prayers to their "gods" but when the SSPX made a pilgrimage in August 2005, he got two nuns to sing over the microphones under Capelhina, so they drowned out their reparation rosaries.
The double standards of today's post-conciliar church...
We in England must do our bit, as Catholics, and pray for Portugal. The oldest extant political alliance in modern history is between England and Portugal, from the 14th century, and it was invoked as recently as during the second World War by Winston Churchill to endure harbour for our fleet. Portugal is the only major European country with which we have never been to war.
Portugal shares with England a great devotion and dedication to Our Lady – the portuguese National Shrine, Our Lady of Vila Viçosa, is an alabaster statue carved in England in the middle ages. Her feast is kept on the Immaculate Conception (today), a feast which has its origins in England (indeed the only truly English Marian feast), despite the neglect in which it is held by our modern Bishops.
So the Portuguese are our brothers in suffering persecution and the abuse of our Blessed Mother, within and without the Church, so let us invoke Her prayers together with them, which never fail.
"When wicked men blaspheme thee, we'll love and bless thy name."
One request I would make of Church authorities is that canon law stipulate that only Catholics may be architects of sacred spaces. This would attentuate the possibility that the architects use their commission as an opportunity to mock our beliefs.
What a horrible...ehm...church. This is really a mix between a spaceship and a WWII bucker. I've seen many atrocities like this, but never in the place Our Lady appeared. Time to take some anti-depressives.
"And I...am troubled, my heart bleeds, when I see contemporary art detach itself from humanity, from life. Sometimes certain of our artists forget that art must express things. Sometimes it is impossible to know what it says. It is the Tower of Babel. It is chaos, confusion....
Transcendence terrifies modern man. And yet whoever does not feel this distance is not aware of true religion. Whoever does not feel God's superiority, His ineffability, His mystery, cannot truly possess His art. For all art reveals transcendence. And I like this thought which, I think, is from Simone Weil: 'Beauty is the proof given by experience that the Incarnation is possible.'...
"O blessed voice of art, magic echo, thou that from silent beauty drawest the music of signs and sensible forms, when wilt thou sing again, when wilt thou speak to us again with thy superhuman fascination, of the joyous way, the way open to all, of a sudden and profound intuition of the hidden and profound world of Being, whence all things take their sense and root?"
Paul VI in The Pope Speaks with Jean Guitton, Meredith press, NY, 1967 pp 209-210
Why do these modern churches have to be in the "round" anyway...is it just to encourage togetherness?
I wonder if in their Cafe they serve Fatima Cakes or Coffee Mariale ?
Thanks to Ottaviani for the link to the pictures of the new concrete church in Fatima.
This ghastly concrete building has nothing to say in itself.
It could, however, have the entirely desirable effect of causing people to turn to the many fine old churches of Europe, and discover in them the authentic Catholic tradition which is missing from this and other modern buildings.
For instance, in Fatima itself, you have only to turn your back on the new concrete church to find yourself facing the traditional basilica.
Europe's historic churches are not there simply for the art historians and tourists.
In them, Catholics will find the true heritage of the Church.
Perhaps the hideous new concrete bunkers are a necessary reminder of what we have lost and what we are in danger of losing.
Hi
you can see here a film about the hyndu cult: http://gazetadarestauracao.blogspot.com/2007/11/heresia-moderdista-em-ftima.html
in this same portuguese blog, you can also read more texts about the portuguese church.
The whole speech is now available here complete and in a better translation than mine.
of course it has doors, a cafe, and lavatories!
If *you* were forced to attend Mass[?] in a place like that, wouldn't you want to get the h*** out of there as soon as possible? Hard to do when everyone's rushing for the same exit. Lavatories? Perfect. Hopefully enough so people can make it there before throwing up. And as for a cafe-- I would hope they have a liquor license too. Beam me up, Scotty. A while back Philip and others had posted regards some newfangeled 4 million pound or whatever it was "worship center" in the UK. I think the one in Portugal is the new champion. It looks perfectly suitable to sacrifice a goat in.
I have never looked into a representation of Christ's 'face' and been frightened before. It is hideous, pitiless, blank. The sanctuary has no lamp and there is no tabernacle in the holy place.
Perhaps this is why Our Lady, if I remember correctly, made a point of telling the children that the Portuguese would never lose their faith.
What amazes me is that there are no spires - no reaching up of the heart, mind and soul to the heavens, to God.
Just flatness - it is a sad looking building. Doubt if the Architect is even religious let alone Catholic. Wouldn't employ him/her to design an 'out-house'.
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