Catholic Diocese of Orange: Christ Cathedral, Inside & Out

-----Crystal Cathedral is changing to a a Catholic Cathedral-----

By Patrick Mott

I will go to the altar of God…

For nearly 35 years, the Crystal Cathedral was uncommonly, unselfconsciously grand, a landmark of almost otherworldly proportions, one of the largest and most famous churches in the world.

When it is finally consecrated as Christ Cathedral, the scale of the structure will not change—big, after all, is still big—but in its transformation into a Catholic worship space, the cathedral will embrace worshippers and other visitors, regardless of their faith, with a welcoming intimacy that belies its size. Design elements both inside and out will point to the central reality of the Catholic faith: the Eucharist and the table of the Lord, around which everything and everyone is gathered.

And it will be designed for the ages; architects and designers are working from plans that envision the highest quality and service for at least 150 years. “It must be clear to the community that the Catholic Church is the finest steward of this property,” said Rob Neal, the first chief operating office for Christ Catholic Cathedral Corp. and now a member of the architecture and renovation committee. “Throughout the renovation we are setting the bar very high. Once I understood the scope of this purchase and this project, I knew it would be the most important work I’ll ever do in my career.”

Christ Cathedral: The Inside

Outwardly, the familiar structure, with its 10,000 panes of glass, will look much the same as it always has, albeit with a necessary dose of maintenance and restoration. Inwardly, however, the changes will be dramatic:

–The former theater-style seating will give way to pews arranged antiphonally on either side of a raised altar.

–Three entries will be reconfigured as the Bishop’s Door, Baptistery and Pilgrim’s Entry to the east, and the spaces inside each entry will be distinctive.

–In the center of the cathedral’s worship space will be the altar, sitting atop the predella (a raised platform) and visible from all pews. A large metallic baldachin and carved crucifix will be suspended above the altar, with the cathedra (bishop’s chair) to the north and the ambo to the south. The mezzanine level will be reconfigured to support music performance in multiple configurations.

–The cathedral’s new stone floor and lower walls will recall the earth, while the glass vaulting overhead frames the heavens.

–Upper surface areas will be constructed with acoustics, lighting, solar heat transmission and ventilation in mind, as well as environmental comfort and visibility, said Scott Johnson, a partner in Johnson Fain, one of two firms handling the renovation. To minimize the transmission of heat and light from the glass walls and ceiling, the firm has designed an algorithmically complex series of quatrefoils made up of triangular metal sails in various stages of openness. By arranging open and closed “petals” on the inside surface based on the angle of the sun, natural light will be modulated and glare will be reduced.

–Below the sanctuary, the undercroft will include the Chapel of St. Callistus, the bishops’ crypts and columbarium, a bride’s room, family room, choir practice room, sacristies and support functions. Silver travertine paving will follow the stairway down from the entry level through arched galleries and into the chapel.

Three entries will be reconfigured as the Bishop’s Door, Baptistery and Pilgrim’s Entry to the east, and the spaces inside each entry will be distinctive. Pictured here is a design for the baptismal font.

The Blessed Sacrament.

Below the sanctuary, the undercroft will include the Chapel of St. Callistus.

The narthex.

The Pilgrim’s Stair.

In the center of the cathedral’s worship space will be the altar, sitting atop the predella (a raised platform).

A large metallic baldachin and carved crucifix will be suspended above the altar, with the cathedra (bishop’s chair) to the north and the ambo to the south.

Christ Cathedral: The Outside

While Christ Cathedral is the heart of the campus, the surrounding grounds will represent the first physical contact worshippers and visitors will have with the sacred space. With that in mind, the designers and architects who are transforming the campus are making people the central priority in making the grounds a serene, welcoming and inviting place. The exterior design elements also offer flexibility for future development while honoring the history of the site.

Initial site development will focus on the area adjacent to the cathedral, creating communal gathering areas that allow the cathedral’s sacred space to radiate into the surrounding community while allowing visitors to relax, slow down and experience the peace of the surroundings.

From the outside of the campus, the most visible of these communal spaces will be the community green at the corner of Lewis Street and Chapman Avenue. Lined by parkways, this green space will be open to the surrounding community, creating a park-like setting for large-scale events, such as outdoor services or concerts.

The plaza surrounding the cathedral will be equipped for a wide range of liturgical and non-liturgical events. The area will be zoned into four courtyards—the Pilgrim’s Court, Festal Court, Marian Court and Court of the Catechumens—each of which will be connected to the cathedral and tied together by a continuous paving pattern. A dozen large light elements will mark stone entry thresholds.

