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November 5, 2007 • VOL. 45, NO. 19 • Oakland,
CA
In
His Light
Our new cathedral:
a 21st-century idiom of timeless truths
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
On Oct. 23, I had the blessing of spending the day with the priests of
Oakland at a seminar aimed at enriching our skills as pastors. During
the course of the day, I had the particular joy of sharing with my brother
priests the great good news about the date for the dedication of our new
Cathedral of Christ the Light. The Liturgy of Solemn Dedication will take
place on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008 at 2 p.m.
Because the construction of the cathedral center is 75 percent complete
and the contractor is on target with the schedule, we are able to fix
this important date already and plan accordingly.
As you know, the cathedral project has as its centerpiece the building
of a beautiful mother-church for our diocese, which will stand for centuries
as a master-work expressing in our contemporary 21st century idiom the
timeless gospel truths about the Church and her Bridegroom, Christ the
Light of all peoples.
And, of course, the project includes many other elements: a cemetery/mausoleum,
a full-facility conference center, offices for the parish that will call
the cathedral home, offices for my co-workers in the diocesan Curia (the
Chancery), a residence for the clergy who serve at the cathedral with
an apartment for the bishop, and a large public plaza with a café
and bookstore/information center. The cathedral center will also have
two levels of underground parking.
The space available in this column does not permit me to go into great
detail about each of these parts of the cathedral center, but I do want
make some remarks about each. For further information you can consult
the cathedral web site (
www.ctlcathedral.org).
Cathedral church
The cathedral church is a great soaring vault, which by its communicative
power lifts all who enter to raise not only their eyes, but also their
minds and hearts to God in heaven.
The cathedral is designed to display light in all its richness, not directly,
but enriched and enhanced by being reflected from the wood which forms
the great inner vault. In this way, our cathedral is a symbol.
The natural light that fills it is a symbol for the even more real light
of Christ that fills our world. This light of Christ is the reality with
which the Father began creation, and Christ’s light will, as the
Book of Revelation says, fill the City of God at the end of time.
So, to enter the cathedral is to experience the world as God intended
it at creation and as he restored it through redemption. And the Eucharistic
Sacrifice which is offered there is the principal means by which Christ’s
light grows ever brighter in our hearts and in our world.
The cathedral is a powerful symbol of the universe as God intends it to
be. That is the vision of the world and our lives in the world that the
new cathedral will proclaim on the west shore of Lake Merritt for centuries
to come.
Conference center
The conference center will permit the various organizations of our local
Church to hold meetings and celebrations in a convenient and modern facility
at the heart of our diocese.
Having a cemetery at the cathedral has great symbolic force. It reminds
us that the faithful departed remain part of our communion in Christ through
the Eucharist that is celebrated in the cathedral above the mausoleum.
The offices for the parish and the diocese are great resources —
“home base,” so to speak — for the individuals and teams
that are working to advance the New Evangelization.
The plaza, along with the café and book store/information center,
helps to make this religious project a civic fixture, a complex that says
the Church of Christ the Light — both the church building and the
Church community — is here in the East Bay for everyone.
And I am most grateful that I will be living at the cathedral center,
right across the plaza from the church which is the focal point of my
ministry of teaching, sanctifying and leading.
It was at another meeting recently that one of the insights about the
cathedral center crystallized with even greater clarity in my mind.
I was on a tour of the new addition to Moreau Catholic High School in
Hayward. I got a chance to see the great new labs, the beautiful new library
and the remarkable video production center. This confirmed for me that
a community’s investment in what we call “facilities”
is really a commitment to what goes by the name of “programming.”
We build so that we can act, can do, can serve. For example, a married
couple builds a house so that they can establish a home and raise a family.
That’s the key to understanding the point in building this great
center of the Cathedral of Christ the Light.
Diocesan pastoral plan
The dedication of the center is the occasion for all of us in the Catholic
community of the East Bay to launch out anew on the great work of the
New Evangelization, the mission, as we say in our diocesan pastoral plan,
to “Know Christ better and make Him better known.”
For a diocese, the cathedral church is the mother church of all the faithful,
a second home church that does not compete with but complements one’s
parish home.
Our breathtakingly beautiful cathedral, a veritable hymn in glass and
wood and concrete, is a powerful witness to the beauty of Christ’s
light, the beauty of the life of light into which He wants to draw all
men and women, and to which it is our mission to invite them.
The God who made us is all Beauty, all Goodness and all Truth; life with
Him is a beautiful life, the best life, life in the truest sense. That’s
what the Church knows in faith. It’s what we witness to and teach
by our new cathedral.
All of the facilities that surround it in the cathedral center enhance
our efforts to “Gather Good Together” at the corner of Harrison
Street and Grand Avenue, for the sake of our mission as the new People
of God.
As you’ve read here in The Voice, Sister Rose Marie Hennessy is
working very closely with a planning commission to lay out the sorts of
programs we will offer at the cathedral, precisely to bring the center’s
potential to fulfillment. I am very grateful for this important help.
Apostolic works
In the light of my conviction about how a facility makes action possible,
I want to say a word about the concern that is sometimes raised in regard
to this project: that establishing it could mean shortchanging other apostolic
works in the diocese. Quite the contrary, I believe. In the ways we will
bring people from all over the East Bay together at the cathedral and
there have opportunities for the Holy Spirit to engender in them new vision
and renewed dedication, we will have more, not fewer, resources for the
mission of the Church.
Let me sketch this out with an illustration. While not wanting to preempt
the planning process, I can say that it is my hope to have an annual gathering
at the cathedral for teachers – those who teach in our Catholic
schools and Catholics who teach in other schools. At this Mass we will
thank God for their service because they are great “agents of the
light,” both the light of natural truth and the light of faith.
This diocesan recognition of educators will reinforce the commitment of
us all to support the ministry of education in our own schools and to
invest ourselves in the political process needed to improve public education.
And that’s only one example of how the cathedral center will enable
us to do more for Christ, to serve his mission better.
Let me conclude with a reflection that came from one more occasion, offering
the 11 a.m. “Family Mass” at St. Mary’s Church in Walnut
Creek on Sunday, Oct. 28. The church was filled with young children and
their parents. I realized once more that it is for these children and
their children and grandchildren and for the generations to come for centuries
that we are making the sacrifices required to build the Cathedral of Christ
the Light.
We are building this great new center for the Church in Oakland so that
to those who come after us we will hand on a communion in faith, hope
and love in the Lord that is strong and robust, and the foundation for
a future filled with Christ’s own light.
As the days of the year ahead unfold, you will receive information about
the festivities that will mark the cathedral’s dedication. These
are being planned so that every member of the diocese will be able to
share in them.
Please continue your prayers for the success of this project, not only
for the successful completion of the construction, but most of all, for
the cathedral to be a force for the renewal of our diocese to the glory
of God the Almighty.
May Our Lady, Mother of the Church in Oakland and Queen of the Universe,
obtain for us these great blessings from her Eternal Son.
Previous "In His Light" Columns by Bishop Allen H. Vigneron
