I really agree with your premise - the Church does have to engage with how best to evangelize the countless tourists (and “lapsed”/“cultural” Catholics) who come in millions to visit our patrimony.
The issue, it seems to me, is first and foremost that we have allowed the “mass tourification” of our churches and cathedrals, thereby emptying them of any spiritual meaning. No Jew or Muslim would ever let their temples and mosques become objects of tourism first and sacred places of worship second, but somehow we have become complacent and accepted that the only way to preserve these “old stones” is to market them to death.
No amount of modern art and bad taste is ever going to mitigate the sad reality - the throngs of Chinese and Protestant or atheist tourists who file into Notrde Dame, the Sacré Cœur or the Vatican have no desire or openness to meeting Christ - mostly because Catholics have completely lost the ability to think about it this way too.
I strongly believe we should have extremely tight limits on non-Catholics visiting churches (and the Vatican), and impress upon the tourists that we do let in that they are entering sacred ground where taking selfies and wandering around the tabernacle like one wanders around the Colosseum is not appropriate (I think some places like St Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC do a pretty decent job of ensuring tourists know they are being graciously admitted to witness Holy Mass and respect some basic etiquette about that).
This does need to start “at home” though - most Catholics seem to have no clue that they do enter a sacred space, in the presence of God in the tabernacle, in a special way that calls for reverent attitude. And many of us sadly (especially in Europe) seem to take the church to be a place for the community at the detriment of a place for the worship of God.
Only when we take that worship and God himself seriously - when we celebrate mass and offer confessions and spiritual direction in these touristy churches as a way of sanctifying the world and converting hearts - will we ever be able to impress upon tourists the reality and importance of the eternal Truth.
My son was fortunate enough to be able to tour Notre Dame during a visit to Paris on a high school class trip. The Crown of Thorns was on display (it was Holy Week) during his visit. Seeing that, along with the beautiful art work and amazing beauty of this sacred space encouraged his faith and has helped keep him in the Church, even as most of his friends have left the faith.
I think trying to make it more engaging for tourists will only result in making it less of a place people of all faiths (or no faith at all) will want to visit. True beauty engages the senses and points directly to our Creator, God the Father. The goal should be to make Notre Dame beautiful in the classical definition because that will draw people in and lead them to encounter God.
Notre Dame, like Saint Peter’s and every Catholic Church, was not built or intended for tourists and gawkers with their chatter and flashbulbs. We build churches to give honor and glory to God in Divine worship. They are for prayer, recollection, and silence before the Divine. But how can we reasonably expect this in a Church that puts pagan idols on its altars where only the Sanctissimum should rest.
The priest designer's thought of being more catechetical etc, ought to be foundational on and of what actually this is, and realizes this, according to the mind and soul of Christ....so his thought is the skeletal structure and his portrayal design is not the creature flesh/meat by the Divine Wisdom, but the spam, artificial and absent of the Image and Likeness of what God Reveals is Catechetical and Draws the soul....this is why the eldest Daughter of the Church is absent of life, because it thinks this nonsense is life, is relevant, all the while the People are dying for want of God, His Holiness, His Gospel, His Holy Spirit - repent and live the Gospel not the spirit of the age, but Worshipping in Spirit and Truth which is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow....Advent miracles and mercies, Padre
Tourists coming to Notre Dame do so for its artistic and largely historical value. It seems to me if you load it up with too much of the modern, it would dim the reason for wanting to visit the interior in the first place. If it is too much wreckovated, we will lose the opportunity for the outreach and evangelization which is definitely a good impulse.
I would be very interested to basically see it restored as precisely as possible, and then have the kind of evangelization described as a kind of an overlay. What's true now was also true in the middle ages when it was built, and it would be interesting to look at the germinations of certain ideas that have grown in importance now as having a foundation in Catholic theology which can be seen in medieval theology in XYZ ways. Medieval spirituality is not incongruent with modern spirituality.
No to all the changes, period.