A water feature will animate the Pilgrim’s Court, encouraging children’s play, and a reflecting pool near the Bishop’s Door will connect visually to the existing Arboretum fountain, providing a calming, cleansing element near the cathedral entry.

Ringing the plaza will be a tree-lined threshold containing a mix of shrines, chapels, visitors’ services and support elements. The frame of trees and small sculptures will allow visitors to walk under a tree canopy as they make the transition from the outdoors into the cathedral’s sacred space.

Bishop Kevin Vann has called the vision and execution of the designers and architects “inspired.”

“This will be here long after we are gone,” he says, “remaining as a testament of faith that continues Rev. Schuller’s vision and strengthens faith among Orange County Catholics.”

Read and see more:  http://www.occatholicnews.com/christ-cathedral-inside-out/

Weekly Collections for September 21, 2014

Total Paid appears not to have been adjusted from last week.  Another family appears to have pledged.

Pope Francis asks aides to make Catholic divorce easier

 

The move reflects tensions between liberals and conservatives within the Vatican

By Tom Kington in Rome

2:10PM BST 21 Sep 2014

Pope Francis has ordered a group of theologians and lawyers to come up with ways to help Catholics divorce more easily – a move which may help diffuse a bruising battle between liberals and conservatives at the Vatican.

The 11-member commission, announced on Saturday, will seek to "simplify the (annulment) procedure, making it more streamlined, while safeguarding the principle of the indissolubility of marriage," the Vatican said.

By undergoing a complex and often costly church procedure, Catholics can obtain annulments if they can show their marriage was not valid in the first place, perhaps because a partner declined to have children.

If Catholics instead opt for a simpler civil divorce – which is not recognised by the Church – and then remarry, they can be refused communion because the Church considers them to be still married and living in sin.

The idea of relaxing that rule and allowing remarried divorcees to receive communion was hinted at in February by German Cardinal Walter Kasper, who is close to Pope Francis. But, just before a synod next month which will discuss marriage, a group of five conservative Catholic Church figures, including German Cardinal Gerhard Muller, have fought back with a book opposing any change.

 

 

Francis has not openly backed either side in the debate, but appeared to take aim at the conservatives on Friday when he warned the Church against the temptation of "codifying faith in rules and instructions as did the scribes, the Pharisees, and the doctors of law in the time of Jesus."

In an interview last week, Cardinal Kasper said the opponents of change wanted "ideological warfare" at the synod. "When they attack me, their real target is not me but rather the pope himself," he said.

Observers believe a move to help Catholics get easier annulments, instead of opting for divorces, could help diffuse the row

Above is from:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/11111724/Pope-Francis-asks-aides-to-make-Catholic-divorce-easier.html

"The Pope Gave This Man A Promotion And He Could Dramatically Change The Focus Of The Catholic Church" Share:

"The Pope Gave This Man A Promotion And He Could Dramatically Change The Focus Of The Catholic Church"

 

CREDIT: AP

by Jack Jenkins Posted on September 21, 2014 at 3:02 pm

 

The Archdiocese of Chicago announced on Saturday that Pope Francis has named Bishop Blase Cupich, a moderate bridge-builder with a history of supporting many progressive-leaning positions, as the next archbishop of Chicago. The Nebraska native will be replacing a highly political — and deeply conservative — bishop, and could potentially usher in a new era of American Catholic leadership that spends less time fighting culture wars and more time echoing the populist leadership of Pope Francis.

The move might not seem like much to a non-Catholic, but the elevation of Cupich represents a significant change in tone for the Catholic church in America. Politically and theologically speaking, the 65-year-old Cupich, who will be leaving behind his position as Bishop of Spokane, is notably different from his predecessor, Cardinal Francis George, on several counts. George, who is currently fighting cancer, has enjoyed prominence among Catholic conservatives for his hard-line stance against abortion and marriage equality, but has often stoked controversy for how he expresses his views: in 2011, George compared organizers of the Chicago Pride Parade to the Ku Klux Klan, and recently wrote that being a Catholic citizen under a pro-gay, pro-choice government is akin to living under Shariah law.

Cupich, by contrast, is the very embodiment of a Catholic moderate. When the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) publicly opposed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, he expressed skepticism about their confrontational approach, preferring a deeper dialogue with President Obama’s administration about the issue of Catholic institutions providing contraception to employees. Similarly, when serving as the bishop of Spokane, Washington during the state’s battle over marriage equality, Cupich published a pastoral letter that defended the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage while also condemning anti-gay bullying, saying it was wrong to “incite hostility towards homosexual persons or promote an agenda that is hateful and disrespectful of their human dignity.” He has also frustrated many pro-life activists by reportedly privately asking priests and seminarians in Spokane not to pray in front of Planned Parenthood abortion clinics, arguing that such actions were unnecessarily provocative, according to Crux.

