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“…[T]he decision to depict Wenski in his red robes at the time of Christ’s death might not be historically accurate…”

Kitsch, thy name is Orlando.

Margaret Soltan, November 23, 2010 10:26AM
Posted in: kind of a little weird

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7 Responses to ““…[T]he decision to depict Wenski in his red robes at the time of Christ’s death might not be historically accurate…””

  1. calugg Says:

    Oh MY! Talk about delusions of grandeur. It’s almost straight out of the Mordis Eksteins book “Rites of Spring.”

    Then again, the last 10 years have been “all the Kitsch, all the time,” what with 2 US wars, corruption in mainstream churches, etc. So, of course, a local bishop is immortalized in glass.

    *SIGH!*

  2. Irenaeus Says:

    No, no, no…Wenski is a wonderful human being, and remember that most, if not all, of the Catholic Bishops of the US opposed the war in Iraq (as well as the pope). And every bishop is “local”, in that he’s attached to a(n) (arch)diocese.

    This is simply something that Catholics *do*, for centuries, since glass could be fashioned in figures (and in other media before that). For instance, if you go to the Cathedral in Mainz, Germany, you’ll see each and every archbishop represented in a pane of glass back to (iirc) the 9th century. Or if you go to St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, you’ll see a tesserae portrait of every pope ringing the upper wall, from Peter to Benedict 16. This is part of Catholic culture, not “delusions of grandeur.” That’s most unfair.

    As far as “not be[ing] historically accurate”, Christian iconography, broadly speaking — whether in glass, tesserae, or paint, or sculpture, for that matter — is not meant to be “accurate.” It’s got it’s own rules of mimesis. Pick up any decent introduction to Western or Christian art.

    Now, given those rules, those standards, we could ask if this particular window met them or not, whether it was good or poor Christian iconography. But iconography it is, not megalomania.

  3. Irenaeus Says:

    Here’s something from a recent homily of Wenski’s:

    “As Catholics, we must be involved in the issues of world hunger, human rights, peace building and justice promotion. This social ministry is not opposed to the ultimate spiritual and transcendent destiny of the human person. It presupposes this destiny and is ultimately orientated to this end. If this earth is our only highway to heaven, then we must seek to maintain it – and to make sure to the best of our abilities that this highway is cleared of the obstacles which sin -both personal and structural- has place in the path of those traveling on it.

    To go back to the parable of Lazarus: the rich man was condemned not for anything he did (though certainly one can go to hell for doing bad things) but for what he did not do. A faith without works – without concrete engagement with the least of our brethren — is dead.

    The Eucharist reminds us that our commitment as Catholics to work for peace and justice in the world is not born of some ideology or political platform; rather, it is born of a person, Jesus Christ. And therefore, our “solidarity” with the world of pain is a call to a commitment expressed in allegiance not to lofty propositions but to concrete persons in whom we are to see the face of Christ – this solidarity is lived out through the practice of what the Catechism calls the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

    God takes the side of the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized – through the works of mercy, we take their side too.”

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Irenaeus: You make a number of excellent points. I would still argue that those people in Florida who are unhappy about the window also have a point. To use your phrase — It looks to some people like poor Christian iconography.

  5. Polish Peter Says:

    The bonanza of such auto-memorializations is Window 73 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestownm PA, which depicts “the founder and first director of the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Father Michael Zembrzuski; Monsignor Marcin Lipinski, the co-founder of the Shrine; Jerzy Tadeusz Bialecki, the artist-painter, glass-painter, and designer of the stained-glass windows in Doylestown; and the engineer-architect, Jerzy Szeptycki, who built the Shrine and the monastery.” See http://www.czestochowa.us/component/option,com_joomgallery/func,viewcategory/catid,6/Itemid,94/ top row, third from right.

  6. Jesse Says:

    Might it just be a Polish thing ?

  7. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Possibly, Jesse. But the practice seems generally popular…

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