The parish church in the picture above may not be very awe-inspiring on the outside, but it does boast some interesting stained-glass windows on the inside, including one of Pope John Paul XXIII — which is either a misnamed tribute to Pope John XXIII or an imaginative portrait of a pope to be elected sometime in the fourth millennium of the Catholic Church. 
Even more interesting are the windows dedicated to ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, one window being dedicated to non-Catholics and the other to non-Christians. The latter window, in addition to portraying historical figures such as Buddha and Mohammed, also pays tribute to the Egyptian mythological god Horus, son of Isis.
This is the kind of thing that makes me ever more grateful for my own parish, built in the 1950s. The mission-style architecture, the cruciform layout of the interior, the stained-glass windows of the stations of the cross and of Catholic saints, the life-sized crucifix….. The interior is a bit stark when compared to how it might have looked a few decades ago, but it is still a lovely church. Compared to the Modern Office-Complex style of this parish that is decorated with stained-glass of questionable theological and artistic taste, my parish is heaven on earth.
(Nod to the friend who sent me the links.)
What… no tribute to Moloch?
No Baal?
How did they overlook that?
Note: All of the links, graphics, and text were current as of my visit to the parish’s web site yesterday. (I always test my links in draft before saving posts.) It appears that the site is down right now and the links are currently inoperable, but hopefully they’ll be restored soon.
(shudder) ACK!ACK!ACK! (more, prolonged shuddering)…
dubya tee eff???!!!!
What an abomination!!!
When I first saw pictures of this Church, I though that it MUST be a California Church, but even the Pagan Office Tomb erected by Cardinal Mahoney (http://www.olacathedral.org/) has …
Nevermind … It’s just as modernist, hideous, and evil as that church.
Does Jesus look angry to anybody else in those stained glass windows?
I suppose it was so obvious that people featured in church art have to be Catholic or Biblical that there never was a statement forbidding non-Catholics?
My home parish built a new sanctuary, and supposedly Martin Luther King, Jr. was going to be featured in the stained glass. (The parish was founded in the seventies by hippie wannabes.) Four years ago, only two windows were installed, horrible ice-white versions of St. Cecilia and St. Anthony of Padua. No windows since. Very non-incarnational
Turkish court orders Pope shooter back to prison
A court ruled Friday that the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 should return to prison to serv
“Nevermind … It’s just as modernist, hideous, and evil as that church”
Don’t you think it’s a little bit of a stretch to call the LA Cathedral hideous and evil? I mean, I have some objections to it, but I don’t really think it’s that bad. I’ve seen worse. As for the figures depicted in the windows, that’s really terrible. Sometimes you see the signs of the zodiac in older churches. Off the top of my head, I know they have them in Ste. Anne de beaupres in Quebec City.
And look at the trees out front. No doubt some form of nature worship…
“The last of the prophetic figures is positioned at the bottom of the window. He is Mahatma Gandhi, the Hindu lawyer who became a symbol of pacifism in the struggle for his people’s independence.” Why don’t they just add Nelson Mandela as well?
How would you depict the gods of Materialism and Lust? At first I thought you were kidding! What has relativism brought us to? Since stained glass are supposed to be teaching tools, from a traditional standpoint, what are these teaching us:
1. Jesus is just as good as any of these idols and “prophets”
2. Catholicism is no better than the fractured Christian denominations in matters of Truth.
Where can I sign-up for that parish!
Josh, the Catholic Knight blog
Hey, what is your best way to promote Catholic views in American politics? Let’s have some fun with this one! Post yours here…The Catholic Knight: Catholics in American Politics
What would the virtue of Diversity personified look like? Tolerance would best be depicted as a woman holding her nose with a look of resignation on her face.
I guess the idea that Saint Ambrose himself would have refused to enter this Church never entered into their mind.
Horus and Buddha? Immortalized in stained glass windows in a Catholic Church. I can just see the new Jack Chick tracts now. Don’t encourage them, for crying out loud!
This sort of “Art” is what makes it hard to teach absolute truth nowadays.
If the art designed for a Church is abstract and relative, how do I know the artist’s faith isn’t abstract and relative, too?
Hope they don’t read the post on Mammon. It might give them ideas.
The church’s website identifies “Pope John Paul XXIII” as Angela Roncalli. What a coincidence –
Pope John XXIII was Angelo Roncalli!
Wow. That building would make a great gymnasium. How hard would it be to pipe in ice for hockey?
