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CURRENT ISSUE: January
8, 2007 • VOL. 45, NO. 1
Oakland,
CA
Bishop Vigneron urges Catholics to pray, act for end
to violence
Gives
progress report on new cathedral center
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Bishop Allen H. Vigneron |
Dear Friends in Christ,
Since this is my first column for the New Year, I want to begin by expressing
my prayerful good wishes to all of you: I hope that these first days of
2007 have already been filled with God’s abundant blessings for
you and for your families, and I ask the Lord in his mercy to keep you
in his peace and joy every day throughout the year ahead.
In this column there are two very important topics I want to speak about,
but they are both really aspects of one same theme: living out our vocation
as Jesus’ disciples in this New Year. I want to consider, first,
our vocation as agents of Christ’s peace and, second, our vocation
as bearers of his light.
About being agents of peace: since the years when Paul VI was pope, the
first of January, besides being the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, has
been designated as the World Day of Prayer for Peace.
It is fitting that a week after Christmas, on the first day of the New
Year, we ask God to give us in our time the peace which Jesus Christ,
the Prince of Peace, brought into our world through his birth in the flesh
from the Virgin Mary. And I know that to consummate this prayer many of
your parish priests offered the Mass for Peace on New Year’s Day.
As the pastor of our Church of Oakland, I am keenly aware of how much
we, in our homes and our communities in the East Bay, are in need of this
gift of the Lord’s own peace. Every day the papers, the radio or
the television presents a tragic chronicle of the violence that has become
part of the fabric of our daily lives.
Certainly we pray for peace in the trouble spots throughout the world.
We ask God for wars to end, and ask him to keep safe until that day those
who serve in our armed forces.
But, even as we think globally, we must not forget at the same time to
focus locally. We must ask for the gift of peace here at home and ask
for the grace to be instruments of that peace right here in our families
and in our neighborhoods.
Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in his “Message for the World
Day of Peace” (www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages)
insists that we Christians are God’s co-workers in establishing
peace. The pope begins by reaffirming that God is the principal agent
of peace, the first peacemaker, by creating the world according to the
just order that blossoms in peace and by redeeming it from the sin and
selfishness that threaten to blight our peace.
Nonetheless, in virtue of our Baptism, we are called, not only to receive
this gift of peace, but also to work for it. As the Holy Father puts it,
peace is both “a gift and task.”
So, it is not enough for us simply to bemoan the violence that the media
report to us day after day. We have a two-fold call actively to respond.
We must pray for God to end this violence, and we must work with God to
end it.
In regard to our prayer: we need to make it ever more intense and ever
more specific – ardent supplications and acts of mortification to
obtain from God protection from violence for those we know experience
it or are threatened by it.
In regard to our works: each of us, no exceptions, needs to ask the Holy
Spirit to show us the situations in our community in which he wants us
to get involved in order to end the violence and build peace.
We need to see where he is calling us to witness to the human dignity
of our neighbors and calling us to help secure their right to life, a
life free from the threat of violence.
Secondly, about being bearers of the light of Christ: This, too, is an
essential (indispensable, non-negotiable) part of our call as the baptized.
When we came up from the font, each of us was given a lighted candle with
the charge: “Receive the light of Christ.”
The Lord expects that we will not keep this light hidden but hold it up
for all to see. The world needs this light so as to walk securely toward
the future God has in mind for us, and we minister to our world by serving
this light.
A principal way we as a family of faith in this diocese are working to
respond to this call to be bearers of the light is through establishing
our new Cathedral Center, dedicated to Christ, the Light of All Peoples.
Building this facility and using it to its maximum potential in order
to spread the light of Christ in the City of Oakland and throughout the
East Bay is our answer to the Lord’s call.
As we begin the New Year, I want to give you an update on the progress
of this project which is so important for our service of our Lord. And,
by God’s providence, I can do it in the context of a local TV report
on the cathedral which many of you saw just before Christmas.
The story focused on two strategic points I would like to mention and
expand on. First, the piece did a good job of highlighting the anticipation
with which I believe the Catholic community awaits the dedication and
full operation of the cathedral, parish offices and hall, conference center
and Chancery offices. To recap for you:
• We are about half way through construction, having begun in June
2005 and currently projecting completion in mid-2008. The Center’s
primary component buildings are taking clear shape as everyone who walks
by the corner of Grand Avenue and Harrison Street will see.
• The magnificent cathedral edifice is presently
being surrounded by its base concrete walls, out of which next year will
climb the wood, steel and glass structure so beautifully conceived by
architect Craig Hartman. We’re also finalizing decisions about the
sacred art (altar, crucifix, stations, statues, paintings, icons, etc.)
and fixtures that will glorify the cathedral’s interior.
• Good progress is being made in building-out
the conference center and parish offices. Walls have gone up in the rectory
building and around the Catholic bookstore and café.
• The underground mausoleum beneath the cathedral
is taking grand shape.
In addition to what was in the news report, I want to let you know that
the work which Sister Rose Marie Hennessy is directing – planning
for the ministries the cathedral will offer to our diocese and to the
civic community – has begun well. And Father Quang Dong, the cathedral
rector, is doing a great job of preparing the parish community for its
new home. So, overall we’re making very solid progress.
The local TV news story also reminded viewers that there is a great deal
of expense involved in a cathedral designed and built to last centuries.
This last point left questions unanswered so I want to fill that space
with these thoughts.
• Well before construction began, as is the
norm, we identified an estimated cost for the total project. At the time
we held the mausoleum and conference center costs out of the first estimate
and knew the number likely to be low.
• A year and a half into the project, with
most major design adjustments and construction planning decisions now
made, we are revising the cost estimate for the complete cathedral center
to $190 million, a figure that is closer to probable reality than earlier
estimates.
• Fund raising to date accounts for over $91
million in pledges and gifts to the Cathedral Center. Our challenge remains
the same and it is a large task: to raise the necessary money to build
and finance Christ the Light Cathedral Center. The Center is nearly halfway
to completion, as are our total funds raised.
Significant foundations and major benefactors have made important contributions
to the project and we are actively seeking to add to that list. Please
pray for the success of this effort, momentous in the history of the Diocese
of Oakland, so important for the Church in the East Bay to fulfill our
vocation.
Yours in Christ,
Allen H. Vigneron
Bishop of Oakland
