The announcement that Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio has been appointed co-adjutor archbishop for Los Angeles and successor to Cardinal Mahony leaves the mainstream media very confused.
The media is alternately ecstatic and apoplectic over Pope Benedict’s choice for the city of Angels. Several news outlets, notably the LA Times, have already written several articles about what to expect from Archbishop Gomez and have even tried to send thinly-veiled warnings. But in most of the coverage, the media makes the same mistake that it always makes when it tries to cover religion like politics. They attempt to view all matters through the lens of politics and feel compelled to attempt to classify everything in terms of the modern political definitions of ‘progressive’ or ‘conservative.’
Trying to do this with Archbishop Gomez has left their collective heads spinning.
Archbishop Gomez is a Mexican-born hispanic. Hooray!
Archbishop Gomez is a full member of Opus Dei. Gasp!?!
Archbishop Gomez is… Continue Reading @ National Catholic Register
April 10, 2010 at 5:19 am
I kinda got a bit dizzy with the back and forth in the preceeding comments, but whoever said,
that it was a perverse statement to hope for the Cathedral to be bulldozed, etc and "What kind of Catholic hopes for such things?"
Well, as I am also one of those Catholics who hopes for the bulldozing, I'll tell you what kind of Catholics hope for such things: REVERENT CATHOLICS!
To me, that eyesore of a Cathedral symbolizes the Church attempting to keep up with the times, aka the world and how the faithful have been so poorly taught their faith in LA. I see that building and I don't think of our Lord, I think of Nuns wearing PANTSUITS and supporting abortion, disobeying their bishops out of some ill conceived powerstruggle. I think of A Religious Education Congress that comes across like some sort of cheap vegas production, not to mention how it made me wonder about exactly what Religion was being portrayed because it sure didn't seem like Catholicism. It's an UGLY building, period.
Look up the Norbertine Fathers at St. Michael's Abbey; just 50 south of LA. They have been in the process of relocating their abbey due to land conditions as well as the growing number of men wishing to join the Norbertines. They're building an entirely new abbey. Just look at the sketches of what the new abbey will look like, and then you'll see what having and holding onto sacred tradition looks like.
-Lisa
April 10, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Lisa – amen. What you heard was the death-throws and wailing of a sore-loser minority stamping their feet that their time is over before they got to fully turn the church into a modernist, liberal version of themselves.
May the new archbishop bulldoze it and put something else up within 5 years of his Episcopacy. Also, it doesn't surprise me what you say about the Norbertines. Many Traditional orders are actually turning away candidates as there is not enough seats in their schools.
April 10, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Well, as I am also one of those Catholics who hopes for the bulldozing, I'll tell you what kind of Catholics hope for such things: REVERENT CATHOLICS!
Would those "reverent Catholics" include Jack Chick and Bob Jones? Because I'm sure they'd like to see some cathedrals bulldozed, too.
To me, that eyesore of a Cathedral symbolizes the Church attempting to keep up with the times
That's the problem: Seeing it as a symbol and not for what it truly is — a Catholic cathedral where the holy sacrifice of the Mass is prayed daily. Too often we let perfect become the enemy of the good. Maybe you'd like to see all Catholic art and architecture frozen in a certain era; but there is no theological reason for such a preference. The eternal truths of the faith don't change, but that doesn't imply that we must remain static in everything else we do. (I suppose if you wanted to be really "traditionalist," you would insist not on Latin but Aramaic or Greek for the liturgy, right?)
Look: I couldn't watch that RE Congress video, either. It looked ridiculous. There is a need for reverence and beauty in art and worship, certainly. But things like the cathedral sometimes unfairly become symbolic targets. Issues get conflated until we're hyperventilating about nuns in pantsuits and puppet Masses and Cardinal Mahony and Marty Haugen and on and on… Sometimes it's good for "reverent Catholics" to stop and take a breath, and remember that this is a *catholic* (small c) church. And people do, in fact, follow different paths to Christ. I know for a fact because I was one of them. I was received into the Church at a parish that was very "innovative" with the liturgy. And yet I found my way to a more orthodox and traditional understanding of the faith, despite the loopy introduction to it.
Have faith. It may not be the cathedral you or I would've designed, but it's not all bad. I find it's a constant struggle not to paint all of these troublesome trends in the Church with a broad brush, but when I recall my own, twisted road to the Truth, I realize that I can't be too harsh on the "innovators." As long as they're not innovating with doctrine, I think we need to take a step back sometimes.
April 11, 2010 at 2:18 am
Early Riser:
Are you in LA? Have you been there? Jack Chick would have a hard time identifying it as Catholic, so save the Bob Jones canards, The Cathedral is half heresy in stone, full of syncretic symbols. The Mass will remain. It does need bulldozering. You are out of your TheChurchCanDoNoWrong mind. It is a disgrace. The same way Rome's weak response to priest abuse is a bad thing. The amount of, Oh COme On Now, Let's Love… crap tht we have suffered is tragic. Child Abusers need to be defrocked in 5 minutes, gay priests need to quit soft-peddling church teaching on sexuality, and the cathedral…INCOMING.
April 11, 2010 at 4:56 am
Are you in LA? Have you been there?
Yes and yes (many times).
The Cathedral is half heresy in stone
Simply untrue. It is not "traditional," I'll grant that. But name one thing that is "heretical" about it. I bet you can't.
It is a disgrace
How do you know it is a dis-grace, and not a possible source of grace? Did you not read what I wrote? There are unexpected paths to the Church. Be open to them. Don't worry; you can still be a "reverent Catholic" and have that kind of magnaminity. It won't kill you.
April 11, 2010 at 7:57 am
J "christian" you lost all credibility in this conversation when you said we, who think the church should bulldoze it and put up something better are "perverse". Now you seem to be taking a more subdued tone, almost like you've had access to your meds or something. Either way, your opinion here doesn't mean much.
April 11, 2010 at 9:57 am
Keep putting my name in scare quotes like that, okay? It really makes you look like a charitable soul. I must not be a real "Christian" because I had the audacity to suggest that it was odd for a "Christian" to be rooting for the destruction of a Christian church! Obviously every good Catholic wants to destroy anything that lacks 100% doctrinal purity as defined by the Magisterium According to Early Riser. You're insane if you don't agree with him.
April 11, 2010 at 10:14 am
I hear that the tabernacle in St. Peter's Basilica is not front and center, but in a side chapel — what an affront to All that is Good and Holy! The place should be bulldozed, I say! Who's with me?
April 12, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Apparently, no one.
sad.