Good morning everyone:

Have you seen that new cathedral in LA -- Mahoney's architechural extravagance? Do you know anyone who has seen the inside? It looks cold and impersonal to me. I like the old style MUCH better. This thing looks like a cross between a church and a bank! I think it's AWEFUL! Would like to see the inside though.

Love,

Gail

-- Gail (rothfarms@socket.net), September 05, 2002

Answers

At least they used to clean the outside of the cup.

-- Emerald (emerald@cox.net), September 05, 2002.

Hi Gail-\Actually I think its really pretty and spare and simple- kind of like a the inside of a gothic cathedral. I like the monastic/plain medieval look. On the inside at least. I haven't really seen whole pictures of the outside. Maybe you have to be there.

???? Jane

-- Jane (jane@don't .like spameither), September 05, 2002.

Hi Gail,

I saw the cathedral on the news last night and the pastor compares it to St. Patrick's Cathedral in NY. He said it is California's St. Patrick's Cathederal.

I don't particularly care for that style of church. I think it is very cold. When it comes to churches, I love the 'old' churches with statues and "real" candles to light and the smell of polished pews and waxed floors.

My husband took me on a tour of all the old churches in New York City last year. He is an expert on NYC. I have been in some of the most beautiful churches and I never even knew they existed.

One of my favorites is St. Francis of Assisi. It is so beautiful, so peaceful. The Franciscans walk around with their robes and sandals and they one of the priests makes and sells sandals in a store on the property. They have a breadline where they feed the poor every morning. Confessions are heard every day.

That is the church where Fr. Mycal Judge resided (the priest who was killed at the WTC) on 9/11.

Sorry for going on, but California is a state quite different than any other and they have their own way of doing things...which, of course they are entitled to.

Perhaps if we saw it in person we would get a different impression. When I was in California, I loved to visit the Spanish missions.

Everything changes even the style of churches, but let us keep in mind that God never changes...

MaryLu

-- MaryLu (mlc327@juno.com), September 05, 2002.

If anyone is interested, I wrote a short article about the Cathedral at TCR (Traditional Catholic Reflections) -- the link is:

http://www.geocities.com/romcath1/gennews1.html

Love, :-)

-- Christine L. (christinelehman@hotmail.com), September 06, 2002.

Let's try that link again, shall we?? Sorry! --

The New LA Cathedral: Live From The Scene, by Christine Lehman

-- Christine L. (christinelehman@hotmail.com), September 06, 2002.

Christine,

Congrats on the article, btw. Anyway, were they using eucharistic ministers during mass, or only clergy for communion? Also, did you happen to see in the bulletin if there was a Latin mass given?

Thx,

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), September 06, 2002.

Thanks a bunch, Christine. Did it have a lot of artwork, etc. inside? It looks kind of plain on the outside. Do they have statues? One article I read (which I think had a definite bias) said that it was full of "deities from around the world," giving the impression that there were statues of buddha, Mohammed, etc. I thought, "Oh please, I can't believe that." So, I take it, from your article, that it is ENTIRELY CHRISTIAN! -- ?

Love,

Gail

-- Gail (rothfarms@socket.net), September 06, 2002.

Not only was it entirely Christian, it was entirely Catholic. :-) To answer a couple of questions:

1. The "deities around the world"?? I'm not sure what that refers to but I suspect it has something to do with the big mural around the sides of the church which shows a long line of people from all over the world, including Jews and Moslems, and as the mural moves up towards the altar we start seeing saints, and eventually it culminates in Mother Teresa and the Pope; all are shown in an attitude of prayer and all are facing the Crucifix and the Altar.

2. Yes, there were Eucharistic ministers but no more than at your local parish church on any given day. And the ones at the Mass I attended were giving the Cup but not the Host; that was distributed by the priests. There was a large crowd for the Mass, even on a weekday, so unless you are completely opposed to the whole idea of lay Eucharistic ministers on principle*, I think you'd agree that under the circumstances it was okay. (*if you are, nothing I say will convince you. :-)

Please keep in mind that I'm not defending Cardinal Mahony per se, but remember that the Cathedral itself does not belong to him PERSONALLY -- it belongs to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the entire Catholic Church. So even if there were problems with it *now*, remember that a future Cardinal can (and probably will) decide to make his own changes to it.

Keep Hope Alive! ;-)

-- Christine L. (christinelehman@hotmail.com), September 06, 2002.

Dear Christine,

Thank you for the link and thank you for your informative post regarding the Cathedral. It is very interesting, very interesting. I would love to see it in person.

