Posted on 10/08/2008 10:20:04 AM PDT by NYer
The comment thread on my original post about Oakland's new "Cathedral of Light" has about 90 comments at this point. My editorial observations were minimal, but that didn't stop several people from claiming positions for me (and strongly disagreeing with ... the positions they thought I held).
"... of modern society we can say 'there is no prayer there'. Men and women bustle about downtown skyscrapers, office workers drone on in the vast oceans of concrete found in office parks across the country.
Rarely, if ever, do they hear the ringing of the bells marking the liturgy of the hours. Rare is the visual reminder that they are called to higher things as they drive past a church, and when we build churches like the new Cathedral of Christ the Light, we are accentuating the problem. Our churches are not inviting people into them. Most of the time, people don't even know what that building is, and what it's for. 'Is it a dentist's office?' 'Is it a museum?' 'Is it a hospital?' 'Oh, that's a church?! I never would have guessed!'
... during the 2 hours or so we were exploring the Cathedral, I didn't see a single person in prayer. Not so surprising. I don't feel compelled to pray at office buildings, either."
What happened to the previous cathedral?
Btw, did you notice the Eye of Sauron in the top view?
Looks like a new office building, not a church building.
Now those are just silly -- obviously, it's an insurance company building . . . at least that's what insurance co. buildings look like around here! ;-)
Yeah, obviously Insurance.
Cathedral of Saint Francis de Sales suffered some damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. One year later, Bishop John Cummins announced that the structure would have to be torn down because the diocese could not afford the repairs, and in 1993 the cathedral was demolished. The estimated cost of repairing and performing seismic upgrades of both St. Frances de Sales and the Sacred Heart Church, also damaged in the earthquake, was $8 million.
No ... I don’t see it.
Seems I've heard that story before. Oh ... here it is
When the City of Los Angeles condemned the old St. Vibiana's Cathedral in 1996, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was left without a Cathedral Church.
Remarkably, others were able to restore the old cathedral into a community arts center. Now that's a miracle!
I’ve driven by it. It’s bigger than it looks. Also the picture of Christ behind the altar was said to look 3 dimensional when the light shines through the windows. That photo he linked to must have been when the sun is behind the nearby buildings.
We are in quake territory and very few churches look like the old cathedrals here. The ones built in that way didn’t last through the previous quakes. Almost all the Spanish Missions in CA are not the originals. The one is San Juan Batista (seen in the movie Vertigo) was built about 30 feet from the San Andras.
I wouldn't brag about my Catholic credentials from Notre Dame - not today, anyway...
Notre Dame Tenured Theologian McBrien Blasts Bishops
Oh, my, now I can't not see it. I thought the aerial shot of the Cathedral looked familiar... It has the sterile, cold look of headquarters in a sci-fi movie.
See the second photo in the “original post” link.
Oakland? Nah, it’s for software company that didn’t survive the dot com bust.
Seriously, though, the bishop of Oakland is very good, but apparently the contract was already in place when he arrived and there was no way of getting out of it without paying more money than the diocese had. Plus, of course, the former bishop was not good, and his henchpersons were still in charge at the chancery when the new bishop arrived.
Wow. That is weak.
Jesus doesn’t want to go in there. He thinks it’s ugly.
Are those brown things shutters or are there vertical pews of some kind?
The round alter looks like it needs a pole and some go-go dancers.
Sorry. But, eww.
Well the former bishop wanted to outdo what Cardinal Mahony of LA did by having the Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral.
Here's a link to what the cathedral looks like from the inside including the image of Christ.
A new ‘ugly cathedral’ thread.
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