Sunday 6 April 2014

Identify this building....


.....I mean, do you think it is a water tower?

Or, maybe the entrance to a retro seventies style art gallery?

Or, is it some biological research station?

Of course, it is none of those things, the clue lies in the cross on the cream wall; it is, in fact, a church.

But, not only is this building a church, it is the National Shrine of Wales - Our Lady of Cardigan, also known as Our Lady of the Taper.

Unbelievable!

How does this compare with, say, Walsingham?

That looks more...er, traditional (and Catholic)


Or, even, Holywell, in mid Wales.

The 'Lourdes' of Wales

No one, least of all the Bishops of Wales, seems to care one iota for their national shrine.

Of course, the cry will go up that the diocese is strapped for cash. 

OK bishop, that's the problem, now think of a solution.

Start a fighting fund to re-build a proper shrine on the banks of the River Teifi (where it historically belongs).

And find a Catholic architect who has an awareness of how early churches (tabernacles) were built in biblical times and, no, that does not mean we want a badger skin edifice in Cardigan, just one that is pleasing to the eye (and Our Lady).

Finally, spend some money, quite a bit, in fact, on commissioning Catholic artists such as James Gillick and his twin sculptor brother, Theodore.


28 comments:

  1. Disgusting. Looks like a derelict warehouse.

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    1. I suggest you go inside the building if ever you are passing, Lynda, you may be pleasantly surprised.
      Sue

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  2. Sorry, Richard, but Holywell is in North (not Mid-) Wales. Also calling Holywell "the Lourdes of Wales" is idiotic in the extreme- not least because it is NOT a shrine of Our Lady- who has at least one well (Ffynnon Fair)- near St Asaph -already to her own name in North Wales.
    And before we criticise the Welsh bishops...do you know about Archbishop Mennini's visit to Holywell?

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    1. Patricius, I am sure you are correct regarding the geographical location of Holywell. I must pay more attention in future!
      The "idiotic" tab of 'the Lourdes of Wales' is not of my doing, that is a title that some folk use to describe Holywell. And, no, I don't know about Archbishop Mennini's visit to Holywell, please put me out of my misery.

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    2. Apologies for being such a grumpy old so and so!
      I know the nonsense of "Lourdes of Wales" is not yours- I think the local council use it. It assaults one on signboards as one enters the town.
      Archbishop Mennini was taken to Holywell by Bishop Brignall (of Wrexham) on his visit to the diocese last year and presented with a book about the shrine as a souvenir afterwards. Of all the Welsh bishops Bishop Brignall is arguably the least Philistine. In fact anything but! His, however, is probably the poorest diocese- any donations, please, to Bishop's House, Wrexham.

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    3. No apologies needed Patricius.......put it down to Lenten mortification.

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  3. What an eye-sore! Maybe the church looks better from the front?
    Your diocese is not alone in neglect of Catholic history. We lived in Devon for many years, and our local Catholic Church was in Crediton, listed as the Catholic pilgrimage-centre in honour of St Boniface, who was born in Crediton in 672AD. The church was of the same architecturally-sterile period as yours, probably the same sort of size, but unless things have changed over the last decade, had virtually nothing to suggest that it was a pilgrimage centre, and I don't think that it has a parish-priest as such. It is in the diocese of Plymouth, which has just seen a new Bishop take over from Bishop Christopher Budd, maybe things will improve.

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    1. Sadly Brian, that is the front of the church. I hope that Plymouth develops under the new bishop.

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    2. when 3 are gathered in my name i will be there !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! do you not hear yourself , open your heart and mind

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  4. Each time I see a picture of one of these modernist churches I think there cannot possibly be one uglier - and then I discover that there is! And why is it that recently built churches have plain crosses both inside and out and not a Crucifix?