Most people hate change, especially catholics...I know I do. It takes me a while to adjust to change and then once I do, I don't look back. This style of church is a big change and I think it would take me a while to get used to, but eventually I would and so will everyone else.

One day there will be lots more changes besides the building itself..not yet, but they are coming.

I guess what is really important is not the building itself, but the fact that the Body and Blood of Jesus are housed in the building...that is what is really important.

MaryLu

-- MaryLu (mlc327@juno.com), September 06, 2002.

"One day there will be lots more changes besides the building itself..not yet, but they are coming."

What changes are coming?

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), September 07, 2002.

Good morning Emerald,

First of all, I would like to express my sincere sorrow over the loss of your two babies.

Secondly, I am not sure what changes are going to take place and I honestly don't know why I said that. It is just something I feel lately, no proof. Sometimes I do feel like the end is near. The feeling is so strong. I guess that is what I meant.

It just seems like there is so much evil going on in our world right now. I must trust that Jesus will overcome.

Hope you find the answers you are looking for Emerald. Perhaps the answers are in your Bible.

Have a good day, a peaceful day.

MaryLu

-- MaryLu (mlc327@juno.com), September 07, 2002.

"Sometimes I do feel like the end is near. The feeling is so strong. I guess that is what I meant."

Ah, you too huh? I think you are right; we might differ on details, if there even are any details, but your intuition imo is dead on. I've made hints to the same in many of my posts. At first I thought you meant a change of some sort of progressiveness; my apologies for being locked and loaded.

Mateo would most likely tell me that it wouldn't matter whether we are in the end of days or not, as for each one of us, the end of days is coming at death for an absolute fact, and that the road we must travel to our destination remains one and the same... so why bother to consider it.

This is a valid argument if there ever was one. I think John doesn't think we are near the end either, and could make a nice case for it I believe.

But I feel it intensely; you may have recalled me talk about being woken up at 3am often, like a flash out of a deep sleep and left wondering what it meant but with a sort of understanding that it was a spiritual thing, with some sort of urgency to it. It happened the entire week before 911. Over a period of time I began to find that many, many other Catholics have this same thing, and last night I heard the latest story, unsolicited.

All in all, not all will agree on this matter of the end of days, but I guess that's all well and good so long as people live their Faith out. When all the intellectual yammering stops faith is really tested exactly where you and Kathy say it is, in the field with charity and self sacrifice and other goodies in action.

It would be more comforting if more people seemed to recognize the signs of the times, but maybe that's not so necessary. It puzzles me a bit, but I don't hold it against them. For some people thinking about these things seems like a distraction from what is important for them, but also that's not necessary. It should bring someone closer to God.

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), September 07, 2002.

Hi, Emerald. You wrote: "I think John doesn't think we are near the end either, and could make a nice case for it I believe."

Actually, I have never expressed that point of view. Instead, my belief is expressed almost exactly in what you just said that Mateo holds -- and I think that I mentioned that on another thread, several days ago.

I don't know if the end of all time is near or far, and I never really think about it. I suspect that the so-called "signs of the times" are probably the same signs that have been seen since the first century A.D., so I don't really pay extra attention to them. (I think that it's the devil that wants us to worry about them.) Instead, I think that we only need to be concerned about persevering in a state of grace, loving God, and loving our neighbor. Nothing else -- the dramatic, distracting, exernal stuff -- really matters.

God bless you.
John
PS: Thanks, Christine L, for your report and photo. I'm glad to see that the cathedral has a real crucifix. You are right: It is only a place like this cathedral -- heavily populated by tourists -- that the Church had in mind in suggesting a separate Blessed Sacrament chapel.

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), September 07, 2002.

I think that's a fair take on things John. But I can't shake the notion something big is about to go down.

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), September 07, 2002.

There will certainly be bad times in the future - the only question is, will it be the end of the world, or "just" the end of an age?

Civilizations rise and fall, and it may very well be our turn. We were always promised "wars and rumors of wars" before the End, and the wars are hitting our shores now.

Yet no matter how dark and cold it may get, don't despair - remember that our Light and Warmth are always filtered through the Cross, as long as we're in this world. The next world should be a little better. ;-)

Love,

-- Christine L. (christine_lehman@hotmail.com), September 09, 2002.

To Frank, who asks if the Latin MAss is celebrated in the Cathedral: No, but if you wish to attend an approved Latin Mass in LA or Orange Counties, please see our website, uvoc.org. We have several masses going every Sunday and Holy days of obligation. Any questions, please contact me. Pax Christi, Dave

-- Dave Lanfranchi (viceprez2@uvoc.org), October 06, 2002.