So why should anyone care that Cupich is the new head of the Catholic church in Chicago? From a practical perspective, Cupich’s promotion could signal a change in how the Catholic church in the United States impacts governmental policy. As a well-funded and highly organized messaging machine, the USCCB regularly wades into national policy debates, having weighed in on the aforementioned battle over the Affordable Care Act (they opposed it), various state-level vote on marriage equality (they’re against it), and the recent battle over comprehensive immigration reform (they’re for it). Lifting up people like Cupich, however, makes it far more likely that Catholic leaders in the United States will be proactive in following Francis’ lead — that is, avoiding most public culture war battles, which Francis says the church is too “obsessed” with, and refocusing their profound resources on a broader understanding of “pro-life” that includes serving the poor and the marginalized.

“Pope Francis sent a clear message to an American hierarchy that has lost its way fighting the culture wars in recent years,” said John Gehring, Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life, a progressive advocacy group in Washington, told ThinkProgress. “It signals that pastoral leadership, the search for common ground and a broader pro-life vision must be the new guideposts. The Francis agenda is now anchored in a city that has long been a powerhouse of American Catholicism. This could be a game changer.”

In addition, from a global Catholic perspective, it is well known that the most effective way for a pope to impact the future of the church is to appoint like-minded bishops. To be sure, Pope Francis, who has miffed some conservatives for insisting that the church shift its focus away from decrying abortion and same-sex marriage and towards issues such as poverty, climate change, and immigrant rights, has found a kindred spirit in Cupich. In addition to his moderate positions listed above, Cupich wrote in June that economic inequality is “a powder keg that is as dangerous as the environmental crisis the world is facing today,” and reaffirmed his position on immigration during his press conference on Saturday, saying, “I don’t want to dance around the issue that we need comprehensive immigration reform.” In fact, so obvious is the mind-meld between Francis and Cupich that Catholic news outlets are already referring to him as the “American Pope Francis.”

Thus, the more people like Cupich that Francis elevates to positions of power — and the more he fills the empty slots they leave behind with other bishops who share his views — the more likely it is that the Catholic church will carry on Francis’ vision long after he leaves the papacy. It is bishops (specifically Cardinals), after all, who usually become popes, primarily because they are the only ones eligible to vote for who gets the papacy. And it is popes like Francis that have profound impacts on global politics, including here in the United States.

Of course, it remains to be seen how Cupich will operate in his new position, and he’s faced with a steep learning curve: whereas his previous position in Spokane oversaw 90,000 Catholics and 82 parishes, the Chicago archdiocese boasts a whopping 350 parishes and 2.2 million Catholics. Leading such a huge institution will undoubtedly have its pitfalls, and Chicago is known for taking a toll on its leaders, be they political or religious.

Then again, no one expected that much from Pope Francis either, and it stands to reason that Cupich — and possibly others like him — are primed to be the new face of a more moderate, less antagonistic brand of American Catholicism.

Above is from:  http://thinkprogress.org/home/2014/09/21/3570151/ope-francis-just-named-a-new-archbishop-of-chicago-heres-why-you-should-care/

Weekly Collections for September 14, 2014

One additional family pledged.

Pope To Demote Conservative Cardinal – A Revolution, Decapitation, Describes Vatican Critic

 

By Athena Yenko | September 18, 2014

Cardinal Burke was appointed by late Pope John Paul II who had also decided to assign him to be the Archbishop of St. Louis and a position in the Roman Curia as head to the department that strictly decides on the legal application of the Canon Law. While serving the Roman Curia, Burke had appointed equally conservative bishops. Pope Francis had since removed Burke from this latter appointment - a humiliation, described Magister.  

Magister described Burke as an expert of the Canon Law and a strict follower at that, even "to the most uncomfortable consequences." Uncomfortable consequences to the point when he denied communion to U.S. politicians who are pro-abortion, including  Sean Patrick O'Malley of Boston and Donald Wuerl of Washington. Both politicians are "valued" by Pope Francis, Magister points out.

Burke, also, is very vocal of his objection against ideas of Cardinal Walter Kasper, which include giving communion to the divorced and remarried. Magister said that Kasper is "well known to be in the good graces of Pope Francis."

Read more by clicking on the following:  http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/566707/20140918/pope-francis-controversy-raymon-burke.org#.VBscNI10zIV

Weekly Collections for September 7, 2014

 

----New Format to Reporting on Building Fund

Two additional Families Pledged.