A Church Built Before Vatican II

Many believe that before the Second Vatican Council churches were baroque, decked with statuary, and quite beautiful. Today I visited a church that seems to pop a hole in the bubble of that theory.

This church, as you can see, was clearly constructed with a [neglected] high altar and [now removed] side altars. The walls are brick, the back walls 1960s plywood, the chairs a cheap 1950s/60s velvet, and the place generally without any inspiration. Some statues were gathered haphazardly into a chapel-turned-baptistery. Clearly the liturgy and sacred architecture were in murky swamp water well before many assumed it to be so.