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March 7, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 5Oakland,
CA
Cathedral and St. Mary’s Center
to dialog
about future sale of former cathedral site
Officials for the Cathedral of Christ the Light project
are currently engaged in talks with St. Mary’s Center regarding
the possible relocation of the facility if their current site on diocesan
property is sold.
St. Mary’s Center, a non-profit agency which provides services to
1,500 homeless and home-bound seniors and poverty-level school children
and families in downtown Oakland, pays below market-rent for the parish
hall of the former St Francis de Sales Cathedral, which was torn down
after being irreparably damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
For some years, the diocese has had the sale of that property on its drawing
board in order to raise funds for a new Cathedral, according to Lee Nordlund,
Cathedral Project spokesperson. This spring, the diocese wants to move
ahead with its plans, he said.
St. Mary’s has leased its present building from the diocese on a
year-to-year basis since 1994. It is not affiliated with the diocese,
but kept the name St. Mary’s when it moved from St. Mary’s
Church to its present location at the invitation of cathedral pastor,
Father James Keeley. Originally a ministry of St. Mary’s Church,
the Center was separately incorporated as a nonprofit in 1992.
Putting the property up for sale means that St. Mary’s will have
to move elsewhere. Also affected would be retired Bishop John Cummins,
who lives in St. Francis de Sales rectory. The rectory is part of the
diocesan property package.
St. Mary’s Center made offers to purchase the property, but the
purchase price and the timing were not right, said Nordlund.
Meanwhile, St. Mary’s has written to Bishop Allen Vigneron, asking
him to consider an “act of Jubilee Justice and give the entire property
to St. Mary’s Center to be held in trust for Oakland’s poor.”
The letter referred to the Hebrew Scriptures which talk about Jubilee,
a concept that asks us to redistribute wealth downward every 50th year.
Carol Johnson, executive director, said St. Mary’s wants to expand
its services to the poor and build housing for homeless seniors.
Johnson and her co-director, Presentation Sister Marilyn Medau also sent
a letter to donors asking them to urge the bishop to see this as “an
opportunity so that hundreds of poor seniors, families and children are
able to feel faith in action. We are still hoping that the diocese will
consider this gift and believe that such a gift would actually strengthen
the Cathedral Project.”
Nordlund, in a joint statement with St. Mary’s Center, said that
“if the people of the Diocese were to pay for the St. Mary’s
Center, what part of the diocese’s mission would bear the burden:
our schools, our social services, or our parishes? The diocese has many
of its own organizations that are in need.”
Johnson is scheduled to meet with Bishop Vigneron in mid-March.
