Professor Ferdinand Bautista gives us a glimpse of the brighter and bolder Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.
According to an ABS-CBN online article, the renovated Cathedral is brighter and has 4 ambiance options.
They have turned the seat of the See of Manila into a theater!
And seeing the flat screen televisions in the picture above makes me cringe!
I think I know what will happen next: palayok censers, liturgical dancing, and more performances for the enjoyment of the faithful.
"The Manila Cathedral has four major switches that Ramirez calls the wedding button, the day-time mass button, the night-time mass button, and the special events button. One gets the desired ambiance in one switch."
ReplyDeleteThe daytime mass button and nighttime mass button, I get. This probably means that there will be more lights open for the nighttime masses than the daytime masses (more efficient to push just one button rather than have the maintenance crew press dozens of buttons). So no big deal for me.
But..."special events button" and "wedding button"??? :O
The flat screen televisions are just plain wrong. It's ironic, in a very sad way, that the "active participation" crowd pushes people further away from God by saturating churches with technologies that inhibit the imagination rather than engage the mind and heart. Instead of beautiful statuary, stained glass, icons and theologically correct architecture, we get flat screens that merely flatten the imagination and turn the Holy Mass into a spectator sport.
ReplyDeleteI would LOVE to get the Rood Screens back! Let's see if those people campaigning for the "all-seeing principle" during the Mass will survive.
ReplyDelete