Friday, February 23, 2007

Old St. Caspar's, Wauseon

Very nice. I wonder if that was a window behind the crucifix? The vaulting over it is rather unusual. I like that Sacred Heart statue to the left of the altar.
There was a time when most churches had stencilling like this. It was a common decorative element for the sanctuary. A lot of it was lost in the elitist period of the 60's and 70's. The general attitude of "liturgists" was that you and I, the laity, were hopeless idiots who had to be kept in line. They felt that we would be distracted by things like this. Sort of the same sort of thing as the attitude that we're too stupid to understand a correct translation from the Latin. In their general lack of common sense, they failed to realize that a blank wall would be more distracting and might actually cause drowsyness. Another example is the jacuzzi sort of baptismal font. The sound of running water was supposed to be relaxing. Well, it may be, under the right circumstances, but it can also be deucedly distracting. And we won't mention how problematic it can be for people with kidney problems. As with most things, it would have been better to think before acting. Unfortunately, for people of that period, thinking was not a priority. Rushing headlong into a future that never even remotely met their grandiose expectations was more the fashion.

1 comment:

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

"And we won't mention how problematic it can be for people with kidney problems."

I wish you hadn't said that...

Gotta go ;-)