“It is the enemy who wishes to make the world ugly, and he has had a lot of help in that direction these last 200 years. Our task is to make the world more beautiful,” she explained, adding that because “Christianity is the religion of the Incarnation,” Christian art “should be incarnational too.”
Rebuilding the Church
The Catholic artistic revival is not just limited to painting. Emerging from a relatively dark age of Catholic art, there are now many talented Catholic artists working in the mediums of painting, sculpting, music, architecture, and more.
Indeed, a large percentage of the Catholic churches built in the last two decades have been constructed in traditional styles in which beauty and form are emphasized.
St. Mary’s Catholic Center in College Station, Texas, is just one example of a beautiful Catholic church built in the last decade.
Serving a vibrant student community at Texas A&M University, St. Mary’s long struggled to fit the multitudes of students coming to Mass in its old church building. Finally, St. Mary’s decided it was time to build a new church.
Father Will Straten, St. Mary’s pastor, told CNA that when they were considering the new church, they wanted something “that did not look like other buildings” that “students could identify as a church.”
“We wanted the building to be a beacon, to be a light that guided students to God,” he said.
The church was designed by a team of faithful Catholics from Studio io and completed in 2023. Anna Olinger, a student at A&M and an intern at St. Mary’s, told CNA that the new church has already had a big impact on students, Catholic and non-Catholic alike.
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“The new church has been such a blessing because it has allowed students to enter into the liturgy and prayer in a way that uses all of our senses,” she explained. “From his birth, cross, and resurrection to his eternal reign, the church makes heaven seem a little closer. The church better helps students understand salvation history and the plan that God has for their personal salvation.”
“Art and architecture have been important tools of evangelization for centuries, and that is still true with the younger generation,” she said.
‘Surprised by the Gospel’
Martin Earle, a U.K.-based sacred artist who specializes in works for churches and the liturgy, told CNA that one should not mistake an artistic revival for a simple re-creation of the past.
According to Earle, the job of a Catholic artist today is to get “under the skin” of the old masterpieces of the faith and instead of copying them, “create new works that manifest a living tradition.”
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