“I guess the idea that Saint Ambrose himself would have refused to enter this Church never entered into their mind.”
Our thoughts exactly.
“Don’t you think it’s a little bit of a stretch to call the LA Cathedral hideous and evil?”
No.
BTW, Michelle, we beat you to the punch on this one…
http://inquisitorgeneralis.blogspot.com/2006/01/awful-wretched.html
Discomike, I just looked at the L.A. cathedral on the website you suggested. Hideous is right.
“Sometimes you see the signs of the zodiac in older churches. Off the top of my head, I know they have them in Ste. Anne de beaupres in Quebec City.”
I don’t see a problem with this. The signs represent the constellations on the sun’s ecliptic, an astronomical fact, and do not necessarily have anything at all to do with astrology. Dante mentioned various signs of the zodiac in their astronomy context many times in the Divine Comedy.
Pope “John Paul XIII” must be the Gender-Bending Pope, since I see they have his first name listed as “Angela” on their site. Absolutely unbelievable……….
I suppose you could have non-Catholics who were virtuous pagan monotheistic forerunners and stuff, like Cormac or Akhenaten. But… um… not in the stained glass. No. No, I don’t think so.
What! No Simon Magus window! The Gnostics must feel left out!
And what about the communists? Obviously this church needs a Marx and Lenin window.
And Emperor Nero, too, so they can show how tolerant they are toward oppressors of the Church.
There are signs of the zodiac in the ceiling of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. I believe.
Intersting that their website says that blue is the litugical color of the vestments used for Advent and Lent. Then reading further down, it states that South Buffalo will only have 3 priests available in the near future. Given the windows and the examples of liturgical innovation why should anyone be surprised at the lack of vocations?
Please correct your incomplete post. You did not link to the “Praise and Tolerance of the Antichrist” window. What gives?
{sarcasm}
Well, I can only guess that they don’t have any image to represent Wicca, because there’s no major warlock that is famous enough to be recognized in stained glass. However, I’m surprised that there’s no image of Anton LeVay to represent Satanism.
{/sarcasm}
How would something like this even get by the local bishop’s office? This is as great a desecration of Catholicism as I could even imagine! (And I’m sure that the Muslims would object to an image of Mohammed on a Christian church building.)
“Well, I can only guess that they don’t have any image to represent Wicca…” How about The Wicked Witch Of The West?
Of COURSE the future Pope JP XXIII is a woman named Angela! Y’all didn’t get the memo from the Dan Brown “Da Vinci Code” playbook? If Jesus & Mary Magdelene created a blood line that has now emerged in the person of Sophie to reveal to all us poor Catholic robot-sheep the truth of our faith, why wouldn’t John XXIII have done the same for Future Church? 🙂
Perhaps in charity, you could see that the mistakes were on the webpage (regarding John XXIII), and not on the window itself. Perhaps the webmaster is a volunteer or someone not nearly as proficient as the rest of you. It’s easy to heap scorn through a keyboard. Would you be this nasty in person? I have no comment on the non-Catholic people in the other window.
Anon, no one was heaping scorn at the webmaster. No one was being nasty. People were using the error on the web page to poke a little fun at the type of philosophy portrayed on the windows, that waters down the Faith.
Having been a member of this parish from my very birth I find your misconceptions both ill informed and insulting. I have always found these stain glass windows to beautiful.This beauty stems from their uniqueness. The parish itself has been a beacon of light to many and has benefited the community it is located in since it’s opening.
And as for the window that represents other religions, can you truly find fault in the acceptance of other cultures and religions. If one was brave enough to open their eyes they would find that many other religions preach peace, love and respect just as the Catholic Church does. As for figures such as Buddha and Martin Luther King Jr, should people be damned and looked down upon due to their beliefs when they have taught lessons of peace and equality.
Further more these windows are rooted in the Roman Catholic Church, if you had read the website (as you claim) then you would know that they were designed to represent the second Vatican council. Within the second Vatican council the statement entitled “Nostra Aetate” was released this was the churches official declaration dealing with relations of the church with non Christians. Within this specific declaration it is said that discrimination is to be condemned. I could defend every window if given the time, but I do not choose to.
While I accept that there will always be differences in opinions I feel that your attack on this parish is wrong. The values that they have instilled in me carry on into me everyday life. While you do not like the windows you have no right to judge the parish and what it offers to the community. I hope that you will find it within yourself to be more open and accepting. Thank you for showing me how much I appreciate the parish that I grew up in. You have shown me that not all churches preach that you should be kind to others.