Reddit reviews Environment and Art in Catholic Worship

Felt banners are a result of the disastrous book published by the USCCB in 1977 Environment and Art in Catholic Worship.

https://www.amazon.com/Environment-Catholic-Worship-Bishops-Committee/dp/1555865631

The full text (without the photos of brutalist and yurt churches being touted as the new idal) is available at http://www.olqpparish.org/ENVIRONMENTANDARTINCATHOLICWORSHIP.pdf

Emphasis added:

> 98/ Images in painting or sculpture, as well as tapestries, cloth hangings, banners and other permanent or seasonal decorations, should be introduced into the liturgical space upon consultation with an art consultant. Like the furniture and other objects used in worship, they become part of the environment and are subject to its criteria of quality and appropriateness. In addition, their appropriateness must take into account the current renewed emphasis on the action of the assembly. If instead of serving and aiding that action, they threaten it or compete with it, then they are unsuitable.

> 99/ In a period of Church and liturgical renewal, the attempt to recover a solid grasp of Church and faith and rites involves the rejection of certain embellishments which have in the course of history become hindrances. In many cases of religious practice, this means a simplifying and refocusing on primary symbols. In building, this effort has resulted in more austere interiors, with fewer objects on the walls and in the corners

> DECORATIONS

> 100/ Many new or renovated liturgical spaces, therefore, invite temporary decoration for particular celebrations, feasts and seasons. Banners and hangings of various sorts are both popular and appropriate, as long as the nature of these art forms is respected. They are creations of forms, colors, and textures, rather than signboards to which words must be attached. Their purpose is to appeal to the senses and thereby create an atmosphere and a mood, rather than to impress a slogan upon the minds of observers or deliver a verbal message.

Notes:

1. This book was spearheaded by (then-) Abp. Bernardin, USCCB president 1974-1977.
   
   
2. Abp. Bernardin was the one who forced through Communion in the Hand by counting absentee ballots from the U.S. bishops (a practice that is now forbidden).
   
   
3. Abp. Bernardin had been accused of sexually abusing a seminarian, but the seminarian later recanted.
   
   
4. ChurchMilitant.com reported on Cdl. Bernardin's having set up a pipeline of gay seminarians from Latin America to Chicago. https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/chicago-cdl.-cupich-waited-a-month-before-removing-child-porn-priest