CMR’s very own Denis McNamara has a terrific article in this month’s Adoremus Bulletin titled “Consecration of Thomas Aquinas College Chapel of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity: A Triumph of Sacred Architecture — A Church That Teaches”
It is well worth the read it exceprted here and continued at Adoremus.
by Denis McNamara
The new chapel of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California was consecrated on March 7. An articulate classical design that drew clear praise from the students, faculty and friends of the college, the chapel stands as more than a great local achievement. This new church shows that a critical hinge point in the renewal of Catholic liturgical architecture has been reached. We now know with certainly that the renewal of traditional Catholic architecture can be done, it can be done properly, and that it is delightful.
In many ways, the new chapel serves as a stumbling block for some in the mainstream architectural establishment who have been saying for decades that a serious, intellectually rigorous renewal of classical architecture could not and should not be done. Yet dozens if not hundreds of architects went on their way designing credibly classical homes, stores, apartment buildings, restaurants and collegiate buildings in a movement that has come to be known as “New Classicism”. A book published by the Institute of Classical Architecture entitled A Decade of Art and Architecture, 1992-2002 pointed out some years ago that a full-scale revival of classical architecture was well under way. However, amid the hundreds of buildings shown in that catalogue, only two were churches and neither was Catholic.
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