Customer Reviews

Ugly As Sin: Why They Changed Our Churches from Sacred Places to Meeting Spaces and How We Can Change Them Back Again (Forthright Edition)

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Architect turned author Michael Rose does a masterful job of providing a well reasoned and documented history of what Vatican II actually desired and what has happened in Catholic Churches throughout the world. A lively and interesting writing style keep the reader focused and engaged. I suspect this book will mark the beginning of the trend to restore dignity and transendence to Catholic worship spaces .

Michael S. Rose has written an excellent book about church architecture. It is highly informative, but it isn't too technical. A non-architect can understand it easily.

Rose begins by showing what it is that makes a church a house of prayer. He describes, in detail, how theology and architecture come together to lift the soul of the faithful to the contemplation of God. All of the ornate decorations, the high peaked ceilings, the statues, the altar rails - everything that was once an important part of a church building was there for a reason. One could rightly call such a church "a gospel in stone". Rose's enumeration and explanation of the "three natural laws" of church architecture help the reader to understand just what it was that made many old churches so inspiring.

Then he goes on to show how a "modern" church building fails to accomplish the important goals of traditional church architecture. Not only that, but many "modern" churches actually work against prayer and hinder the spreading of the faith. Most modern churches violate at least one of the "three natural laws" of church architecture, and some violate all of them. With those laws in mind, it's easy to see what's wrong with modern churches.

Then Rose goes on to explain that such a change was never intended by Vatican II. Even more interesting is the fact that the same "liturgical design consultants" who were invoking Vatican II to promote a new style of architecture were ignoring a directive from the Vatican to preserve and protect the church's great heritage of art and architecture. He also unmasks the anti-Catholic agenda that many architects bring to the designing of churches. He also shines a spotlight on the inexplicable fact that, while many dioceses have design contests for new churches (especially cathedrals), the winners are almost invariably modernists, even though there are beautiful and traditional submissions. (For example, he reprints a design for a new cathedral in Los Angeles that was done by an architecture student. You won't believe how different it is from the design that was chosen!)

Rose ends his book with a proposed course of action, and he includes some very helpful resources - including a list of architects who know and respect the Church's traditions.

Thank God for Michael S. Rose! He gives us hope that a day will come when churches look like churches again!

Michael Rose must have been reading my mind when he wrote this book. Thank you Mr. Rose, for a book well written. There are countless people who share your opinion and hope that your book makes a difference. I am appalled by the look of many new Catholic Churches. One has to really question what those in charge were thinking and how they can expect worshipers to feel the sacred in such places. A few years ago I moved to a new area and soon set out to find the nearest Catholic Church in my new neighborhood. As I walked up the street I had been told it was on, I saw a beautiful stone Church with gothic style stained glass windows and a tree laden courtyard. I was about to enter when I noticed the sign "Episcopal". Where was the Catholic church? I turned and looked across the street. There it was - a super modern, super ugly, uninspired glass and stucco structure that looked more like a tourist information center (not a stained glass window in sight). Inside it was spartan, like a town meeting hall. To make matters worse there were "electric candles"! I have no idea how many parishoners worship in that place, I never went back there. In our current times we need places of worship that will give us a sense of tradition, holiness, sacredness, and permanence.

Ever walk into a new church and say "THIS is a CHURCH?"?
Ever walk into a "renovated" old church and feel like you had been robbed, but couldn't think why something "materialistic" caused such a response in you? You were so mad, you were almost ashamed, and that made you madder, and more ashamed, and you couldn't figure out why?

Michael Rose explains how all those little details being written out of so many churches add up to make it a Catholic church, and he explains why the building projects of some people end up looking distinctly non-Catholic, feeling non-Catholic, because they are non-Catholic. They are inspired by anti-Catholic architects and "liturgists", whose ideas are promoted by peole claiming to be "Catholics".

Do read it, don't let it make you too mad. If it does, form a restoration committee.

If you have ever wandered into a 'modern' Catholic church and wondered, "What on earth were they thinking?" or "Where have they taken my Lord?", this book is a must read.

If you have ever wandered into a beautiful and inspiring church built on the traditional model and want to understand why a building was able to lift your mind and spirit to contemplation of heavenly things, this book is a must read.

