AmericanPapist Comments
Was Dick Vosko spotted nearby?
Blech - very Euro-mod.
I wonder if His Holiness doesn't say something about these things? To anyone? Someone? Are there absolutely no folks in the Vatican itself setting this up? Where are the standards???
What junk.
Ick. Our bishop (Bsp. DiLorenzo) created a new position when he took over: director of his liturgies when he's away. That way, everything is the way it's supposed to be.
Why doesn't the Holy Father have someone who looks at that and asks for a nice, wooden altar instead?
Where do they come up with these things? That doesn't look like an altar. How bizzare.
Of course most modern churches don't look like churches either.
Is that supposed to be modeled after Dali's "Last Supper" painting??
Who is to blame, Marini or some local guy? We must know this.
In your typo I think you came close to an answer. You wrote "aethstetic" meaning to write aesthetic, but perhaps you were thinking Atheistic ;-) which is closer to what the builders of these altars may be trying to accomplish. How can one claim that this piece is worthy of the sacred mystery that will be celebrated upon it?
I think they made it this way so that no one would want to steal it.
What ARE those gold-colored things on the sides, anyway? Slides to keep EMOE away from the "altar?"
Maybe they will later attach to the sides of the altar so that the Pope can "ascend" - just like Jesus! See? And you all thought there was no good purpose to bad art!
At least there's a baldacchino ;)
They're doing much better for the Pope in Munich:
http://monkallover.blogspot.com/...lds-
oldest.html
My guess is that blame for ugliness falls on local authorities.
Those look like deck chairs on either side of the altar. Are those set out so that the deacon and subdeacon can catch a tan....
Maybe it's in the name of Minimalism? Keep your eyes on the Host Itself kind of stuff?
Well, maybe it will be covered up with an altar cloth, although my gut feeling tells me that it won't. Those gold chrome things look like what airport baggage handlers might use to transport luggage. Or cargo lift forks from a port loading dock that were no longer used, so they polished them up and dragged them in for the mass.
Perhaps the pictures were taken long before the setting up was actually completed.
Fr. S, you mean, the final product could be WORSE?
Honestly I agree that the altar is very ugly, although those metal things may offer a real function. It looks to me like they are shields, a kind of armor to stop the bullets of a sniper. When I was a seminarian in St. Louis one of my professors played a major part in organizing the visit of JPII, he mentioned to us that the altar was bullet proof and provided a way for the Holy Father to be swiftly extracted from any immediate threat. Ill bet that this is the function of those ugly things.
Now that is one disgraceful altar. It is almost an insult.
Fr. John, a pile of sandbags would have been cheaper. Haven't the Germans heard of plexiglass? Won't assassins try from the sides, or behind? And do the other hosts care so little for the pope's safety that they don't bunker his altar, too?
Mr. Peters, Im not sure what you are getting at, your suggestion about sandbags is a bit silly. Ballistic plexiglas would have to be at least a couple of inches thick, and the frame work for it would be too distracting to be practical. I'm not sure any kind of plexiglas could stop a .50 cal round. As for the back and sides who knows what kind of measures have been implemented. All Im doing is making a suggestion based on information that I have learned regarding a Papal visit to the U.S.
Regardless it is indeed ugly as I stated before.
I wonder what they would have done historically for an outdoor Mass? Pure unadulterated nature would be better than that carport!!
Did they run out of budget?!?
Fr, c'mon, if those were put there to deflect bullets, I'll buy you a German beer next time in I'm St.L. Best, edp.
Mr. Peters, sadly I am no longer in St. Louis Im now in the Diocese of Memphis. Although I do enjoy a nice Adventinus, I'd prefer a nice Chimay or a Maredsous #10. Beer made by monks at least supports the Church! ... Now how to find out...Hmmm Perhaps you know somebody?
Ah, well, Memphis needs good priests too. Maredsous #10, now you're talking.
Here's what they came up with for the Holy Father's Mass in Krakow in May:
http://www.krakow.pl/
fotogaleria...SCF4651_kopia_m
At least these folks have some dignity.
I am hoping those ugly bronze things are to hold flowers, but I doubt it.
Are they planning on having liturgical skateboarders? Those things look a little like those ramps the kids do tricks on.
I think I figured out what the bronze things on the side are... I think they are teleprompter screens for the priests on the celebrants' side of the altar. If the Pope says his mass in Latin, he probably may need to help the German priests follow the liturgy - if he says it in German, his entourage from Rome may need help. Designing the teleprompters at such an angle and of an opaque substance will not distract the congregation during the mass. Also the slanty slide parts up front hide any ugly (and potentially hazardous) electrical cords. I do agree; this is pretty ugly. You would think the Germans could come up with something a little more tasteful.
What happened?! This morning I was looking at some photos of the Papal mass, and from what I can tell the ugly altar-thingy is gone, replaced by a far better altar even-though it has a severe Germanesque austerity to it. It makes me wonder just what are we looking at in these pictures posted here?
No father, that's a different location. This one pictured in the post won't be used until the 12th.
Oh... thanks for clearing that up. I just got an email from Raymond Arroyo, he seems to agree with your father. So far it appears that I will have to attempt to send your dad a tasty Belgian ale.
God Bless
Fr. John
It now appears, from the pictures posted at yahoo, that the metal things are a part of the altar, which, when flipped over, provided shelter for the relics of some saint (presumably an early bishop of Regensburg - St. Wolfgang, perhaps?) beneath the mensa of the altar.
Maledictions! The computers at school are blocking the images frm the yahoo news feed... I'll have to blog on this later .
Finished result:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=...903767946e53bb7
Not totally bad.
However the blue blackdrop painted with one side "streaking away" ... kitsch!
Sometimes we are too ready to think the worse! As it turned out, it wasn't too bad at all. What's more surprising is the lack of comment about the relics beneath the altar at both Altoetting and Regensburg.
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