And while we are on the subject of Modern Catholic “Art”…

From our own Fairfield County Catholic:

“Fr. John B. Giuliani, a major American artist and priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, will be featured next week in an exhibit at the Gallery of Contemporary Sacred Art in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome.”

Fr. Giuliani was ordained in 1960. “In 1977, with the permission of the Most Rev. Walter, W. Curtis, Second Bishop of Bridgeport, Father Giuliani embarked on a new pursuit, founding the Benedictine Grange, a small monastic community in West Redding, Connecticut.”

Now what is the spirituality of the Benedictine Grange? Fr.Giuliani was certainly no friend of Pope Benedict:

“In the meanwhile the Pope has succeeded in offending the world of Islam, he has reintroduced into the Good Friday Liturgy a prayer identifying the Jewish people as culpable in the death of Jesus, he has insulted the Anglican communion with an invitation to the disaffected to join the Roman Church, and he has demoralized the Catholic community in his divisive attempts to undermine the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council—despite Grafton’s adulatory comment on Benedict’s beautifully performed Mass, as if performance were the intent of liturgical worship!”

“As if performance were the intent of liturgical worship!” – well, we have this recent report on “liturgical worship” at the Grange:

“Tonight, the Barn was pure magic. 

I had the most incredible sense of beauty – the blood red roses in front of the altar so vibrant, 
the music so sublime, the oil so sweet, the love so palpable, the bread and the wine so nourishing; 
this indescribably beauty, in the face of the human reality of betrayal and treachery and suffering; 
this inescapable paradox, placing us directly in the center of the cross, the center where love wins out.
John and Harry and Ed marched out solemnly to “Come, now, let us be on our way…” 
and most people left.
The musicians remained, and began singing one of our very favorite songs, 
one that I already can’t remember, and they just couldn’t stop.
The barn emptied except for about eight of us and the music ministers just kept improvising 
for maybe forty verses or more, each musician offering her or his own gifts; 
Marian on the drum, Greta’s angelic voice, Beth’s fantastic guitar playing.
This most sacred concert went on and on for at least fifteen minutes and it was absolutely sublime. 
The small group of us left in the barn became our own little community, and we were mesmerized.
We then wafted outside in complete silence into the mysterious, mild and gentle evening, misty and wet, 
but not raining. The lights of the property created an incredible old and mystical feeling, 
creating starshapes in the fog throughout the Land of the Grange.
The dark outlines of the trees silhouetted against the mist seemed as warm, embracing friends 
rather than ominous apparitions, and the treefrogs were singing up a storm, reminding us 
that the world was alive and throbbing with the promise of our long-awaited springtime, 
and the fruits of our deepest spiritual longings.
We tiptoed into the cottage to sit awhile in the garden of daffodils, tulips, and candles, 
a place to center ourselves and to remind ourselves to stay awake; awake to the beauty, 
to the suffering, to it all.
This night is always so awesome to me. I cannot take it in; it is too big. 
I can relate to the bread and to the wine, to the beauty, and even to the paradox.
My political self can image the drama and the intrigue and the high state of anxiety 
and arousal about what is to come. I can see it in pieces, but the meaning of the whole thing,
the sacrificial aspect, the enormity of the unfolding of this supreme act of love, still eludes me.
Perhaps it because, as John says, you cannot look fully into the face of a God that is too brilliant, 
too terrible to behold. And yet, this beautiful night brings me as close as I have ever come…”

Now consider that, since 1977, the Grange has continued a tolerated, if not widely publicized, existence within the diocese. (Not widely publicized, that is, if one ignores an adulatory New York Times article) During this entire period, upholders of Catholic morality, supporters of the Traditional mass and organizers of orthodox Catholic Education were anxiously supervised, marginalized and even persecuted. Fortunately, the latter situation is in the course of changing under the new management of the diocese.

What are the works of the master?

There is a long series of “Indian” holy images – here, a Peruvian Joseph and the Christ child(?)

Fr. Guiliani will also paint your pet:

Those wishing to see more works of Fr. Guiliani – or even acquire some for themselves – are directed to HERE.