THIS is a Church?????????

Last Thurs (7 June) Gerald Augustinus posted some pictures on his blog sent to him by a reader. They are pictures of St. Luke's Catholic Church in Graz, Austria. (My eyes, my eyes!) I couldn't believe what I saw. Needless to say, the pictures evoked a lot of commentary, mostly negative, naturally.

Here are the pictures with some of my thoughts:

(Caution: May cause severe agita in those who expect a church to look like a church.)

This is an overall picture of the interior. When I 1st saw the picture I thought it was a meeting room, that is until I looked at some of the other pictures. Then I went back & saw their locations in this picture. On the right side of the picture I initially thought that a table was missing, I still do. & I still think it looks more like a meeting room than a church.

This is the tabernacle. This is the only item that I can come up with some logical explanation for. The shape is a triangle, like that of a tent. In the OT a tabernacle was a type of tent, so I wonder if this was made in this shape to imply that fact. That or the triangle shape implies the Trinity.

Would you believe this is the crucifix/cross? How about a TV antenna? That is what it looks like to me, causing me to opine on what kind of reception it gets. (& I do mean TV reception.)

This is the sanctuary lamp. Yes, you read that right. My theory is this: When someone comes up to receive the Eucharist at Communion the color of the light determines the state of the person's soul. If it is Green, no sin, nothing to prevent the person from validly receiving Communion. Yellow, the person has some venial sins. The person can receive Communion but should ask God to forgive those sins as he/she does. Red, the person is in a state of mortal sin, or is forbidden to receive Communion for some other reason. It may be under Canon 915, because the person is excommunicated, or because the person is not Catholic. (Too bad this isn't true as it would save a lot of trouble. But then, I doubt if most dioceses or parishes would want something that would require them to live up to the Church's rules & laws.)

Would you believe a meteor landed on the altar? No! How about that this IS the altar? Yup, this is the altar of sacrifice for the Church. OK, I know in OT times & among pagan religions something similar to this was used as an altar. It makes you wonder what ever happenned to the idea that the altar was also a table?

& I thought we had some ugly auditoriums passing for churches in the Archdiocese of DBQ! This ALMOST, emphasis on almost, makes the new Cathederal of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, CA look like a church.