The Los Angeles Cathedral (yet again)

The new Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral has been in the Times again. This time
in the letters to the editor page. (The L.A.Times has joined the "registration" bandwagon, I'm afraid. Like the N.Y. Times it is free, though. [And UNlike the Irish Times which is now 79 dollars American per year.] )

How it came to be built is as appalling to me as it is to the two letter-writers and a regiment of other commentators. But the actual building itself has not outraged me as much as some others. I was thinking the other day that it ought to because it's style is certainly nothing I am attracted to.

It occured to me that the others who have commented are probably used to beautiful Catholic churches. However, I'm a child of southern California suburbia. I was raised in churches of the shoebox-with-an-altar-at-one-end style. There are some very beautiful churches in southern California. St. Vincent's in Los Angeles is one of the finest Spanish baroque churches you'll find anywhere. (St. Vincent's doesn't have it's own webpage. But you'll fnd a couple of good pictures here and here.) And there's Precious Blood church in the Wilshire district. And even lovely old St. Anthony's in Long Beach. But these are "downtown" churches. I rarely saw these churches until I was in my late teens. So the new Cathedral? Shrug. It's what I was raised with. Just bigger. And with the shoebox squashed a little in places. And the altar a bit cockeyed. Ho-hum.

But what does outrage me is this. Do you want a funeral for your wife or your father? Write 'em a letter. No phone calls; no visits. A letter. Feed my sheep, feed my lambs by mail. I am neither priest nor deacon. Just a guy who plays music for a lot of funerals. If I can talk with grieving people in person I would think the clergy - who have a great deal more to offer the the greiving than I - could find a way to do it.

If you'd like to see the old cathedral which allegedly could not be rendered earthquake safe due to the outrageous cost (what was it? $5 million? $10 million?), you can get an idea here.

A friend of mine is a music teacher. One of his students was riding with her mother and a friend down the 5 freeway through downtown L.A. As they passed the brand new cathedral, the young friend in all innocence said "Mrs. X, why does that warehouse have a big cross on it?"