‘Mother Earth’ Comes to Church: Art Installation ‘GAIA’ in German Basilica

Talk about a ‘global’ church!

‘Mother Earth’ Comes to Church:
Art Installation ‘GAIA’ in German Basilica

Opening the Church to the world was the idea behind the so-called Second Vatican Council (1962-65). How that’s going can currently be seen in the Basilica of St. James in Straubing, part of the diocese of Regensburg, Germany. There a giant, illuminated replica of our globe is hanging from the ceiling as part of a touring exhibition meant to raise awareness concerning our planet.

The installation is called ‘GAIA’, just like the Greek earth goddess, and was created by artist Luke Jerram. It opened on March 6 and will run through March 27, 2026.

The official web site of the basilica explains: “The artwork aims to raise awareness of the fragility of our planet Earth and to treat it with care and respect.” Among the various advertised highlights of the GAIA program we find “daily evening meditation”, “interreligious prayer”, as well as “lectures, guided tours on various themes, workshops, school tours, puppet shows, music, concerts, meditation sessions, religious services, explorations, and much more” (all translation via DeepL).

Jerram’s GAIA project also has its own web site. It’s at my-earth.org.

While there is obviously nothing wrong with contemplating God’s beautiful creation, and letting ourselves be awed by it, a Catholic church is simply not the place for exhibiting an oversized globe. Such a setup is symbolic of earth worship, because a church is a house of worship. The title image above shows how much the creature is eclipsing the Creator in this church, which was built for the adoration of God, not of the planet. The fact that the project bears the name of a pagan earth deity does not make things any better.

It cannot be denied that our planet is precious and that we have a duty to act responsibly towards it and exercise our dominion over it reasonably (cf. Gen 1:26; 2:15). However, as our Blessed Lord said, we ought not to be unduly troubled over worldly things, especially not things we cannot really control anyway:

Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature by one cubit? And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith? Be not solicitous therefore, saying, What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.

(Matthew 6:26-34)

This is something that should be kept in mind by people who think they can determine today what the earth’s average temperature will be in 2050. For Catholics, the matter is clear: “Therefore if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth” (Col 3:1-2).

With that big of a globe capturing everyone’s attention, no one will be looking at the tabernacle in that basilica. That is the place where, if the Novus Ordo religion had retained a valid Mass and valid priesthood in the Roman rite, the Son of God and Savior of the world would be residing as the “Prisoner of Love”, waiting and thirsting for souls.

The diocese of Regensburg has released the following video on the ‘Gaia’ exhibit (direct link here):

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The sponsor of the installation has also published a clip (direct link):

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Lastly, the artist himself has also made a video about the ‘Gaia’ project in general (direct link):

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‘Pope’ Francis’ eco-encyclical Laudato Si’ got the ball rolling on all this obsession with the environment we’ve seen in the Vatican II Church for over ten years now.

As a Hindu eco-activist noted: “When I read Laudato si’ I felt like I was reading our ancient Vedic texts, especially Atharvaveda, about our duty to have respect for the Earth and all its creatures.”

It is no accident that shortly after the encyclical’s release in 2015, a televised Novus Ordo liturgy in Canada celebrated it with the heathen hymn O Beautiful Gaia. A few years later, in 2019, Francis himself published a book entitled “Our Mother Earth” (Nostra Madre Terra). At the Vatican Christmas concert that year, an indigenous woman from Latin America showed the audience how to get in touch with the “heart of Mother Earth” — and of course the people, Novus Ordo bishops among them, eagerly followed her instructions.

In 2020, on the occasion of ‘World Environment Day’, Francis sent a message to the president of Colombia, lamenting: “The wounds inflicted on our mother earth are wounds that also bleed in us…. Recently we celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, which drew attention to the cry that mother earth lifts up to us.” It was only fitting, therefore, for the Vatican to issue a “Mother Earth” coin later that year, which bears the image of Gaia (or Pachamama), showing a woman pregnant with the earth.

If the Neo-Modernists in Rome are trying to prevent people from gradually accepting earth worship, they’re doing it wrong.

In his Letter to the Romans St. Paul addresses the topic of idolatry — adoration of the creature rather than the Creator — and connects it, interestingly enough, with the unnatural vice of sodomy:

And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of fourfooted beasts, and of creeping things. Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonour their own bodies among themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

(Romans 1:23-25)

Speaking of four-footed beasts and creeping things, remember the Fiat Lux light show ‘Pope’ Francis had projected onto the façade of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, 2015?

KNA/Paul Haring/CNS Photo © 2015 KNA

You can’t make this stuff up!

Image sources: YouTube (screenshot) / CNS (Paul Haring) via KNA
License: fair use / rights-managed