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Much is known about the cornerstone of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. As the Archdiocese of New York embarks on a five-year, $175 million renovation of what has been described as the nation’s largest Roman Catholic Gothic sanctuary, architects and historians have meticulously reviewed every detail of James Renwick Jr.’s original blueprints. They have learned that the cornerstone was hand-cut by Cormack McCall, a 22-year-old Irish immigrant. It was laid on Sunday, Aug. 15, 1858, the Feast of the Assumption, by John Hughes, New York’s first archbishop. Two hundred priests and 100 choirboys marched in the formal procession. The throng of onlookers...

Largest free swinging bell in the world: Shortly before the Epiphany Mass the clapper of the 24 ton bell -- The "decke Pitter" is the German Peace Bell. Cologne (kath.net/KAP) Shock in the Cologne Cathedral: The bell known as "Decker Pitter" by the locals is silenced. On Thursday morning the clapper with a 3.24 Meter diameter and with a weight of 24 tons, the largest free swinging bell in the world, fell. The cause is still unknown. Possibly there was some material weakening in the structure connecting the clapper to the bell itself. No one was injured as the Cathedral...

Over the past two years, economic hard times have loomed as large at Washington National Cathedral as the Gothic spires that grace the city's skyline. The cathedral has slashed its budget from $27 to $13 million, outsourcing its gift shop operation and shuttering its popular greenhouse and its continuing education college for clergy. Three rounds of layoffs have reduced the staff from 170 to 70, including, at the end of this month, the cathedral's conservator and the liturgist who oversaw the April memorial service for civil rights pioneer Dorothy Height.

Nearly gone is the mottled white paint, and deteriorating pews are being replaced with pews replicating designs from at least as far back as 1911. St. Augustine Cathedral, a downtown Tucson centerpiece, is being changed from having an austere, outdated interior to one of warmth and light. The $1 million renovation has "totally changed the feeling of the cathedral," said Fred Allison, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Tucson. The cathedral, at 192 S. Stone Ave., will soon have a cream-colored interior and a design scheme meant to draw the eyes of visitors and parishioners toward the sanctuary. The white...

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

Manila, Philippines, Apr 15, 2010 / 03:01 am (CNA).- Abu Sayyaf militants conducted a bombing assault on Isabela City in the Philippines on Tuesday morning, killing several people and severely damaging the Cathedral of St. Isabel. The local bishop said the cathedral was “totally” damaged. At least 25 militants with the Al Qaeda-linked group, dressed in police and camouflaged military uniforms, set off two bombs that blew up a van and damaged the 40-year-old cathedral. A third bomb placed near a judge’s house and a bus terminal was safely detonated by soldiers.It was the worst attack by the group in...

The woman wailed outside the ruins of the Notre Dame Cathedral of Port-au-Prince, the iconic Roman Catholic church that symbolized Haiti's religious fervor. "This is what God did!" she cried Friday morning. "See what God can do!" Tuesday's earthquake brought down the roof of the enormous pink-and-cream church, filling the apse and nave with tons of rubble. The quake punched out its vivid stained glass windows, twisted its wrought-iron fencing and sliced brick walls like cake. The western steeple, which had soared more than 100 feet, toppled onto parishioners praying at an outdoor shrine to St. Emmanuel. Flies buzzed around...

Archbishop Bernardito Auza. Credit: CBCP. Port au Prince, Haiti, Jan 14, 2010 / 01:30 pm (CNA).- In an exclusive email to CNA, the Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, has revealed the details surrounding the death of the Archbishop of Haiti, the condition of the buildings at the nunciature, the archdiocese and the major seminary, as well as an updated body count of priests, religious, and seminarians in Port-au-Prince, which was hit by a massive earthquake on Tuesday. “Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has a great presence here,” said the nuncio. But due to the difficult situation, the lack...

The archbishop of Port-au-Prince was killed in the devastating earthquakes that have demolished the Haitian capital and taken untold lives since striking Tuesday, according to a dispatch from the Vatican. The body of Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, 65, was found under the rubble of the archdiocese, and may be one of only hundreds of victims trapped in the ruins of Church buildings on the island.

The nation was truly comforted by the class and dignity of President Bush.

