O patrimônio católico entre o movimento litúrgico e o novus ordo missæ: estudo de casos em Juiz de Fora

Abstract

The protection of built heritage is related to architectural interventions that enable buildings to address the new needs that time may bring. In the case of catholic churches, their protection is conditioned by the significant liturgical changes that underwent in the 20th Century, that may be gathered in four major events: (1) the Liturgical Movement (1910s onward), that questioned the laity’s role in the structure of liturgy; (2) The II Vatican Council (1962-1965), that reorganized several elements in the Church; (3) the promulgation of the reformed Missal; (4) the reception of the Council magisterium and the new rite, sometimes in “continuity” and sometimes in “rupture” with regard to the past. Each of these events called for issues that, symbolically or functionally, had no counterpart to the architectural space of the existing churches, as defined by the Council of Trent in the 16th Century. A significant amount of architectural interventions has taken place since then (not only in Brazil), with the loss of many important landmarks. Fifty years after the Council was closed, it is necessary to debate what architectural interventions bind cultural preservation to the possibility of celebration of the reformed rite. In the case of churches that underwent hazardous changes, it is also necessary to discuss the proper restoration for them. This study’s goal is to show that such a debate, still relatively sparse, is relevant and should take place among professionals involved in heritage protection as well as in the Church herself. The last part depicts interventions in two churches located in Juiz de Fora, in the State of Minas Gerais, both from the eclectic period and of great relevance to the city: the reform of the presbytery of the Church of Our Lady of Glory, and the current ongoing interventions in the Cathedral.