    I visited a recently built church in a Paris suburb last year which had a plain cross inside (with a slanting horizontal bar to it). The church itself reminded me of a sterile operating theatre and when I eventually located the Tabernacle found this had been designed like an old-fashioned washboard. No wonder I did not recognise it at first. Pushing open a door at the back of the church I found a large magnificent possibly ebony Crucifix which had obviously been taken from the old church next door which was due to be demolished shortly. How sad to see it banished to a back room.

    Another church has just been completed in another suburb of Paris and having seen the picture on line can only say oh dear! What are these modern architects thinking of when they design such monstrocities?

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  5. Bauhaus movement, part of the Frankfurt School see: http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=111051.0

    Some of their aims:

    "1. The creation of racism offences.
    2. Continual change to create confusion
    3. The teaching of sex and homosexuality to children
    4. The undermining of schools’ and teachers’ authority
    5. Huge immigration to destroy identity.
    6. The promotion of excessive drinking
    7. Emptying of churches
    8. An unreliable legal system with bias against victims of crime
    9. Dependency on the state or state benefits
    10. Control and dumbing down of media
    11. Encouraging the breakdown of the family"

    Sound familiar? Read about it. They're incredibly dangerous and they've already achieved a lot of this.

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  6. This was my parish church for several years in the dim and distant past, and the interior more than compensates for the view you have chosen to portray here! Worshipping there was a wonderful experience with the light streaming through the modern stained glass windows. The main road into Cardigan passes by a vast Crucifix situated alongside the church which is obvious to all who pass.
    Sue

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    1. But not really a compliment to Our Lady Sue. I agree the interior is better but that, in itself is no great bouquet. And, as for light streaming through the windows, it's more like rain pouring through the shabby construction on 1970 something.

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    2. you will never get a christian comment from a mr richard collins sadly.!!!!!!!

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    3. Anonymous...that, in itself, is a most unchristian comment. Please have the courage and decency to leave a name.

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    4. will my name help you change you views i doubt it however you can have it veronica born 1949

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    5. Yes Anonymous, I remember the a quote from Jesus, love the buildings, if the building slaps you, turn the other cheek, love all buildings. So you are right, Richard is being un-Christian but when you attack Richard, of course, we know you are truly being Christian because I don't remember Christ telling us anything about turning the other cheek for other people, just buildings.

      Obviously I am being facetious.

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  7. that someone Catholic paid someone to make a temple of the Almighty look like a brutalist YMCA is something the brutalists might even regret.

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  8. .....I mean, do you think it is a water tower?


    Of course not! It's a flak tower. Anyone can see that!

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  9. I'm surprised that even atheist planning officials would have consented to the construction of something so ugly. That the diocese allowed this suggests an abberant Faith.

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  10. Maybe the people there are dying to replace the flak tower with something Catholic. There is a parish in New York whose beautiful sanctuary was torn down and replaced with big pink hockey sticks in the '80s; as soon as the opportunity arose to correct the problem, the parishioners forthwith coughed up more than enough money to get the job done.

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  11. Richard
    To be fair, these two buildings have been built in different eras. 70s style perhaps having as much impact as Victorian gothic.
    (Don't you find it ironic that Establishment Victorians built buildings in the pseudo medieval church style that their precursor Henry VIII destroyed...)

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  12. Is it a sewage treatment facility?

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  13. Reading this again brought back memories of a talk I attended given by a visiting Priest some years ago. He suggested that people were put off entering churches because they looked different from ordinary buildings. And he added that he was in favour of having shop frontages on churches which he believed would be more inviting to the public. He obviously would not approve of Cathedrals such as Chartres and Reims whose frontages are definitely different from ordinary buildings!

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  14. Thank you all for your suggestions and comments. I am sure that the 3 Welsh Bishops will be moved to action. Well, fairly sure. In fact, not sure at all; it would take a stick of dynamite to wake those three men up!

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  15. Jesus comes to this building through the hands of the priest at the consecration of the host. God, in the appearances of bread and wine makes his majestic appearance, surrounded by angels no doubt prostrating themselves all over this building. I don't suspect they think it looks like a sewer plant.

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