Vol. 6 (2019): Architectures for a new liturgy. Actions on the religious heritage after Vatican II - Overall visions

The renovation of the places of worship - presbyteries, baptisteries and other sacramental spaces - has hardly been treated by the scientific literature, despite its enormous importance for the old buildings. In fact, we still wonder if there really existed general rules on the subject -or, in any case, suggestions or recommendations- that could have guided the different actors involved.
In different countries there were authorized voices that fostered paradigmatic experiences, created study commissions, published reference manuals or criticized excesses. Many of them have not received enough public recognition, or their contribution to the debate has not been disclosed.
The VI International Conference on Contemporary Religious Architecture, to was held in Porto from October 10 to 12, 2019, undoubtedly was a good time to exchange views on all these issues.

There are two apparently contrasting ideas for thinking about the Church: People of God and Body of Christ. More than underlining the demotic or hierarchic character of the Church, their Biblical embedding allows recognizing other complementary aspects, such as the historical insertion, the eschatological orientation, the centrality of the Eucharist, and the configuration with Christ. Concerning the repercussions on church architecture, the idea of Temple of the Spirit not only strengthens the experience of communion and the synaesthetic dimension of the building, but also allows combining the two aforementioned ideas in a dynamic use of the liturgical space, hence avoiding reductions to static church models. To live the liturgical space as an organic succession of communitarian configurations emphasizes the celebrating assembly in its active participation. The three ecclesiological ideas express different attitudes to God’s mystery: therefore, they must be understood as complementary configurations of one Eucharistic assembly during a celebration.

The reform of the Liturgy after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) implied a renewal of the criteria for the construction of buildings for worship in the Catholic Church. In a first phase (1969-88) this renovation was quickly assimilated by the sacred architecture of the time. Subsequently, a series of historical processes of the Catholic Liturgy and contemporary architecture gradually determined the development of a new period for contemporary sacred architecture (1988-2008).
The article concludes trying to identify the dynamics of evolution of Catholic sacred architecture in the last fifteen years, in which some recent documents of the Papal Magisterium have had a special relevance: valorization of the iconic dimension of church-building; sacredness; orientation; prominence of the ambo; relevance of the place where the Eucharist is reserved; extraliturgical; and devotional use of the temple and iconography and moderation of abstraction.

Since 1924, The Central Papal Commission for Religious Works of Art in Italy, an organ of The Holy See, with advisory and executive functions, has been operating with the aim of protecting and promoting sacred art. More than 6000 projects have been submitted to the Commission over about 60 years.
Giovanni Fallani was the president of this Papal Commission during the Second Vatican Council. He is the drafter of the chapter included in the document Sacrosantum Concilium, concerning the art into the liturgy.
From the fund counting, recently inventoried in the Vatican Secret Archive, we can reconstruct an unpublished cross-section regarding the ways of churches adaptation in the aftermath of the Council. In detail our researches focused on the compliance level of the projects with the liturgy and sacred art precepts by those who had actively participated into the provisions drafting.

Although we consider the Second Vatican Council the final destination of a path of renewal for the history of contemporary sacred art, it is, however, necessary to focus on its preparatory phase during the years of post-war reconstruction.
Though the first impulse to this process was given with the institution of the Pontifical Central Commission for Sacred Art (PCCSA), strongly desired by Pius XI, whose purpose was to maintain «a sense of Christian art», the key figure for the formation of the artists first, and then for the complex task of directing the reconstruction works of all the ecclesiastical buildings devastated by the fury of the war, was Msgr. Giovanni Costantini, third president of the PCCSA.
This contribution aims to highlight, through a comparative reading of unpublished archival sources, relating to the Abruzzo region, and consolidated literature, what were the dictates of the PCCSA regarding interventions on existing buildings and how they influenced the results that arose during the first period of reconstruction (1945-56).

The form of faith is a living form, starting from a Urform, according to an aesthetics manner. Art and architecture have the same virtual capacity of ritual to create the counterintuitive world. We have two ways of transmitting faith: repetition and emotion. Repetition is the form of the ritual and emotion is what all the three opera must have in common. Liturgy, Art and Architecture are understood as opus. There is a temporal relationship between vital becoming of this three opera and the user. Forms change over time and they should continue communicating on the basis of a positive relationship with users. In the Italian context there is a fracture between some users and the making of the form. The fracture needs to be reconciled through an appropriate education of principals and worshippers. The methodological process for Alberto Gianfreda’s liturgical adaptation of Tolentini’s church in Venice is brought to attention.

