. . . y'know, all the really cool stuff!
Posted on 11/18/2011 2:21:34 PM PST by nuconvert
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County, California is buying Robert Schuller's celebrated Protestant Crystal Cathedral megachurch for $57.5 million, the LA Times reports. The spacious, light-filled house of worship is a "a monument of 20th century modernist architecture," the Times writes.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
So now it will become a real cathedral.
Full story ...
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-crystal-cathedral-20111118,0,5862736,full.story
This is a good story. Thank God it won’t become a mosque!
>>In the end, Schuller himself gave his blessing to what once would have seemed unthinkable: the conversion of his sleekly modern masterpiece in Garden Grove, a place where fresh breezes blow through open walls and church services feature talk-show-style interviews, into a Catholic cathedral redolent of incense and ancient ritual.<<
Like strangling babies with rosary beads and all that....
Ah the secular media!
it will be easy to fill it up with mexicans.
2) The catholic church has way too much in the way of assets and liquidity.
I'm reminded of a story about a traveler who visited a city where many stone cutters were working. Approaching several, he asked the same question:
"What are you doing?"
The first stonecutter he met replied, "I'm cutting stone. It's dull work, but it pays the bills."
A second stonecutter responded, "I'm the best stone cutter in the land. Look at the smoothness of this stone, how perfect the edges are."
A third pointed to a foundation several yards away, and said, "I'm building a cathedral."
The last guy was immediately fired. He was supposed to be building a supermarket.
. . . y'know, all the really cool stuff!
Thank goodness it’s not in my diocese.
Since it’s not my diocese, I suppose it’s none of my business. But I must say I think it’s a dreadful waste of money on a piece of modernist schlock.
Out of curiosity, I looked up the current Cathedral in Orange County, wondering if they are trading something beautiful in for this thing. But a look at the Holy Family Cathedral website suggests that it, too, is a modernist piece of schlock. In fact, it is even worse looking than this thing.
In fact, all the artwork, manuscripts, buildings, etc. are just about a wash because of the costs to maintain and conserve them.
Last year the surplus for the Holy See (what would be called a "profit" elsewhere) was about 13 million. Compared to Apple's last quarter of 2010 profit of about 4 BILLION, it's not much.
This "billions in the Vatican" stuff is just the sort of rumor that accretes around any old institution. But anybody can go and look at the books, now. Our archdiocese publishes its books in the newspaper at the end of each year, and they're audited by an outside accounting firm. No Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, sorry to disappoint.
would have made a hell of a good casino...
This is really stupid.
That isn’t a permanent cathedral, looks like a prefab medium-sized church built by one of those steel building outfits. That’s why they’re trying to build/renovate a new one.
The neighborhood, like the rest of the city, started to change in the mid 60's..By then, my folks had moved to the suburbs, then I went off to college, then into the service...
One day, mid 90's..I was with some friends at Yankee Stadium..not to far from the place..and to beat the traffic, we took the side streets after the game, and when right past. To my amazement, it was now a mosque..
I was astonished then..after 9/11..I was disgusted..
That would be GREAT!!!
(but truly a miracle in CA)
Clearly the media is ignorant of the fact that Rev Schuller invited Bishop Fulton J. Sheen to give homilies to his parishoners. You don’t get more Catholic than the great Fulton J. Sheen.
Beautiful photos, thank you.
Amen!
Uh oh. There goes the neighborhood.
On a serious note, this building seems a little out there, style wise, than what I am accustom to with the Catholic church. I guess it is a Cali thing.
I always thought it needed more statues and a huge crucifix —lets hope they can broadcast Mass from there and invite the Pope for a visit. A good use for the building that should always be a Holy place.
Amen!!!!!
But I must say I think it’s a dreadful waste of money on a piece of modernist schlock.
I didn’t realize that this was a building of such architectural importance, designed by Phillip Johnson, Richard Neutra and Richard Meier.
Our Cathedral in Milwaukee was gutted by a previous Archbishop but our Archdiocese has two beautiful Basicilas:
https://holyhill.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=74
http://www.thebasilica.org/photos.php
The second link is the parish that I belong to. If you have time you may wish to look at the pictures at each site.
bookmark
Look, I’m a Protestant, and I’m not upset by this one bit.
Will the Gospel be preached? Yes.
Will Christ be glorified? Yes.
Will priests warn against sin, talk about forgiveness, lead people to our Savior? Yes. I may have doctrinal differences that prevent me from being in communion with my brothers and sisters in Christ on that side of the Body, but the real target are the secular fools who think that being in church is lighting a candle and swinging incense.
WOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!!
What a surprise!
That is a good question. How much have new cathedrals/large churches been costing recently?
