Duncan Stroik

Architect Duncan Stroik
The Church as Patroness of Sacred Buildings
(from the May/June 1999 issue)

DUNCAN STROIK, AIA, Associate Professor of Architecture at the university of Notre Dame and editor of Sacred Architecture, spoke to an audience of over 200 gathered at the Drawbridge Inn in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky, on April 12 on "The Catholic Church as Patroness of Sacred Buildings"

Stroik advocates an architectural style that is "icon-laden, transcendent, and not iconoclastic," as has been the style of the contemporary "prayer barns" of the past 40 years in America and Western Europe.

Stroik said he saw hopeful signs of the renewal of Catholic patronage across America, both by clergy and laity. He acknowledged the expensiveness of restoring sacred buildings vetted during the iconoclasm of the 70s and 80s, while noting that colleagues of his now work full-time transforming Protestantized "worship spaces" back to Catholic "Houses of God." Other members of the Neo-Classical movement, of which Notre Dame’s architecture school is preeminent, are pioneering architectural designs that allow missionary parishes in rural, non-Catholic areas to erect dignified, transcendent structures for as little as $900,000.

He noted many historical examples of Catholic patrons working with the best artists of their day to construct or repair sacred settings for the Holy Mass. One early example of the perpetual need to repair and restore sacred buildings was Gregory VII who before he became Pope had a dream in which St. Paul put down his sword and took up a broom, telling him, "Courage, it is thy task to restore order."

Stroik also cited Emperor Justinian’s patronage of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, which was so beautiful that the Moslems "reverently transformed it into a mosque" rather than damage so marvelous an edifice. Pope Julius II’s prodding of Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel, Stroik noted, was a perfect example of the patron pushing the artist to do the best work of which he was capable, "even though Michelangelo considered painting a trivial craft compared with sculpting."

Stroik illustrated the profound effect of sacred buildings on the secular world around them with the example of the 19th-century neo-gothic St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. "Paid for by Irish immigrants, it was built on the outskirts of the city. Today, it still holds it own in mid-Manhattan as a place of respite...a holy place." The architect, he said, "must see his profession as a vocation... to make a better world through his materials. It is an opus dei, evangelizing those who only see the church from afar."

The bishop as patron

Stroik said that the role of the patron is to "find the best architect, challenge him to do his finest work and give him freedom to do that work." The patron (usually a bishop) should "study examples of great Church architecture" and "trust the architect to make aesthetic decisions, as inspired craftsmen, not as mere builders." He contrasted a bishop’s concern with the architect’s fee, usually the smallest expense in a major project, with the money spent hiring an attorney in a diocesan legal matter.

Recent examples of successful patronage cited by Stroik were Thomas Monaghan’s rebuilding of the Cathedral of Managua after the earthquake in Nicaragua and Holy Spirit Cathedral, Atlanta, whose $8 million pricetag was picked up by a single donor.

Stroik also indicated a possible return to the medieval concept of joining church with community as is happening with the planned Catholic villages that are to surround Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, in Lincoln, Neb., and around the Society of St. John’s seminary in Scranton, Penn.

"To lavious precious gifts on the House of God," Stroik said, has a long tradition in the Church, as shown in Scripture by the generosity of Mary in perfuming the Lord’s feet and in Joseph of Arimethea’s donation of the Holy Sepulchre. "We should have the attitude of sacrificial love, placing palms for Him to trod upon. As the Bride in the Song of Songs, the Church is at the center."

Show Christ present and active
Stroik did not limit his commentary on sacred buildings to churches alone. He encouraged the audience to consider every Catholic building as a a chance to "show Christ present and active on site.... Hospitals, colleges, homes for unwed mothers, seminaries, low-income housing—to think of Catholic buildings is to think of Catholic society in general." He recommended many practical options for patronage at a less grandiose level than church building: renovating sanctuaries and chapels of Perpetual Adoration; installing permanent altars and altarpieces; commissioning bronze tabernacles, marble founts, and Stations of the Cross; refinishing pews and stained glass memorials. "Offer to clean the church, garden, and paint."

He said ironically that "chapels in hospitals, high rises and nursing homes are the worst! And these are for the people least able to do anything about it, at the end of their lives when they need spiritual things the most."

