How can a Catholic Cathedral have art like this..?

FRANCIS MPEKASAMBO wrote:


How can a Catholic Cathedral have art like this like we have at the Notre Dame Cathedral? An Adventist friend just asked me this afternoon......

Answer:


Because most of the Medieval Europeans we're illiterate, the clergy needed visual representation of the horrors of hell to drive people to the sanctuary of the church. Placing gargoyles on the building's exterior reinforced the idea that evil dwelt outside the church, while salvation dwelt within


GARGOYLES are considered “guard dogs” in pre medieval times in Europe and later on sculptures of gargoyles are placed in front or atop properties to ward off evil spirits from entering such properties like palaces or homes.Some experts believe they werepopular on churches because of the widespread belief that they protected against evil spirits.


These are what people call "gargoyles":  fantastic, demonic figures that often were used on the outside of a lot of churches and cathedrals in the Middle Ages as decorations, even sometimes as rain-spouts.  Nothing to be alarmed about there's often an element of cartoon-like humor in them.


There is absolutely no reason to get alarmed about this.  These gargoyles were not meant to be honoring demonic forces - they were exercises in the artistic imagination of medieval sculptors, perhaps even thought to be ways of scaring away other demons!  They were always put on the outside of buildings, up near the roof or on towers not in places where people would venerate them.  Just an artistic convention!

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