I really agree with your premise - the Church does have to engage with how best to evangelize the countless tourists (and “lapsed”/“cultural” Catholics) who come in millions to visit our patrimony.
The issue, it seems to me, is first and foremost that we have allowed the “mass tourification” of our churches and cathedrals, thereby emptying them of any spiritual meaning. No Jew or Muslim would ever let their temples and mosques become objects of tourism first and sacred places of worship second, but somehow we have become complacent and accepted that the only way to preserve these “old stones” is to market them to death.
No amount of modern art and bad taste is ever going to mitigate the sad reality - the throngs of Chinese and Protestant or atheist tourists who file into Notrde Dame, the Sacré Cœur or the Vatican have no desire or openness to meeting Christ - mostly because Catholics have completely lost the ability to think about it this way too.
I strongly believe we should have extremely tight limits on non-Catholics visiting churches (and the Vatican), and impress upon the tourists that we do let in that they are entering sacred ground where taking selfies and wandering around the tabernacle like one wanders around the Colosseum is not appropriate (I think some places like St Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC do a pretty decent job of ensuring tourists know they are being graciously admitted to witness Holy Mass and respect some basic etiquette about that).
This does need to start “at home” though - most Catholics seem to have no clue that they do enter a sacred space, in the presence of God in the tabernacle, in a special way that calls for reverent attitude. And many of us sadly (especially in Europe) seem to take the church to be a place for the community at the detriment of a place for the worship of God.
Only when we take that worship and God himself seriously - when we celebrate mass and offer confessions and spiritual direction in these touristy churches as a way of sanctifying the world and converting hearts - will we ever be able to impress upon tourists the reality and importance of the eternal Truth.
My son was fortunate enough to be able to tour Notre Dame during a visit to Paris on a high school class trip. The Crown of Thorns was on display (it was Holy Week) during his visit. Seeing that, along with the beautiful art work and amazing beauty of this sacred space encouraged his faith and has helped keep him in the Church, even as most of his friends have left the faith.
I think trying to make it more engaging for tourists will only result in making it less of a place people of all faiths (or no faith at all) will want to visit. True beauty engages the senses and points directly to our Creator, God the Father. The goal should be to make Notre Dame beautiful in the classical definition because that will draw people in and lead them to encounter God.
So much for the support of the Archbishop!
Notre Dame, like Saint Peter’s and every Catholic Church, was not built or intended for tourists and gawkers with their chatter and flashbulbs. We build churches to give honor and glory to God in Divine worship. They are for prayer, recollection, and silence before the Divine. But how can we reasonably expect this in a Church that puts pagan idols on its altars where only the Sanctissimum should rest.
The priest designer's thought of being more catechetical etc, ought to be foundational on and of what actually this is, and realizes this, according to the mind and soul of Christ....so his thought is the skeletal structure and his portrayal design is not the creature flesh/meat by the Divine Wisdom, but the spam, artificial and absent of the Image and Likeness of what God Reveals is Catechetical and Draws the soul....this is why the eldest Daughter of the Church is absent of life, because it thinks this nonsense is life, is relevant, all the while the People are dying for want of God, His Holiness, His Gospel, His Holy Spirit - repent and live the Gospel not the spirit of the age, but Worshipping in Spirit and Truth which is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow....Advent miracles and mercies, Padre
Tourists coming to Notre Dame do so for its artistic and largely historical value. It seems to me if you load it up with too much of the modern, it would dim the reason for wanting to visit the interior in the first place. If it is too much wreckovated, we will lose the opportunity for the outreach and evangelization which is definitely a good impulse.
I would be very interested to basically see it restored as precisely as possible, and then have the kind of evangelization described as a kind of an overlay. What's true now was also true in the middle ages when it was built, and it would be interesting to look at the germinations of certain ideas that have grown in importance now as having a foundation in Catholic theology which can be seen in medieval theology in XYZ ways. Medieval spirituality is not incongruent with modern spirituality.