She was dumped by a boyfriend who no longer wished to follow her around the world. She found herself heartbroken and sick and finally went to a doctor who said he had news -- at 39, she was with child. Impossible, she replied: Throughout her previous 17-year marriage she tried repeatedly to get pregnant,

YOU could have been reading a chapter of Dan Brown's best-selling novel The DaVinci Code. Two people painstakingly deciphering the Latin words on hundreds of tombs inside one of the oldest places of worship on these islands. Using a centuries-old map to identify a vault hidden under the floor of the 13th Century gothic building with tower attached, they solved a mystery that had surrounded the Irish ancestors of US president Barack Obama. It's the stuff of dreams, but it has become a reality in Kilkenny, Ireland's medieval city. And so it was to St Can-ice's Cathedral that Kil-kenny film...

Justo Gallego Martínez is building his very own Cathedral in Mejorada del Campo near Madrid, Spain This is no "model" cathedral and he is neither a qualified architect, nor engineer, nor bricklayer -- he is a farmer. "The plans have only ever existed in my head" and have evolved over time in response to opportunity and inspiration. Nor does he have formal planning permission from the authorities of Mejorada del Campo -- the town in which it is located (20 km from Madrid under the flight-path to the Barajas airport).Nor does he have the benediction or support of the Catholic...

Suspected Muslim guerrillas detonated a bomb near a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least five people and wounding 46. The bomb exploded outside the Immaculate Conception cathedral in Cotabato city as churchgoers were attending Mass. Two people were killed instantly in the attack and three others, including a militiaman, later died in hospitals, military officials said. Among the wounded were six soldiers and militiamen who were in an army van that passed by the cathedral when the device, fashioned from a mortar round, exploded, Cotabato city Mayor Muslimin Sema said. The improvised explosive, which...

Bomb Blast Near South Philippine Cathedral Kills 3 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS July 5, 2009 MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Suspected Muslim guerrillas detonated a bomb near a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least three people and wounding more than two dozen others. The bomb exploded outside the Immaculate Conception cathedral in Cotabato city as churchgoers walked out after attending Mass. Two passers-by were killed instantly in the attack and a third died on the way to a hospital, said regional military commander Maj. Gen. Alfredo Cayton. The improvised explosive was hidden near a row...

CMR readers who know Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral might be interested in this historic photo from the Mass held there for the famous 1926 International Eucharistic Congress (click image for larger view). The extraordinary decorations include not only the banners, the draped fabrics and swags of flowers, but also the turning of the front rows of pews in choir arrangement. The photo also shows many of the features of the cathedral before its renovation in 1969, including the stone pulpitm, the high altar and some of the murals. Holy Name as it exists today is shown below.

Banks need family values, says Gordon Brown in extraordinary sermon to the City ahead of G20 By James Chapman Last updated at 1:59 AM on 31st March 2009 'Rise to the challenge': Gordon Brown will urge banks to abide by the same values we celebrate in everyday lives Gordon Brown will today make an extraordinary appeal for family values to be applied to the financial system. The Prime Minister will use a speech at St Paul's Cathedral to insist the first test of this week's G20 summit will be if it can agree to clean up banks across the world....

“Let’s go boatin’!” is the call that echoes off the walls of the Grand Canyon during my guided tours. It gets people moving and ready to head down river. In my years as a guide, I’ve had the privilege of taking thousands of people through the Grand Canyon, through what I now believe to be one of God’s true, created wonders. My love for the Grand Canyon started in 1980 when I went on my first river trip. The following year, I started working as a part-time guide, and in 1983, I left my corporate life to work in the...

Two Moroccans arrested in Italy yesterday wanted to blow up the Milan Cathedral on Christmas. They hoped an attack during the busy holiday would cost dozens of lives. This according to tapped phone calls, reports La Repubblica. The two belonged to an Islamic terror cell which had been followed by the Italian police already for months... Rachid Ilhami (31) and Abdelkader Ghafir (43) were arrested in Giussano, a city 25km away from Milan. The detectives gathered from tapped phone calls and confiscated computer files that the two also prepared attacks on a supermarket and a police bureau. They are arrested...

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). This thoughtful post by "Vitruvian Duck" gets closer to identifying the concerns I had when I first saw pictures of the cathedral. He received his Masters degree from the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, one of the best (if not only) classical schools of (Church) Architecture in the country. He...

The Pope used the structure of the great Cathedral as a symbolic framework for addressing the interior meaning of the Christian vocation and mission.

Already hailed as "a Houston landmark," yesterday saw the first official preview of the city's new Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, which'll be dedicated on Wednesday before 60 hierarchs and a very lucky crowd of close to 2,000. To mark the occasion -- which the regional media has treated as an earth-altering event and then some -- today's hometown Chronicle contains a full package on the festivities. As Cardinal Daniel DiNardo consecrates the $65 million de facto hub of his 1.5 million-member archdiocese, Texas' oldest and the largest in the South, fellow neo-porporato Cardinal John Foley will be present......

