Mr. Quilisma
Godfrey, A. W.
THE LAST WORD MR. QUILISMA A.W. Godfrey It seems easy to forget what it was like being Catholic prior to World War II. It was a long time ago and American Catholics are different now. They...
...They have become an integral part of the American fabric and enjoy positions of leadership at every level...
...Commonweal 19 September 10,1999...
...Liturgical Arts, however, was more than a magazine...
...It was, however, a watershed during which the foundations of change were firmly prepared and established...
...Two grants enabled him to see the church in Africa, Asia, and Latin America...
...Lavanoux was a listener and synthesizer...
...Others were Commonweal, Friendship House, and the Catholic Worker, all of which grappled with the changes that were stirring in the church which became a reality with Vatican II...
...Consequently, Liturgical Arts published more than dry articles about buildings, liturgy, and church music...
...That was life...
...It discussed society, the role of the laity in the church, and the stirrings for economic and social justice throughout the world...
...Before Vatican II, parish life in the large cities was ethnic and homogeneous...
...Much of what he believed in has come to pass, but he would prefer not to be smug but to go on to the next project...
...When one died, there was change (vita mutatur), but after a ripple of regret or recognition the world went on, perhaps a better place for one's sojourn there...
...It was also a time when people believed it was possible to live life simply, guided by the gospels, a hope far-removed from the frenetic pace of recent years...
...The group, varying between ten and twenty, met in the back rooms of local restaurants and chanted for an hour before a long and leisurely dinner with wide-ranging discussions on politics, theology, and church art and architecture throughout the world...
...After the war, Lavanoux remained in Paris to study at the Beaux Arts, then went to New York to work for several architects...
...In the end, it ceased publication because the editor was not properly deferential to a wealthy patron whose ideas differed from his, nor was he willing to change the progressive format of the magazine...
...We stand on the shoulders of people like Maurice Lavanoux who dared to dream and to speak out about what was wrong with society, our priorities, and our tastes...
...The final number of Liturgical Arts, which was never printed because of unpaid bills, was titled "The Priority of Dreams," a searching issue which discussed what was possible in the church and in the world...
...After several draftsman's jobs in architects' offices, he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion...
...They realized that good art and good liturgy were not incompatible with devotion and piety, and that intellect and good taste could prevail over superstition and sentimentality...
...The bases of Lavanoux's convictions were French, especially the writings of Leon Bloy, Georges Bernanos, Charles Peguy, and Jacques Maritain...
...Remote priests presided over obedient flocks that lacked the information or inclination to question the standardized mediocrity of the liturgy and the poor quality of sacred music, which specialized in saccharine hymns written in waltz time...
...The "club," named after a jagged note in Gregorian chant, gathered weekly to chant and, as Saint Benedict urged, to "pray twice...
...Liturgical Arts began publication shortly afterward and was edited by Lavanoux for forty years...
...It was a forum for people who wrote Lavanoux from all over the world, stopped in at his small and cluttered office, and participated in the Monday-night dinner meetings of the Quilisma Club...
...The era during which Liturgical Arts was published appeared to be a time when little was happening...
...The "Editor's Diary" in each issue reflected his views and the changing church...
...John La Farge, Clement Mc-Naspy, and Joseph Foley were chaplains over the years and provided solid spiritual leadership...
...Liturgical Arts and the Quilisma Club became one of the points of contact, a "course of honors" that many Catholics, especially converts, coming to New York for the first time after World War II, got to know...
...Their convictions and activities were prelude to the renewal of Vatican II that enabled its reforms to take root quickly in this country...
...Church decor, too, at least in New York, was dull to garish, with the furnishings supplied by the ecclesiastical hardware stores on Barclay Street...
...Nonetheless, between the world wars there were stirrings among the laity who had seen something in Europe...
...Godfrey lectures in classics and comparative studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook...
...Lavanoux was a self-taught curmudgeon of impeccable taste who was educated in French Canada and France before World War I. (His parents had been displaced from Alsace-Lorraine by the Franco-Prussian War...
...One of the heroes of this formative era was Maurice Lavanoux (1894—1974), the first and only editor of Liturgical Arts magazine...
...Lavanoux himself lived simply and never earned more than $75 a week...
...Photographs of that period show a dashing legionnaire who was in fact a failure as a soldier...
...The Liturgical Arts Society was founded almost by accident in 1928 after a retreat at the Benedictine priory at Portsmouth, Rhode Island...
...They also believed that as Christians they had to be involved in the solution of social problems...
Vol. 126 • September 1999 • No. 15