The Diocese of Raleigh, NC is planning:
http://www.wwaytv3.com/2011/09/07/catholic-diocese-of-raleigh-plans-new-cathedral
“a 2,000 seat cathedral estimated to cost $75-90 million.”
Oakland spent 190 million on their new cathedral:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Christ_the_Light
IMHO, the biggest mistake this nation has ever made is to allow Muslims into the U.S. They’ve destroyed the Middle East, are in the process of destroying Africa and Europe, beginning the process here, and intend on killing “free will” wherever it has existed throughout the world.
I feel as you do, though ‘disgusted’ is pretty mild.
After they fill it with icons to worship, stinking
smoke and mangled teachings, yea, a real cathedral.
“This “billions in the Vatican” stuff is just the sort of rumor that accretes around any old institution.”
You’re right, but won’t convince anyone looking for a vast theocratic conspiracy. I believe the ramping up of the whole lie about the Vatican aiding the Axis in WWII is just setting the Church up as a target by lawyers looking for deep pockets. This new series on the one of the history channels (Nazi Collaborators) is really bizarre, but I’d imagine if the lies are repeated often enough they’ll become the new “truth” (as happened with Pope Pius XII).
When I was a kid, my mother would never miss a Bishop Sheen tv show. Ever. It was probably the only reason my parents even bought a tv.
Many years later I lived in the same NYC apartment bldg as Bishop Sheen and often found myself riding alone in the elevator with him, and never once had the courage to say a word to him. Just stared at the numbers as floors were being passed. Major regret.
>>Look, I’m a Protestant, and I’m not upset by this one bit.<<
Thank you! I agree.
Do understand that the ‘rosary bead’ comment was directed towards the secular media and not my Christian Brothers and Sisters of all denominations.
Remember Captain Wrona (which means 'Crow', hence the slogan 'Fly like an eagle land like a Crow'), who on the 1st of this month was forced by a mechanical malfunction to land a Boeing 767 in Warsaw on its belly, saving the lives of 230 passengers and crew?
One of the passengers on the flight, which originated in Newark, NEW JERSEY (which should have been enough of a warning! Noo Joizey! Sheesh!) was a priest named Fr. Piotr Chyła, who was carrying the late Pope John Paul II's relics, said to have been two of his hairs.
This led many of the faithful in Poland to ascribe the "miraculous" safe landing to a holy intervention by the late Pope.
cretin
Sorry to disappoint.
My understanding is that the Diocese is selling two properties in very desirable locations to pay for it.
Be that as it may, this Catholic thinks:
a) it’s a terrible waste of money when so many are in need.
b) the Crystal Cathedral is ugly.
c) it’s a lot cheaper than the cathedral Bishop Tod Brown was proposing to build.
I’ll never go to Mass there.
The whole point is that the vast majority of the Vatican's holdings are non-convertible. Art and architecture that is the world's patrimony cannot be sold, and there are very few who could buy, especially right now with the world economy in such a shambles.
You may be familiar with the concept "land poor". That's what is going on here, with the addition of "world class art poor".
For next time you meet a cool archbishop (there are quite a number of them, especially BXVI's most recent appointments): Catch his eye - "Your blessing, Your Grace" and kneel (on the LEFT knee) right there on the elevator floor. And then you kiss his ring.
I freaked out our archbishop doing that once. (Yeah, I know "Your Grace" is the form of address for English archbishops. I'm an Anglophile.)
Two words: real estate.
Three words: valuable real estate.
Four words: extremely valuable real estate.
Many more words: priceless art and artifacts, precious metals, precious metals crafted into priceless art and artifacts, a wholly owned and operated city in Italy, complete with spacious and magnificiently-appointed dwellings. Even in this economy, I could convert most of that to cash in less than a week.
The dwellings are neither spacious nor well-appointed. Most of the buildings have not been renovated in years. The Pope has a suite of rooms that do not compare favorably with a Motel 6 (even though he has a nice view).
As for the art and artifacts, I covered that already. You don't sell the culture's patrimony into private hands (even assuming the law would allow it).
The widespread belief about the wealth of the Church is pretty much just scuttlebutt, much as predatory lawyers would like to think otherwise.
And the new furniture is nicer than a Motel 6 - but certainly not "magnificently appointed". I've got a nicer bookcase.
The old Papal Apartments with the Raphael frescos are now part of the Lateran Museum.
I have never understood the reason for the existence of the Catholic Church (or any other church for that matter).
I am lost on the whole concept (raised Southern Baptist).
But don't spread slander about somebody else's church when you haven't got the facts straight.
I don't go around badmouthing Baptists -- whether SBC, Missionary, Independent or Free Will -- or taking irrelevant potshots at them while they're talking about a new church building. Please give Catholics the same courtesy.
I am not slandering anybody’s religion. I am only pointing out that the Catholic church has billions of dollars of assets accumululated over centuries.
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