Bishop Conley Talks About Beauty and Helps Design Beautiful Church in Nebraska

When Bishop Conley spoke at the Eighth Day Institute here in Wichita this January, he talked about the new church being built for the large number of Catholic students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. Now there's a story about the new church, with pictures of several features:

The resulting St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and Newman Center is a bow to tradition and a beacon of hope and adoration of God in the heart of a secular campus.

The original mural of storm clouds behind the altar has been replaced with a massive, awe-inspiring stained glass window. At the center of the window is a youthful Christ with an exposed sacred heart. Fourteen saints and blesseds are gathered in adoration around Christ. Students hand-picked each of the men and women, with the exception of Saint Albert – the 13th century saint stands to the left of his student Saint Thomas Aquinas to depict the importance of student-teacher relationships.

The simple, gold tabernacle that used to stand alone behind the altar is now housed in a grand, repurposed 125-year-old altar of repose with gold, red, and blue detailing. An outdoor courtyard on the north side of the Church has been replaced with a Marian chapel.

A new dome floods the Church with natural light. The dome’s pendentives mirror those in St. Peter’s Basilica: depicting St. Longinus, St. Veronica, St. Andrew, and St. Helena.

Read and see the rest there. 

Also, Bishop Conley gave the last talk at The Catholic Artists Society and the Thomistic Institute series of lectures on The Art of the Beautiful: Redeeming Culture in Christ in March this year. You may hear all of the lectures from that series (and some other recordings) here. Bishop Conley presented some of the same material in January.