MEXICO CITY, NOV. 19, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The cathedral of Mexico City closed its doors last weekend, after more than 100 political protesters disrupted Sunday Mass. The decision was announced the same day by Armando Martínez, the president of the College of the Catholic Lawyers of Mexico, who said that the cathedral will not open again until the government can guarantee the security of the faithful and priests. During the midday Mass at the cathedral Sunday, a group of members of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) interrupted the liturgy chanting slogans supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the 2006...

Oakland... the final frontier. As the Cathedral of Christ the Light rises in the Bay Area see-city, one can be forgiven if "Star Trek" comes to mind. Acclaimed for its "ambitious" design, the 1,500-seat mother church of the 500,000-member diocese -- price tag: $190 million -- will open its doors on 25 September 2008. Father Paul Minnihan, provost of the cathedral, said the planning team selected the date to avoid conflicts with such weekend events as weddings and quincieneras. The group also considered an evening event, but decided an afternoon would allow for the possibility of a procession to...

Los Angeles, Sep 5, 2007 / 10:11 am (CNA).- Thanks to local preservationists and an astute developer, the former cathedral of Los Angeles was returned to its previous structural glory last week. The former St. Vibiana Cathedral, now simply named Vibiana and converted into a concert and events hall, got its 3,500-pound cupola back Aug. 30, reported the L.A. Times. The moment ended an 11-year campaign to save the downtown landmark. The historic cathedral was marked for demolition after it suffered structural damage in a 1994 earthquake. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles decided that repairs would cost more than the...

(AP) — A maze of wooden planks and glass panes is gradually taking shape among the austere office buildings of downtown Oakland, a structure alternately described as a bee hive, an inverted basket or a nuclear reactor.Only an inconspicuous sign on a fence offers a clue that it will soon be one of the nation's most ambitious — and expensive — religious sites.When it's completed in fall of 2008, the $190 million Cathedral of Christ the Light will be the centerpiece of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, which lost its old cathedral to the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.More...

Denver, Aug 27, 2007 / 10:38 am (CNA).- Members of the schismatic Society of St. Pius X complied with directives from the Archdiocese of Denver on Saturday, banning them from praying in two Denver churches. Since 1999, members of St. Isidore the Farmer Church in Watkins, Colorado have embarked on a 50-mile walking pilgrimage to Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colorado to thank God for the completion of their church. In the past, the pilgrims stopped along the route to pray and rest in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception or Holy Ghost Church, both in downtown Denver. However, the...

A maze is designed to puzzle, but whoever dreamt up the intricate earth and grass labyrinth that is Julian's Bower can be especially pleased –it remains a mystery after hundreds of years. The medieval maze in Alkborough, near Scunthorpe, has been reopened to the public after a major returfing project, but experts are no closer to solving the riddle of why or when it was made. The 44ft relic cut into the landscape has many interlocking rings, and the theories surrounding its origins are just as complex. Some have observed how Alkborough's maze is strikingly similar to a floor design...

The premiere of a work by the leading composer Sir John Taverner in Westminster Cathedral next week has provoked discord because it glorifies the Muslim deity Allah. Traditionalist Roman Catholics are planning to converge on the cathedral on Tuesday evening to protest over the work, which includes the singing of the 99 names of Allah. A number have written to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, expressing concern that the Church will be seen to be endorsing the Islamic idea of God. advertisementBut having failed to halt the concert, dozens are now...

It happens throughout the day: Traffic slows near the corner of Grand Avenue and Harrison Street in Oakland as motorists glimpse Christ the Light Cathedral climbing skyward. Cell phones and cameras emerge from car windows to snap photos. For now, its warm blond bones lay bare. Soon, glass panels will cloak the massive ark-shaped sanctuary. It will anchor a landscaped complex encompassing an open plaza, smaller chapels, offices, a rectory and residence for Bishop Allen Vigneron, gathering places, gardens and a conference center. It is the newest cathedral in the nation, and the most expensive in American history. The $190...

>Baltimore, May 17, 2007 / 10:39 am (CNA).- Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore has sent a written invitation to the Pope, asking that he pay a visit to Baltimore when he comes to address the United Nations in New York. Though a date has not been established, Catholic News Service has reported that a UN trip is likely to take place next year. The trip would be the pope's first visit to North America since his election in 2005. Cardinal Keeler invited Pope Benedict to visit the Basilica of the Assumption, the first cathedral in the United States, and the...