At the end of the 1960s, a process of internal reform of the Catholic churches began all around the world, which aimed to respond to the liturgical modifications implemented during Vatican II. Fifty years later, this process is still very problematic, especially in buildings with a high patrimonial value.
This article aims to explore the conceptual and legal foundations, both of ecclesiastical and civil origin, that have been supporting these actions in Spain, as well as the procedures that are used today to intervene liturgically in the pre-conciliar religious architecture. Since the ARA review was the most authoritative voice of the time in this field, the disseminating work of Fray José Manuel de Aguilar and his collaborators will be used as the guiding thread of the text.

In the period of the Second Vatican Council Croatia was part of Yugoslavia. A new political system promoted an atheistic worldview. The result of that process was a hostile relationship between the Church and the official government and a profound division of the Church and the society. It resulted in very rare interventions in the field of sacred architecture. Most of the interventions occurred in the adaptations of sanctuaries after the Second Vatican Council. Most of them were reflecting the lack of co-operation between experts.
The change of political system has occurred in 1990. The new democratic system brought religions freedom but the new war destabilized society again. The result is a boom in the construction of sacred buildings reflecting the crisis of that moment. In the last decade, the situation is changing due to the initiatives that bring together theologians, liturgists, architects, architectural conservators, and artists in work on sacred buildings.

After the Second World War the ecclesiastical property was drastically reduced in Hungary. However, Vatican II gave an intense motivation and impulse to the spiritual-psychical revival for the communities and by this time, the preservation of the religious heritage got some statal, professional attention too. The restoration or reconstruction works were often linked with the acute interior transformations according to Vatican II. Although the Hungarian publication and interpretation of the reforms were relatively slow, still a few essential informative discussions were born. The Venice Charter (1964) also had a significant effect on the monument preservation methodology in this period. Analysing the theoretical approach of the Vatican II Constitution and Instruction a close parallelism can be identified with the architectural aspects of the Venice Charter: respect the old parts with the obviously distinguishable, new supplements, and create modern artworks with high artistic quality. The end of the paper cites some brief case studies to present the practical implementation of the directives.

The Sancrosanctum Concilium approaches the artistic aspects of architecture from the liturgy, while the Charter of Venice approaches the architectural space from the principles of heritage protection. Both emphasized simplicity, functionality and readability. The significance and the combined effect of the two documents in the practice of church construction in Eastern Europe can be considered significant, since the possibility of redesigning the liturgical space arose mainly in the context of the renovation of historic buildings in the atheist political environment. The proof of this statement is presented in the manuscript of the architect Ödön Dümmerling. The architect - a practitioner of monument restorations and an admirer of the spirit of modern architecture - was called upon to draw up design guide after the Second Vatican Council was closed, making recommendations for new equipment for liturgical spaces.

The National Liturgical Architecture and Art Council (NLAAC) is an advisory body to the Bishops’ Commission for Liturgy of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, mandated to provide advice in the areas of liturgical architecture, art and heritage. The Council has prepared guidelines for use throughout the Catholic Church in Australia. The most recent of these documents, Fit for Sacred Use: Stewardship and Renewal of Places of Worship (2018) focusses on existing church buildings with particular reference to cultural heritage, and is the subject of this paper. Vatican II sought the full and active liturgical participation of all the people and so existing churches were reordered to foster inclusion. It is timely to consider questions around what constitutes our heritage and how it is valued. Fit for Sacred Use sets out the liturgical and heritage principles which are fundamental to conserving, renovating and reordering a church building. Its holistic approach considers how we renew our churches while honouring our heritage.

