131G changes in Church art to match the changes in liturgy can be ex-. peeled, and even modern abstract an wilt probably be used more for ccelesiastkal purposes, said a noted artist-priest in an interview in Albuquerque, proper aroti,ple r place," New
Mexico.
Fr. Walter Cassidy, whose hand-carved crucifixes and santos (saints) can be found in many New Mexico churches, said that the current liturgical reform within the Church implied a whole new attitude towards Church art For example, he said, the new liturgy places emphasis on the laity, who no longer sit in their pews detached from the worship at the altar. Churches should now be designed for a cornniunity movement indueive to a simultaneous response.
"If there are too many columns in a church, for example," he said, "they divide the people and make it difficult for a unison of response."
SUPERFLUOUS But much "representational" art in the churches must also he changed, he went on. Much "superfluous and merely pretty art" would have to be removed.
He criticised ninny examples of art as mediocre and pretentious, and said that many church statues now are mere plaster Uni
tise of representa
tive said. "It must not dominate the scene. The central thing in our churches now must be the liturgy."