Normally, I would just let this one sit over at Rorate Caeli, but I just can't. I must echo the question, how is this part of the hermeneutic of continuity? How does this promote anything which resembles a Catholic thought with regard to the Sacrament of Baptism?
In my mind it doesn't. Both "fonts" are equally disastrous! Both fonts show the utter modernism which pervades the mind of the Church? I'm pretty sure that the idea of aptness which is called for in the liturgical life of the Church is purely subjective. Who decides or comprehends what is and what is not apt for use? And is what I find to be apt, the same as what someone else does?
Well, here's the rub. I cannot, using the Church's traditional understanding of aptness, accept that this new font is acceptable. There is nothing advantageous to using this as opposed to using a more traditional font.
Also, since when has a tree ever been a legitimate symbol of baptism? It hasn't. And since when has the idea of a rock, even if it is from Israel, ever been a symbol of baptism? It hasn't. Trust me. I've been to Israel; there are rocks everywhere and I've never thought of a rock as being an inspiration for baptism. Color me crazy, but this post-modern art is slowly eroding the traditional beauty of the Church.
Had I been pope, I would have said one thing.....get me a baptismal font...I don't want a tree.
Read Below...
Continuity is in the eye of the beholder
The modern baptismal font used since 1996 for the Sistine Chapel Epiphanytide papal baptisms...
...was replaced, by order of the Master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies, Msgr. Guido Marini, with this:
January 8, 2012
Here is what this peculiar work
of sacred art looks like when closed. A description? A metal globe on a
metal olive tree lookalike on a rock shipped from the river Jordan. It
was designed by Father Salvatore Vitiello, professor at the Catholic
University of the Sacred Heart and at the Lateran University, and head
of the M.A. program in "Architecture, Sacred Art, and Liturgy" of the
Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum.
A fitting symbol for the Reform of the Novus Ordo?
A new translation of a modern Baptismal Font?
Improvement? Continuity? Rupture?
We report: you decide
(Source of 1st and 3rd images: A. Tornielli)
Improvement? Continuity? Rupture?
We report: you decide
If it should become a burning bush one day during a baptism, would that create a danger?
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