Mexican firm Fernando Romero EnterprisE (FREE) has won a competition to design a chapel in Miami with plans modelled on the pleated fabric gown of religious figure the Lady of Guadalupe.
A twisted tower will provide a spire over the chapel’s altar and will feature a stained-glass skylight decorated with an image of the Lady of Guadalupe.
The architects intend this image to project down onto visitors sat in the sunken assembly hall, to “stress the connection with the sky” and “represent the contrast between earth and heaven”.
If you thought that the worst insult to be throw at Our Holy Mother was the Taj Mahoney in Los Angeles, think again. This design just smacks of goddess-worship, hardly befitting a woman whose message to us is, "Do as He says." It is her image that is "projected down" onto the main altar, while what appears to be a simple cross - sans corpus - remains in the background.
And the altar? A sunken affair, lending to an image of Man above God. Yes, I am aware that many churches have been designed with the back slightly higher than the front, so as to allow people to better see and hear the Mass - but God still remains above all on a raised altar.
By the way, the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe shows that her robe is gathered, which is quite different from being pleated.
And could someone please tell me, who are the "27 Latin American virgins?"
This is not a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is the poor attempt of the caterer at a discount banquet hall to twist a dinner napkin into a swan.
6 comments:
Here is a good rule of thumb/ too clever is dumb...Ogden Nash
I would think the roofing and water run off problems caused by such a roof line would be annually prohibitively expensive and impractical.
Yes, I am aware that many churches have been designed with the back slightly higher than the front, so as to allow people to better see and hear the Mass - but God still remains above all on a raised altar.
Yes, that effect is also -- and better -- achieved via the traditional raising of the altar to a level higher than the nave.
Clearly the Church didn't know what she was doing all those centuries she built cruciform churches with altar rails and raised sanctuaries.
On the plus side, a person could sit in back of the altar and have Mass ad orientem...
Shall we also note that her gown in NOT white? There is nothing in this to even suggest it has anything to do with O.L. of Guadalupe. If you want to see a genuine structure to honor her, go see the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaCrosse, WI. Stunningly beautiful!
I'm sure the "27 Latin American Virgins" are the different titles of Our Blessed Mother throughout Latin America such as Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre (Cuba), Our Lady of Quinche (Ecuador), Our Lady of Suyapa (Honduras), Our Lady of La Altagracia (Dominican Republic), Our Lady of Aparecida (Brazil), etc.
This is wrong on so many levels. Has any Catholic bishop actually signed off on this, or is it the brainchild of some pseudo-catholic sect?
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