The Renovation Manipulation: The Church Counter-Renovation Handbook [Paperback]

Michael S. Rose (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2000

Renovation of Catholic churches is an issue that has been tearing apart parishes for 35 years. Communion rails have been ripped out, tabernacles hidden, kneelers removed, pews replaced by portable chairs, statues sold to antique dealers, and priceless works of art lost. Are these costly renovations really necessary, many wonder? The man in the pew instinctively resists the modernist design proposals, yet professional church renovators continue their attack in countless parishes across the continent. The Renovation Manipulation exposes the blueprint used by these highly-paid professionals to engineer unnecessary renovations. You'll learn about:

- The Protestant roots of modern Catholic church architecture

- The "re-education" process used to manipulate parishioners into accepting major changes to their church building

- The hallmarks of deceitful renovation schemes, including fabricating the requirements of Church law and Vatican II, false-advertising fund drives, and lame-duck parish committees

- How to respond to propaganda about: placement of the tabernacle, statues, and baptismal font; pews vs. chairs; removing the crucifix, communion rails, and kneelers; church "in-the-round"; and more

This convenient handbook, designed in an easy-to-use reference format, provides parishioners with the necessary knowledge and Church teaching to challenge the prevailing fads and opinions in liturgical design and architecture.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Michael S. Rose has written more than a warning about the physically and spiritually destructive process that often results from Catholic church renovations. He has provided priests and parishioners with armor to resist a calculated and misguided onslaught of what he terms the archi-liturgical establishment. Roses handbook should be required reading for all parish building committees; it will not be found on recommendation lists of liturgical consultants!" -- Thomas Gordon Smith, University of Notre Dame School of Architecture

"Well-documented, The Renovation Manipulation is an excellent resource for Catholics struggling with renovators who want to change their parish churches. In examining the problems that occur when renovations are undertaken without a true consensus among parishioners, Michael S. Rose has done a service in delineating the problem and providing resource and information to counter the elitists who want to change the look of churches as a means of changing the Church herself." -- William Donohue, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

At the beginning of the third millennium, there is much to reflect on concerning the rich architectural heritage of the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, attacks against these sermons in stone continue by some who lack vision and appreciation of the past. Michael Rose's new book lays bare the intentions of these modern iconoclasts and brings to light the Church's consistent teaching on the importance of preservation of Catholic art and architecture. His recommendations for defending the churches built by our grandparents are practical and steeped in experience. I highly recommend it to every church preservation committee. -- Duncan Stroik, editor, Sacred Architecture Journal

From the Author

For the past four years in my work as editor of St. Catherine Review I have spent considerable time reporting on church renovation disputes, showing exactly how "divisive" the proposals for, and results of, these renovations are. Many post-Vatican II renovations, allegedly predicated on the desirability of building "community" in liturgical worship and parish life, have produced the opposite effect: disunity, discord and alienation sometimes leading to an abandonment of the faith.

Proponents of the post-conciliar church renovations would have us believe the Second Vatican Council called for a new paradigm in the design of Catholic churches, one that justifies radical remodeling of existing structures. Although renovation enthusiasts are fond of invoking the Council, when challenged they cannot cite one relevant passage from the Council's documents to support their claims. The direction these renovations generally take is not one based on Church teaching or even officially approved theological doctrine. Rather, Catholics are being asked to accept the new church designs on the basis of subjective and contrived opinions that are passed off as authoritative mandates of the Church.

The man in the pew instinctively resists the design proposals. But church renovators have learned much in the first two to three decades of their profession's experience with America's Catholic parishes. Today's renovators, those who comprise the archi-liturgical establishment, form an elite few whose modus operandi is to effectively "deprogram" and "re-educate" parishioners in their new paradigm through a carefully devised process, one that is less than honest.

Since I first began reporting on church renovation projects I have heard from Catholics all over the country. Almost all describe the same dishonest process and the same architectural results. Others tell of warning signs of an impending project-capital fund drives, for example, for "repainting" or "restoration" or "expansion." Many simply say: "This once happened to us!"