The author explains the three natural laws of church architecture. All enduring church buildings adhere to these three laws. He then takes you on a pilgrimage to both a traditional and modern church explaining the elements that evoke as sense of the sacred or profane. I found the fact that a non-Catholic who denies fundamental Catholic beliefs, is responsible for the horrible disfigurement that is most modern church buildings both horrifying and angering. The author then gives us hope explaining how we can reclaim our beautiful architectural heritage.

The binding of this book is solid and the paper bright and of high quality. I could only wish that the pictures were in color, although that probably would have driven the price up too much.

If you have even a passing interest in church architecture, buy this book.

In subtle and no-so-subtle ways architecture projects meaning and sets a tone. Buildings are not value neutral. There are good and there are bad. Done properly, a well architected building enhances the experience of its intended occupants. Done poorly, a building can create spaces that disorient and degrade. In Ugly as Sin, Michael S. Rose shares his insights into the history of Catholic church architecture taking the reader through a virtual tour of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Using Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral as an archetype Rose charts the course of a church "pilgrim" as they progress from the profane to the sacred. Aided by ample photographs the description of this journey serves up a feast for both the eyes and the soul. Beginning with the outer façade each step along the pilgrim's path envelopes them further in an environment that reinforces their spiritual journey and ultimately focuses them on the altar of the paschal mystery. Rose presents imagery so thick and rich that you can almost taste it.

Next, the pilgrim's journey takes them to the modern church. Barely able to distinguish it from any surrounding structure the pilgrim arrives disoriented and confused. Searching for a focus, the pilgrim finds none. Instead they find a world no different than the one outside. The modern church serves up an entrée as bland as the fast food of our daily lives. Nothing sacred is offered here.

To this Rose sets out to answer the question, how did we get this way? It wasn't by happenstance or accident that the modern church has been denuded. It was by design. Ennobled by a misinterpretation of Vatican II documents a movement within the church has set about to strip churches of all that sets them apart and in their place create a public meeting hall. This choice has had detrimental consequences. It has resulted in the creation of an environment that takes the member's focus away from the sacred. Literally, these new designs are "ugly as sin".

Rose ends his work on an upbeat note. The tide is beginning to turn. Older churches that were stripped of their majesty are having some of it returned while within several new churches movements have begun to transform them into more meaningful places of worship.

Ugly as Sin makes its case clearly and forcefully. It challenges the church-bound reader to experience more and demand more from their church environment.

This is an important book for a number of reasons:

1. It can be counted among that group of books that signaled that something has gone terribly wrong with the post-Vatican II renewal. In 2006 we (thankfully) are finally seeing true reform. The seminaries are being reformed, the priesthood is being cleaned up, our Catholic Universities are being called to return to their roots, we have a new catechism and the faithful are finally being taught the faith, and many of the new churches and shrines being built are eschewing the modernist trends of the last 50 years and returning to design that is timeless and a faithful representation of the Faith. Indeed, we are seeing more and more Churches being restored (as opposed to renovated)- a sign that the changes imposed during the 70's and 80's were theologically and aesthetically wrong. This book is important because it was possibly the first to tackle the issue head on and call a spade a spade . . . a sin a sin.

2. From this work, and others like it, a movement has emerged of Church architects to defend and advance the Tradition of architecture. An organization was launched called the Instituted for Sacred Architecture (www.sacredarchitecture.org) and it publishes a journal and highlights best practice and critiques poorly designed new church buildings. Another website grew out of the book: www.dellachiesa.com - which too is about traditional sacred architecture.

3. The word is getting out. The laity is no longer sitting back and doing what they are told by psudo-experts who toute themselves as authoritative interpreters of Vatican II and then dismantle the tabernacle, move the altar and form the pews in a circle around the "family meal". Thankfully, the lay person can now say STOP! And have the supporting evidence to defend what is beautiful and sacred.

We are beginning to see the emergence of what Dr. Paul Vitz, PhD called a "Transmodernist" movement which is marked by a transcending of the modernist doctrines (which the Church has declared heresy) and recovering an authentic experience (and theology) of the Sacred.

Mr. Rose's book is important because it has signaled the fall of the old regime and the restoration of the sacred in Architecture. This is an excellet book for learning why this happened and why it was wrong. It is a hopeful book because it points out the direction of where things are headed for the Church which is marked by the John Paul II Generation!