Under the influence of the liturgical reform promoted in the 20th century, Catholic temples assumed very simple characteristics, especially after the determinations of the Second Vatican Council. This simplification can be observed both in the construction of new temples and in the adaptation of others built before the period in question, causing the loss of its identity. In order to understand the simplification of these sacred spaces, we chose the case study: the renovation of Santa Maria de Campos dos Goytacazes Parish Church, located in the North of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the architectural intervention of this sacred space, conditioning factors were identified as: impositions of the local community; priests who are unaware of ecclesiastical determinations for liturgical space; and the scarcity of architects familiar with liturgical practices and conciliar guidelines. It is necessary to consider new proposals for the use of space, particularly in the rehabilitation of sacred spaces after the Second Vatican Council.

My intervention was born as a reflection on the Census of churches of Turin diocese, organized by the CEI (Italian Episcopal Conference). Through my studies, I’ve observed the case of Turin ecclesiastical heritage built in the second half of the 20th century. A great number of places of worship have changed their historical validity due to arbitrariness of choices and interventions.
I’ve always supported the thesis that this religious buildings are an important patrimony for the urban history and expression of the pastoral liturgy of the diocese in Italy and that the community is fundamental to the birth and the management of a parish centre. Now I think that it is necessary to consolidate project strategies and fix best-practices to preserve the ecclesiastic heritage from everyone’s action.
Generally speaking, what contemporary buildings can be part of the Church heritage? How far can priests and communities decide, independently, to intervene?

Seismic events demonstrated the high level of structural vulnerability of Italian ecclesiastical heritage. This paper investigates liturgical reordering applied (or not applied) in the post-earthquake reconstruction of churches. The aim is to analyze if the tragic circumstance of a post-earthquake reconstruction has been taken as an opportunity to renovate the sacramental space as a whole, and above all, to evaluate in which way the memory of the disaster and mourning may have influenced the celebratory aspects. The paper focus on the several criteria that may support choices for churches reconstruction, with or without the assimilation of the liturgical modifications introduced by the Second Vatican Council.
If fifty years later, the process of the liturgical modification continues to be problematic in churches with a high heritage or historical value, the issue is event more complex for those buildings affected by catastrophic event and where communities are wounded by traumatic event as an earthquake.

The theme of the adaptation of churches to the liturgical reform is, in Italy, the subject of official documents of the local Church and is also a topic that is constantly in the spotlight of public opinion, not only of specialists. With less awareness, the issue of the artificial lighting of churches is considered a factor that contributes to the adaptation of liturgical spaces to the conciliar reform. An element, that of artificial lighting, which can bring innovation by operating discreetly in the material context of the building, for the benefit of conservation. This is not a simple argument, and this short essay contextualizes it with the aid of the examination of recent interventions in churches of historical and artistic value carried out by the author.

The topic of decommissioning and reuse of redundant or underused churches involves both the scientific debate and the ecclesial communities. For the first time ever, the Vatican institution dedicated to cultural heritage has promoted an investigation among episcopal conferences in Europe, North America and Australia, in order to formulate common guidelines concerning reuse of decommissioned churches. A final document was discussed and approved by the official delegations of 23 episcopal conferences, and published by cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi 17th December 2018. This paper underlines certain aspects of the document, in particular: the relationship between identity and adaptivity of historic buildings; the role of historical investigations in defining transformation possibilities of decommissioned churches; the resilience of religious heritage; the involvement of local communities and new heritage communities in heritagization and reuse processes; and the need for regional planning in the definition of strategies shared between the ecclesial communities and civil society.

Calm. Walk close the houses; do not refuse to shoulder the hands of the shadow and the sun. Go with Sophia Andresen and other poets. Dawns in on the reflection on contemporary religious architecture. Just sit down. Four architectural icons are offered: Terebinth, Tent, Temple, Body. Let yourself be contemplated until the great anamnesis is formed. It lights up maieutic questions. You will think with hope. And, with prophetic imagination, it points to the multisensory experience. Behold, the poetics of spatiality (ritual, artistic, linguistic, etc.) will be instituted, between memory and creation, at the pace of the previous question. It is in this path, sapiential and sacramental, that the text demands the atmosphere of religious architecture. If stripped of certainties and conceptual frivolities (from liturgies to ecclesiologies), the better. Averse to pragmatics, critical hermeneutics are taken care of, with instances of reform. Designed by Cerejeira Fontes Arquitectos atelier, in multidisciplinary dynamics, thus were born the chapels Tree of Life, Full of Grace and Immaculate of the Archdiocesan Seminars of Braga (Portugal).