What does a typical American Catholic church look like? In something I was working on last night, I wrote about a set of (usually suburban) churches: “Not even distinguished enough to be bad examples of their kind, they just are —each one vaguely modern, vaguely brick, vaguely disappointing.”
I know exactly the kind of Catholic church I mean, but coming up with examples has proved difficult, probably because they are so forgettable. I strained my memory and did some Internet browsing, and I came up with these possibilities:
Of course, the truth is that half the Catholic churches in the United States look like this, but surely there are better examples than the ones I found on a first survey—although that church in my hometown of Pierre is hard to beat.
Personally, I don’t much care for, say, the new cathedral in Los Angeles or the modernist abbey Collegeville, Minnesota. But at least they try to be something. The churches I’m hunting for—I know you’ve seen them—are the brick all-American modern things that fail even at the job of being awful. If you’ve got some examples, please send them along (with links to pictures, if you can find them) to ft@firstthings.com.
We launched the First Things 2023 Year-End Campaign to keep articles like the one you just read free of charge to everyone.
Measured in dollars and cents, this doesn't make sense. But consider who is able to read First Things: pastors and priests, college students and professors, young professionals and families. Last year, we had more than three million unique readers on firstthings.com.
Informing and inspiring these people is why First Things doesn't only think in terms of dollars and cents. And it's why we urgently need your year-end support.
Will you give today?