The Cathedral of Christ the King in Portage has been sold, members of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan were told Sunday. But who has purchased the church for $1.275 million and what will be done with the familiar landmark building and its prime property remain unknown. *** The cathedral was built in 1969 for $2 million. The diocese began thinking about a sale in 2004 because of tight finances and a dwindling church maintenance fund.

Madison, WI, Mar 16, 2007 / 10:41 am (CNA).- Cathedrals should be a "catechism in stone that represents the whole diocese," said architect Duncan Stroik at a recent lecture on church architecture. The associate professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame spoke at the Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center in Madison March 8th, as part of the St. Thérèse of Lisieux Lecture Series. His talk addressed an imminent concern for the diocese. St. Raphael Cathedral in Madison was destroyed by fire in March 2005 and the diocese is currently discussing plans for a new cathedral. According to the...

Worshipers were interrupted during an Ash Wednesday service at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis by a trio of hidden CD players spewing "pornographic" messages from beneath pews. Three CD players had been duct-taped beneath the pews and rigged to go off at 12:20 p.m., Santa Fe Police Capt. Gary Johnson said. An Ash Wednesday service was being conducted at the time, and Johnson said responding officers described the messages to him as pornographic, although he wouldn't go into detail about their content. The cathedral staff found and removed the three CD players, then called police while church-goers evacuated the...

<p>Three CD players hidden under a cathedral's pews blared sexually explicit language in the middle of an Ash Wednesday Mass, leading a bomb squad to detonate two of the devices.</p>

ALBANY -- A renovation plan that could close the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for two years or more has church leaders concerned about the survival of their parish. The parish's chief advisory council vented its frustration in a recent letter to the Albany Catholic Diocese. Church leaders, who saw copies of the plan at a recent meeting, assailed both specific ideas in the renovation proposal and the general way the plan was communicated."We certainly couldn't have felt more disenfranchised," they said in the Jan. 16 letter, distributed in church bulletins as recently as last week.The Rev. William Pape, rector...

The interior of Lutyens' model A scale model of a spectacular cathedral planned for Liverpool but abandoned after World War II has been put on display at the Walker Art Gallery.The model like the cathedral itself was never completed. Since 1992 conservators at National Museums Liverpool have been working on the restoration of the model.Edwin Lutyens was commissioned to design a cathedral for Liverpool’s Roman Catholic community in the 1930’s, on the site of the current Metropolitan Cathedral. The interruption caused by World War II and a lack of funds meant that only the crypt was built.  A video...

Even a brilliant autumn day can't compete with the glorious natural light that illuminates the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary just days before its rededication. After a two-year, $32 million restoration, the light again flows through the basilica's skylights and sparkling, translucent window panes. The interior space is a soaring masterpiece of pendentives, domes and barrel vaults, but the light -- pure and elemental -- calls to mind the simplicity of a country church or Quaker meetinghouse. It is consummately American light, the kind rarely, if ever, found in Europe's famed cathedrals,...

Worshippers coming out of services at London’s Westminster Cathedral today were greeted by a gang of Islamists, reports Joee Blogs - a Catholic Londoner. As we came out about 100 Islamists were chanting slogans such as “Pope Benedict go to Hell,” “Pope Benedict you will pay, the Muja Hadeen are coming your way,” “Pope Benedict watch your back,” and other hateful things.View Comments

Murder in the Cathedral Sept 9, 2006 An Exclusive Pajamas Media video presentation on Iranian President Khatami’s visit to the Washington National Cathedral. Produced by Andrew Marcus with Richard Miniter. Among those interviewed are journalist Eli Lake and Amir Abbas Fakhravar, an Iranian dissident jailed during the Khatami regime. See original link for video link

IS THE NEW CATHEDRAL TO PADRE PIO IN SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO ACTUALLY A "MASONIC TEMPLE"? I have just received and am in the process of studying a special issue, #381 (March 2006), of the Italian religious magazine “CHIESA VIVA”. It is my understanding that in March 2006 this special issue was sent by the publisher/editor of “Chiesa Viva”, Dr. Monsignor Luigi Villa, to Catholic & 'catholic' priests, Bishops, Cardinals, as well as a selected group of Italian lay persons including members of the judiciary. This entire special issue deals with only one subject, that being the inauguration in July 2004...

