The Stuff of Nightmares: Novus Ordo Church in Canada Among World’s Most Hideous

St. Mary’s in Red Deer, Alberta

The Stuff of Nightmares: Novus Ordo Church in Canada Among World’s Most Hideous

(image source: stmarysparishreddeer.ca; cropped/fair use)

It’s fairly easy to find ugly Novus Ordo churches because they’re practically everywhere. But every so often, one comes across a humdinger of a post-Vatican II ‘Catholic church’ that is so extraordinarily hideous that it deserves a special dishonorable mention.

Of such a kind is the building known as ‘St. Mary’s Catholic Church’ in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. What at first glance looks more like a sewage plant or an indoor water park turns out to be a ‘Roman Catholic church’ of the Archdiocese of Edmonton.

The architect who designed this abomination is Douglas Joseph Cardinal (b. 1934). The work was commissioned in 1964 and construction begun two years later. The church was completed in November of 1968.

According to the parish’s Wikipedia entry, the architect “designed an expressionist structure made of brick that was intended to respond to the modernisations of the Second Vatican Council”. Looks like he succeeded:

(image: Jeff Whyte/Shutterstock)

(image: Jeff Whyte/Shutterstock)

(image: oasisamuel/Shutterstock)

An Apr. 29, 2023 post on Aleteia notes that the building “was commissioned to highlight the centrality of the Eucharist”. No doubt, people’s minds are immediately drawn to the Body and Blood of Christ — and other lofty supernatural mysteries — upon beholding this behemoth of masonry!

The interior isn’t exactly uplifting either:

(image source: stmarysparishreddeer.ca / fair use)

The following photo is of the Dec. 8, 1968 dedication ceremony led by Abp. Anthony Jordan of Edmonton upon completion of the hideous building. Notice the caption of the picture, printed in the Red Deer Advocate, which speaks of the edifice as “ultra-modern”:

Dedication of St. Mary’s Church in Red Deer, AB 09 Dec 1968, Mon Red Deer Advocate (Red Deer, Alberta, Canada) Newspapers.com

More information about the building project, including additional photos, can be found on Cardinal’s web site here.

Now that your eyes have been exposed to this and you can’t ‘un-see’ it, this nifty eye wash station may come in handy… 😉