In short, there is a blueprint for the renovation process. It has been tried in countless parishes across the continent and too often been ruthlessly implemented over the complaints of confused parishioners.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 161 pages
• Publisher: Aquinas Publishing Ltd.; 1St Edition edition (January 15, 2000)
• ISBN-10: 0967637104
• ISBN-13: 978-0967637105
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,572,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Michael Rose to the Rescue, April 17, 2000

By 

Donna (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Renovation Manipulation: The Church Counter-Renovation Handbook (Paperback)

The Renovation Manipulation is an essential tool for bewildered Catholics whose churches are under attack by a small but powerful cartel of contemporary iconoclasts.

Over the past 30 years, as the tempo mounted in a drive to drastically remodel churches, few laymen and women had the relevant Church documents at hand to defend their territory when the professional liturgical designer hit town. Faithful Catholics were thus largely helpless before claims that the Second Vatican Council mandated the proposed flood of innovations in church architecture, design and liturgical practice.

Normally docile though they are, most Catholics do not want their houses of worship to look like high school gymnasiums. They are uncomfortable when commanded to watch each other pray across a central table altar, rather than to gaze reverently at a crucifix above the altar. They are offended when the tabernacle in which the Blessed Sacrament is reserved disappears into a broom closet beside the furnace room. But they have lacked the documentation to prove that these orders represent merely idiosyncratic interpretation by a self-designated elite.

In The Renovation Manipulation, Michael Rose explicates the problem and provides exactly the documents needed to enable the faithful -- both lay and clerical -- to defend and preserve the liturgical forms, art and architecture of the Catholic church according to the authentic norms of her tradition and the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

He has done his Church a great service, and done it thoroughly, articulately and with civility. His book is highly recommended.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-buy for faithful Catholics, April 14, 2000

By 

Garvan F. Kuskey (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Renovation Manipulation: The Church Counter-Renovation Handbook (Paperback)

For the past thirty years dissident elements in the Catholic Church have been stripping parish churches, cathedrals and basilicas alike of their distinctive Catholic iconography and liturgical furnishings, all in the name of non-existent Vatican II "mandates". Faithful Catholics, most of whom have never read the documents of Vatican II, have watched in dismay, or even horror, as these self-styled "liturgy experts" have swooped into their parishes and ripped out Communion rails, marble altars, magnificent pulpits, and baptismal fonts. These liturgical vandals, often sporting impressive-looking "credentials", have torn tabernacles off high altars and hidden them in side rooms, back rooms, or even in former janitor closets. After reducing elegant marble high altars to shards, they have installed table altars in the middle of churches, surrounded by kneeler-less folding chairs arranged in theater-in-the-round fashion. Stations of the Cross have been dismissed as irrelevant and either thrown out or else reduced to abstract smudges. Beautiful statues of the saints have been removed from their places of devotion, smashed into pieces, and thrown into the dumpster. For thirty years faithful Catholics have known in their hearts that these liturgical demolitions were contrary to the Faith, but most remained silent in the face of pastors and bishops who told them that Church law "required" these wholesale destructions of irreplaceable church interiors that had lifted up their hearts and minds to God. Now, at last, comes Michael Rose's book The Renovation Manipulation which is aptly subtitled "The Church Counter-Renovation Handbook". Author Rose prints all the devious canards used by the so-called Liturgical Design Consultants on unsuspecting or poorly catechized parishioners, and then proceeds to demolish them with concise and copious references to authentic Church documents. With this book in the hands of the laity, no longer will the so-called liturgy "experts" be able to invade a parish and remain unchallenged when they attempt to bamboozle the faithful into accepting the liturgical deconstruction of their churches. This book is absolutely required reading for any Catholic who sees a notice in his parish bulletin that certain "changes" "may be necessary", or that a capital fund drive is in the offing. Buy several copies of this book and get them into the hands of the movers and shakers in your parish. Do it before they are co-opted by your pastor!

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Manipulators Outmanipulated!, February 13, 2000

By 

Christine (Petoskey, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Renovation Manipulation: The Church Counter-Renovation Handbook (Paperback)

This is an absolute essential handbook for any parish that is going through, or about to go through a Restoration, Rennovation, and Renewal process. Michael Rose has done all the homework to combat the LDC's archi-liturgical psychobabble that is meant to disarm and demean faithful parishoners.Rose sites official church documents whenever available to prove that we do not have to stand for letting our beautiful churches be stripped and whitewashed, or be told the way we practice our faith is outdated and wrong according to Vatican II. We are in the fight of our life to preserve the one, true, holy, Roman Catholic Church. Rose's book is critical information for those who want to win the battle!