To promote a revival of beautiful Christian art in India, the
Archdiocese of Bombay has held a seminar on stained glass windows in
local parishes, called “Windows of Faith.”
“Stained glass brings in an ambiance of prayerful atmosphere, fostering
sacred meditative reflections, and recalling a memory of the spiritual
history of the Church,” said Father Warner D'Souza, director of the
Bombay Archdiocesan Heritage Museum.
Fr. D’Souza spoke with CNA ahead of the seminar, which was held Sept.
22 at St. Peter's parish in the Bandra neighborhood of Mumbai.
“We thought of training priests and our community of lay people,” he
explained, “leading them to an awareness and a cognitive revival of
Christian art in India.”
The seminar, which featured a talk by Swati Chandgadkar, an Indian
expert on the restoration of stained glass, highlighted the Catholic
Church's role in being a patron of art and the historical and cultural
patrimony of mankind.
Stained glass was brought to India by Portuguese missionaries, and
Chandgadkar is involved in restoring the windows of one missionary
parish, Our Lady of Glory, in Mumbai's Byculla neighborhood.
Fr. D'Souza said that it is currently of paramount pastoral importance
to protect the historical Catholic parishes, monumental churches which
today are “bafflingly exchanged” for churches with cheap, shiny fiber or
glass-colored art, which are chosen for their brightness and economical
value.
This exchange, he said, is a “threat to sacred art” and is “destroying our cultural patrimony and heritage.”
The seminar, he said, was to make “our priests and laity aware of the
importance of stained glass art,” because although “there are many
Indo-Portuguese churches, we lack experts in this field in India.”
It is hoped that the seminar will help to reverse a trend of renovating
parishes without regard for the heritage, historical value, and beauty
of the original structure and art.
In 2011, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, opened a Museum
of Christian Art, containing artifacts from the Christian history of
the area, dating back to the first century.
Fr. D'Souza related that
Cardinal Paul Poupard, president emeritus of the Pontifical Councils for
Interreligious Dialogue and for Culture, had visited the museum and was
impressed by the history of the Church in India.
Cardinal Gracias' decision to open the museum was inspired in part by a
1997 message of Blessed John Paul II, who said that “from archeological
sites to the most modern expressions of Christian art, contemporary man
must be able to re-read the Church's history, and thus be helped to
recognize the mysterious fascination of God's saving plan.”
The late Roman Pontiff had himself established a group in 1989 to help
make both clergy and laity more aware of the importance and the
necessity of preserving the Church’s vast historic resources, entitled
the Commission for the Preservation of the Artistic and Historical
Patrimony of the Church.