> From their monastery nestled deep in the Rocky Mountains, the Wyoming Carmelites (a small group of Carmelite Monks) were looking for a way to support their growing community.
> After much discernment and prayer, the monks had the inspiration to start roasting coffee and selling the beans online. The first samples were roasted on a cast-iron skillet in the monastery kitchen and in 2007, Mystic Monk Coffee, a catholic coffee company was born.
Because many people believe that making beautiful things is a way to praise their God. Hopefully they're entitled to spend their money the way they like.
My first association is "fake" - which _is_ appropriate to describe (especially the roman catholic) churches (organisations, not buildings). But I guess that that's not their intention ;)
> Hopefully they're entitled to spend their money the way they like.
I don't know about the US, but in Europe spending money in such a way would be heavily criticised.
They're relying on donations and money they make selling stuff (roasted coffee, I think) and they're spending the money to praise God, which is pretty much what a religious organization does. Hard to criticize them in any meaningful way.
I feel like you're generalizing "Europe" a bit. Look at the Orthodox church, they are deep-pocketed and heavily funding the construction of monasteries, an example being Romania. It's a common thing to see in Romania actually - a lot of churches being built, to a point where it's become a running joke that there are more churches than hospitals in Romania. It's a sad thing to see, but there's plenty of that in "Europe".
I had the privilege of attending a school with a hundred year old building and back in those days it was copying an even older architectural style and it was beautiful. Meanwhile most modern university buildings were plain ugly. The old brick and mortar buildings were my favourite even though the interior was comically out of date. I.e. creaky wooden floods and seating that looks like it had a 40 year history.
Gothic Revival (aka Victorian Gothic) was the original "fake gothic" (gothic-style building built with "modern" Victorian tech) and tbh it's absolutely delightful. The same can't be said for Brutalism, which originated much later (1950-1960s) but generated frankly ugly and non-maintenable buildings.
Well, the money is theirs to spend, plus it's exactly on-brand for a religious organization to put traditional aesthetics over economic efficiency. I doubt that their donors are dissatisfied. If it was a government doing this with taxpayer money, then it would be different.
