Each one of us is made for heaven. The often-heartbreaking state of our souls, bodies, and churches suggests how easily this central teaching can slip from our consciousness. In her wisdom, the Church has long instituted sacramentals, and cultivated the tradition of architecture, art, and music with the purpose of “evoking and glorifying, in faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2502–2503). St. Augustine stressed how the spirit can be elevated or degraded by the company it keeps. This may also be said of architecture, as it too may speak to us of dignity and joy, or of carelessness and privation. Both may play a significant role in ordering our desires toward God, the source of truth, goodness, and beauty.
American Catholics in the 21st century have reawakened to the power of beauty to evangelize, catechize, and sanctify. Following a period when many churches were being built, decorated, or renovated in banal and uninspiring ways, there has been a concerted effort to rediscover the transcendentals—truth, goodness, and beauty. In the Sacred Space Studio, the branch of EverGreene Architectural Arts focused on the preservation, design and creation of new artwork in churches, we have seen a growing embrace of the via pulchritudinis—the way of beauty—on the walls of our mural studio and on jobsites large and small across the country. There have been three distinct waves of interest from clients over the past two decades:
- Preservation and restoration of beautiful old churches.
- Construction of beautiful new churches.
- Redemption of churches that weren’t always beautiful.
Preservation and Restoration
Beautiful old churches approaching or surpassing the hundred-year mark that had been neglected or suffered a damaging event came—and still come—to our studio to conserve murals, restore plaster, and return decorative finishes to their historic splendor. The stewards of these buildings—buildings with good bones—knew they had been entrusted with a solemn responsibility. Our conservators, craftsmen, and artists delight in working in the great tradition of the Church to ensure that ecclesiastical art and architecture continue to do the important work of supporting the liturgy and offering opportunities for encountering Christ. Once folks knew preservation was possible, we became increasingly involved with churches that had suffered unfortunate 20th-century “wreckovations,” whose stewards were wondering if returning to the building’s intended logic, proportion, and ornamentation could be possible. It is!
Beautiful New Construction
Over the last two decades, there has been a considerable increase in communities building new churches, cathedrals, and chapels with beauty as a guiding principle. The architects, craftsmen, and artists capable of creating inspired and inspiring Catholic churches exist, and so does the will of the faithful.
Redemption
The renewed commitment to creating and preserving classically beautiful churches has vivified the vision of the temple as a recognizable refuge for the weary pilgrim. The shift is edifying, relieving, and inspiring! But what of the countless churches that fall short of offering a foretaste of the heavenly reality, and which had been that way from the get-go? Are all things truly redeemable?
As post-war and post-modern American churches age, their parishes are confronting the need for maintenance, repairs and upgrades, and grappling with the question of whether an uninspiring church can be redeemed.
Extreme examples of this include churches built in the footprint of what was originally intended for a school gymnasium—a fairly common practice in the 1960s described to me by one priest as a “churchnasium.” In churches like these, especially those built with utilitarian furnishings indistinguishable from secular objects and marked by blunt angles and banal colors, much can be done to elevate, soften, and bring the building more fully into the service of the liturgy.
A “Happy Fault” in Crescent Springs
St. Joseph’s Church in Crescent Springs, KY, presents a case study in redemptive transformation of a sanctuary. Originally dedicated in 1960, St. Joseph’s Church was significantly remodeled in 1981 and 1994 in campaigns driven by the need to increase seating. The condition in 2024 was discordant, liturgically ill-fitting, and dated. The sanctuary had two walls: the north sanctuary wall (behind the altar), and the east sanctuary side wall (to the right of the altar when viewed from the nave). The west sanctuary wall (left side) had been removed to accommodate the addition of a “secondary nave” creating an “L” shape, and later a tertiary, wedge-shaped middle section was added to expand and connect the seating areas. The three sections and the differing ceiling heights and materials converge around the sanctuary.
The asymmetry was accentuated by the uneasy visual weight of the liturgical furnishings and appointments: the crucifix and presider’s chair were angled in the northeast corner of the sanctuary facing the section in between the “naves.” The predella steps flowed from the northeast corner. The intention was for the orientation to be toward the new center of the church, but a large column at the foot of the sanctuary obstructed the sightline from the middle section, and the clear visual supremacy of the historic nave ceiling made the configuration awkward. Over time the altar of sacrifice and tabernacle had been moved back to locations centered on the north wall, oriented toward the historic nave. The sanctuary walls were clad in dark wood paneling and marble. The requisite furnishings of the sanctuary were present, but the focus was fractured, and the sanctuary did not read like a structure purpose-built for the celebration of the Catholic Mass.
