Re: Re: reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

@Praxiteles wrote:

From the Journal of Sacred Architecture: Cardinal Rigali Speaks on Sacred Architecture

. . . . . The Holy Father explains that, “All the great works of art, cathedrals – the Gothic cathedrals and the splendid Baroque churches – they are all a luminous sign of God and therefore truly a manifestation, an epiphany of God.”

Again, that is a scandalously selective presentation of facts.

Consider the Residenz in Wurzburg:

a glimpse of the ‘Kaisersaal’ which is the centrepiece of the garden front and a sketch of one of the flanking wings.

The Residenz is a vast, opulent, baroque palace built by the corpulent Schonborn brothers, sussessively Prince-Bishops of Wurzburg, between about 1720 and 1745.

The architect was the same Balthasar Neumann, who created the masterpieces of rococco church architecture at Vierzehnheiligen, Neresheim and elsewhere, and here he did . . . . much the same thing . . . . but this time the only religious connection is the titled position [and vast resources] of his patrons.

Unquestionably the Residenz is another ”great work of art”, but is it ”a luminous sign of God and therefore truly a manifestation, an epiphany of God” ?

I suspect that the rosy cheeks of the Schonborns would blush even brighter at that notion.