Thank you Mr. Rose.

PS: If you look at the negative Amazon reviews of this book, they claim Mr. Rose is biased. But if you look at their other reviews, you can quickly surmise who carries the bias. The reality is that a minority of people have invested their identity and professional ethos on the kinds of buildings Mr. Rose legitimately tears apart and exposes to the light of common sense. That is why you will read ugly posts that tear apart Mr. Rose and his book. If you can't win based on ideas, you have to attack the bearer of the ideas himself.

Make no mistake about it. Michael Rose clearly has a point of view. Rose is a conservative Catholic author who has now written a number of books that present in an interesting and succinct way why so many of the so called "reforms" adopted by the Church have clearly backfired. For a very long time I have felt that the majority of new Catholic churches being built today are just plain awful. And so I when I came across Michael Rose being interviewed about "Ugly As Sin" on EWTN I rushed out and got a copy right away.

This book validates nearly everything I have been thinking and feeling over the past two decades. Whenever my wife and I walk into one of these new Churches we just shake our heads. They resemble auditoriums or theatres but rarely do they look like a church. There is nothing sacred or inspiring about them. Rose points out many of the problems incumbant with these new structures. In most of these new Churches the tabernacle, which should be front and center and the main focal point in a Catholic Church has been relegated to the sidelines. I recently visited a Church in Connecticut where the tabernacle was not even located in the main Church!!! Instead is was in a seperate room off to the side with one small bench and kneeler available for Eucharistic adoration. And in this Church the vestibule has been renamed the "greeting room". According to Rose, these churches have been designed more as places to socialize than as the sacred House of the Lord that it is supposed to be. Rose examines the origins of these problems and reinforces his arguments with page upon page of photos from some of these churches. And the problem does not end there. Older churches have not escaped the madness. In the suburban parish my wife grew up in the Church was recently renovated. All of the statues were removed and when the job was completed you could hardly distinguish this Church from a Protestant church. Again, there is absolutely nothing inspiring about it.

Rose urges parishioners to speak up and get involved when decisions are being made about new construction or renovation. He also points out that some architectural schools have begun to address the problem by offering courses in tradtional Church architecture. And there are signs that the next generation of priests and younger members of the laity are beginning to demand more traditional Chruches. It is a trend worth keeping your eye on. Whether you agree or disagree with Michael Rose, reading this book will help concerned Catholics get up to speed on the issues involved. It is worthwhile reading.

This is one of the best "reality" books I have read in long time. It was time that abuses in the American Catholic Church be published and explained, besides the media sensationalism. Now if the Vatican can clean house, that would probably make a lot of American Catholics return to the Church.

A priest-friend once confided that if he were appointed as parish priest of a particular parish he would enter its church for the first time on a bulldozer to the cheers of the long suffering parishioners. The parish in question had built one of those modern churches with which we're all too familiar.

The title of this book says it all about prevailing trends in modern church architecture, rather directly but not without subtlety. For it is Rose's conviction that such buildings are not only aesthetically abhorrent, but that they are also theological distortions - sinful in the same way that sin is a privation of a due good.

Rose offers a typical tour of both a traditional and a modern church, which provide a sound catechesis on Catholic architecture, liturgy and faith. He identifies the origins of the modern departure from the traditional principles of Catholic architecture (which he identifies in his first chapter), and `names and shames' those largely responsible for the protestantisation of Catholic churches. A six-step plan for recovery is offered, and some encouraging examples of re-reordering are given. The book is thoroughly illustrated, though one cannot but shudder at photographs of jackhammers destroying a high altar.

This book has been a long time coming. Would that it were published twenty or thirty years ago. Now that it is available, there is no excuse for perpetuating the pretence that such buildings as have been inflicted upon the Catholic faithful in the past few decades are pleasing to either God or man. If you dare, give your parish priest or your bishop a copy.

Ugly As Sin belongs on your shelf beside Thomas Day's masterful exposé of the woeful state of Catholic Church music Why Catholics Can't Sing, and it awaits the company of a much-needed book asserting the true, the good and the beautiful in the face of the polyester and the pathetic in the realm of church vesture. With such books in print, the recovery of the sacred in our worship cannot but be one step closer.