Here’s How the Church of the Future is Experimenting in the Cathedral of MilanWith video installations, electronic music, and abstract art. With Lenten readings from Oscar Wilde and Jack Kerouac. With the pulpit given over to nonbelievers. All this in the great diocese whose patrons are Saint Ambrose and Saint Charles BorromeoROMA, June 13, 2006 – One of the key phrases of the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI is “new evangelization.” But in the Duomo of Milan, the cathedral of one of the most important and populous dioceses in the world, governed by cardinal Carlo Maria Martini...

A group of Afghans are staging a sit-in at St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. The group of around 30 have been at the Cathedral since earlier this afternoon. It is understood those involved in the protest are failed asylum seekers facing deportation. Advertisement They have said they were planning to go on hunger strike. Gardaí say they are demanding to speak to officials at the Department of Justice.

Hard to believe how the time's flown, but six years ago tonight, John Cardinal O'Connor passed from our midst much too soon. How quickly we forget. In his final years, as he wound down his ministry as archbishop of New York, I was immeasurably blessed to know the cardinal, to meet up with him every so often, and to have received a good bit of his wisdom, humor and the lessons he had picked up along the way. His kindness to a young upstart was a gift which remains alive with me constantly. At sunset on 3 May 2000,...

The Rev. Robert T. Ritchie, the freshly appointed rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral, woke up at 3 a.m. in his old rectory in the Bronx yesterday to make sure he made it to Ash Wednesday services at his new church on time. "I couldn't take any chance that I'd be late," he said. A few weeks ago, in a move that surprised many in the Archdiocese of New York, Cardinal Edward M. Egan moved Father Ritchie, 60, from a parish in Kingsbridge Heights to St. Patrick's Cathedral, one of the nation's most exalted houses of worship. For a priest who...

Reclaiming America’s cathedral by George Weigel St. Patrick’s is, arguably, the most famous Catholic cathedral in the United States. The Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis is, arguably, the most beautiful. But Baltimore’s Old Cathedral, now the Basilica of the Assumption, is indisputably the most historic. It was conceived by Archbishop John Carroll, the founder of the American hierarchy, whose diocese originally encompassed the entire United States. Archbishop Carroll wanted the first Catholic cathedral in the new republic to embody the nation’s commitment to religious freedom and turned to Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the U.S. Capitol (and son of a...

The Roman Catholic cathedral of Los Angeles on Monday rescinded its invitation to hold a Christian unity conference later this month after concluding that the principal speaker was to be a controversial self-proclaimed mystic who claimed to speak directly with God, Jesus and Mary. In a letter to the sponsors, Msgr. Kevin Kostelnik, pastor of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, said that what had been represented by sponsors as a Christian unity conference had turned out to be largely a forum for Vassula Ryden, a Greek Orthodox laywoman who has attracted worldwide attention with her reports of...

Moscow, October 27, Interfax - Interior decoration and painting of the church of St.Sava of Serbia will be completed next September. The church is considered the largest Orthodox church in the world. Christ the Saviour Cathedral square in Moscow is 60x60 metres, while the church in Belgrade designed in Serbian-Byzantine style is 91x81. The fresco of Christ in the cupola of St.Sava’s church will be the largest in the Christian world. The eyes of the Saviour will be as large as one metre, Kommersant newspaper wrote Thursday. The capacity of the cathedral will accommodate some ten thousand worshippers at a...

About a thousand people crammed a Catholic church in the heart of New Orleans for an emotional Sunday Mass and prayed for the resurrection of their storm-savaged city. Some worshippers hugged and wept as Archbishop Alfred Hughes spoke from the St. Louis Cathedral altar of suffering and losses endured, and thanked those who risked their lives to rescue others. "I thank God for all of you who have made such special effort," Hughes told the congregation. "We are coming to pray New Orleans comes back to life." The wooden pews under the vaulted ceiling and chandeliers were full and worshippers...

When he walks on to a movie set, he usually gets star treatment. But as Tom Hanks arrived at Lincoln Cathedral yesterday, he found himself somewhat upstaged. A handful of protesters were making their feelings known about the decision to film scenes from The Da Vinci Code in the historic building. Led by a Catholic nun, Sister Mary Michael, they claimed the movie, based on the bestselling novel by Dan Brown, should be filmed elsewhere. She led a 12-hour prayer vigil to push the message home. The controversial thriller is the story of a Vatican conspiracy to suppress the supposed...