Intergenerational projects
Noting that at present there is a strong movement to design churches based on traditional models, Stroik also urged Catholics to think about a lesser known tradition. "St. Peter’s wasn’t built in a day," he noted. It took generations of anonymous Catholics to finish the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. "It took the tireless labor of generation after generation content to contribute something dedicated to God." Catholics in the Middle Ages did not feel guilty about leaving work for future generations to finish. In fact, this "intergenerational project," as he called it, is itself a gift to future Catholics.

For this tradition to remain, he said, it is important to use permanent materials. "It is better to build well and leave the church unfinished than waste time on poorly built CCD rooms. It is nice to leave side chapels for later generations; let them add transepts, niches, decorated ceilings. Of course," he said realistically, "the danger is that it may never get finished, but the tradition is to build well so that it is worth being finished later."

He urged his audience to review Vatican documents, such as Sacrosanctum Concilium and Opere Artis to find out more about the "singular witness to reverence for God" that is expressed in architectural monuments—"sermons in stone." On the attitude of contemporary pastors concerning their churches, he contrasted the example of St. John-Marie Vianney "who worn hairshirts outside of church, but gold vestments inside."

Of the aesthetic principles he advocates in sacred design, Stroik ennumerated: 1. Transcendentality, generosity, and verticality; 2. Elegance of life and proportion; 3. High quality, durable materials

He said that the best investment a patron can make is to hire a good Catholic architect who will create wonderful things on a small budget. "Sacrifices must be made," he said. "You will not get something for nothing. The greatest budget problem, however, is lower expectations, when an architect is asked to design at a cost similar to the prices of commercial buildings."

This has a doubly negative effect on donors to such building projects, Stroik commented. "What we see ain’t so great! Why give for that? The laity just don’t see the sense in giving money for an auditorium or pole barn." Rather, Stroik called church architecture a "spiritual investment" which should be submitted to a much higher standard.

After briefly explaining his architectural and aesthetic problems with such recent projects as Cardinal Maida’s Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C., and Cardinal Mahoney’s Los Angeles Cathedral, Stroik confidently indicated that "this can be a Catholic moment.... But what are we patronizing? Never has a society had so much money to spend on their homes" and yet we build gymnasiums and multi-purpose auditoriums instead of Houses of God. Stroik summed up this theme with biblical allusions:

"For the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, Moses hired Bezelliel, the best in the world," Stroik said, adding that "David had a vision from God to build the Temple, but he wasn’t allowed to build it. Solomon, his son, was the patron, and he hired the best from around the world." Solomon’s attitude is one that could be learned by contemporary Catholics, Stroik chided: "I am living in a palace, but my God lives in a house of cedar."

"Environment & Art"
In the question-and-answer session following his talk, Prof. Stroik took on the issue of Environment & Art in Catholic Worship, the 1978 guide to church renovation and new church building. He said its authors "had no idea how succssful it would be" in providing trendy clerics and liturgists with a brief for "out-and-out Modernism." He noted that ironically most of the examples cited in the document are the work of one Modernist architect and the only example in the document of architecture pre-dating the 50s and 60s was that of a Shaker meeting house.

He criticized the document for enshrining "fan-shaped, theatre seating" as a liturgical necessity. "The amphitheatre was popular in the Pagan days of Greece and Rome. The early Church was well familiar with it," he said. "Yet the possibility of designing churches in that shape was never used until the 19th century by our Protestant brethren, who built their liturgies around the power of a preacher." This is a fine shape for a lecture hall, he added, but there is no proof, as EACW contests, that this arrangement encourages "active participation."

What it does encourage, Stroik clarified, is "the priest as entertainer and the whole concept of ‘horizontality.’ It stinks when it comes to adoration, weddings, and funerals, where it fights against the seriousness of these occasions."

"Unfortunately," Stroik added, "although it has no authority, if a local bishop wants to give it authority, you’re stuck." He mentioned hopefully that an upcoming NCCB document, "A Holy Dwelling" may put EACW to rest. It is said that this new document on the design and renovation of churches will be brought before the body of American bishops for discussion at their November meeting this year in Washington.

—Paul Bower

Video tapes of Duncan Stroik’s presentation at the April 12 Catholic Speaker’s Series can be ordered from Authentically Catholic Books 618 Washington St. Covington, Kentucky. (606) 431-7196.

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