Image Source: AB/Courtesy of St. Joseph Parish Crescent Springs, KY
Image Source: AB/Courtesy of St. Joseph Parish Crescent Springs, KY
Image Source: AB/Courtesy of EverGreene
Father Eric Boelscher, pastor of St. Joseph’s, saw an opportunity to heal families, to exalt purity and the courage to receive and serve Christ, and to build up a community of worshipers, workers, husbands, and protectors in the model of the patron of the parish. Reinstating the original decoration of the church may have represented a modest improvement over the paneled and carpeted sanctuary, but it wasn’t enough. Father Boelscher was looking for nothing short of a transformation! He wanted the sanctuary to be harmonious, and for the walls to speak of St. Joseph’s devotion to Our Lord and the Blessed Mother, and to occasion intimacy, contemplation, and imitation of the virtue of St. Joseph. The original sanctuary didn’t do that.
The additional seating areas and structural column obstructing the sanctuary from the middle section were there to stay. The focus of the 2025 transformation was lighting, HVAC, sanctuary walls, floor, and furnishings. The initiative posed a formidable and exciting design challenge: how to embody the constituent parts of classical beauty—integrity, proportion, and radiance—in an asymmetrical, modern building?
The first important decision was the selection of a focal point. Guided by the architecture, the tabernacle and altar of sacrifice are centered on the “altar wall,” on axis with the primary nave aisle, aligned with a gable, window, baldachin, and crucifix, with the predella and furnishings configured accordingly. With these modifications in place, there is no longer a question of where our attention belongs. Visibility of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass from the secondary and tertiary seating sections is unchanged, but the visual balance of the new configuration is cause for easier breathing. Replacing the furnishings with marble provides a greater sense of permanence than their wooden predecessors.
Image Source: AB/Courtesy of Miles Wolf
The most striking change is the new mural cycle of the life of St. Joseph which graces the walls, inspired by Giotto di Bondone and Blessed Fra Angelico. Every inch of the sanctuary walls now participates in a liturgical artistry program with manifold functions: support of the liturgy and architecture, catechetical instruction, and vibrant decoration:
(1) Left of the tabernacle, The Annunciation and St. Joseph’s Dream.
(2) Right of the tabernacle: Nativity of Our Lord and Death of St. Joseph.
(3) Above the tabernacle / Gable wall: Flight into Egypt and Return to Galilee.
(4) On the left of the side wall: St. Joseph the Worker and St. Joseph the Worshiper.
(5) On the right of the side wall: Presentation at the Temple and Finding in the Temple.
(6) Geometric borders, non-figurative decoration, and trompe l’oeil inlay.
Image Source: AB/Courtesy of Miles Wolf
Image Source: AB/Courtesy of Miles Wolf
The murals feature theologically rich pairings of events in the life of St. Joseph which may be better understood in light of each other. Panel 1, for example, features the Annunciation in which the Archangel Gabriel comes to Our Lady, and St. Joseph’s Dream in which St. Joseph is instructed by the angel not to fear taking Mary into his house. The painting presents biblical episodes that are related both in their relationship to the birth of Jesus, and in their common theme of submission to the will of God. In the background, an angel casts Adam and Eve out of the Garden (one of the many “Easter eggs” woven into the murals to invite deeper meditation on the salvific grace of the incarnational mystery) and St. Joseph’s role in salvation history.
Image Source: AB/EverGreene
Image Source: AB/EverGreene
Enrobing the sanctuary in the story of St. Joseph created an immersive experience that serves as a reminder that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is outside of terrestrial time and space. Painted artwork provided a highly cost-effective way to achieve a profound change in appearance, suggesting the use of noble materials and technique beyond the limits of the project budget. True marble was used in the liturgical furnishings and flooring, but the murals, borders, and wainscot which appear to be intricate marble inlay, are actually faux painted on canvas and applied to drywall to look like inlay, a scheme inspired by San Clemente in Rome and the Scrovegni chapel in Padua. Upper areas of the baldachin are plaster marbleized to match the adjacent stone. Arriving upon this scope of work was the fruit of a close collaboration between the pastor, architectural team, designers, furnishing fabricators, plasterers, and painters.
Image Source: AB/Courtesy of Miles Wolf
What Does Your Church Say?
Ideally the architecture of every church would possess integrity, proportion, and radiance, and the artistry would support the architecture and liturgy. If you have such a building, take care of it! It can be an extraordinary instrument for evangelization, catechesis, and encounter. If you are looking to build a new building, I urge you to be uncompromising about beauty. Assisting hundreds of churches across the nation introduce beauty where it was lost or omitted has convinced us that well-considered design doesn’t have to be extravagant or expensive, but it requires a mindset that prioritizes beauty over convenience and functionalism. If you are starting with a building that isn’t beautiful, transformation is always possible—audacious to be sure—but for an Easter people, who seek nothing short of eternity with God, what’s a little paint?
Project Team
Father Eric Boelscher, St. Joseph’s Parish Crescent Springs
K4 Architecture
Schrudde and Zimmerman Construction
EverGreene Architectural Arts Artwork (Design, mural painting and new plaster)
Fynders Keepers (Marble furnishings)
