From ‘Crystal Cathedral’ to Christ Cathedral: Orange Diocese to Celebrate

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It’s great that it will be used for Catholic worship and as a testament to the glory of God…
 
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Mostly quite happy about this.

As the HQ for the Diocese, the campus is almost perfectly located in the center of Orange County (versus the beautiful but up in the hills and hard to get to old HQ at the former Marywood Center in far Northeast County).

ONE change I would have made. Front and center behind and above the altar is the “Bishop’s Chair”. An EMPTY Chair most of the time … while
the (Most of the time NOT EMPTY) tabernacle with the very body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist – is off to the side at the Eastern Entrance.

The former Crystal Cathedral had no tabernacle at ALL I suppose.
But if you’re going to rename the famous place with the vast improvement of calling it the CHRIST Cathedral 😇 …

… why not put Christ in the most prominent place as well … as the tabernacle IS in many churches.

I do like the idea of a Eucharistic Chapel that is always open.

And other than this (important thing that I’d improve), I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product of the years long renovation.

Bit by bit the campus has been improved … but when one visited it … there was also always a lot of growing pains to be dealt with in the ugly fencing and under construction areas that at times seemed more prominent than the recent improvements or untouched parts of the campus.

😃 Going there tonight, after the dedication!
 
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My only complaint is that banner of Christ Pantocrator. I know it’s by a monk of St. Meinrad and all that, but why does every “modern” depiction of Jesus have to look like it was done by a 6-year-old?

Fortunately, the Cathedral is big enough that the banner can easily be ignored.
 
Those who don’t like the cost of this campus and its renovation probably ought to compare with the cost to build from scratch at the site they had purchased in Santa Ana. Not recalling the name of that parish, but it was housed in temporary quarters while they were fundraising for the cathedral that was to be built there. Dunno what is happening to that parish now, but I would assume the excess land was sold off and that helped to fund the Crystal Cathedral makeover.

I went to the Crystal Cathedral once when I still lived in southern California and was not a big fan of the building. But I suppose I might try again next time I’m in the area now that it’s a Catholic cathedral. One thing I think of is what’s the budget to clean all that glass?
 
Buildings cost money. They also make jobs for lots of people who design, build and maintain.

If they can draw a crowd for 6 Masses a day in this new place then to me it’s money well spent as the building will be well used.
 
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I wanted to watch the Dedication Mass on EWTN, but
I was busy getting ready to travel out of town and
forgot all about it. I was hoping they might re-air it,
but I don’t think they did.
It is only 6 hours driving time from where I live and I
would love to see it, but I have not driven in California
since the 1990’s. There was too much traffic then and
I am sure it is worse now.
 
oh, thanks! i will try to watch it today.

i wish they would do a documentary on the makeover.
that would be interesting.
 
The cathedral is so large I am sure one cannot really
appreciate the beauty unless you are inside to see it
all.
I did not watch the shows from there when it was a protestant church unless I was changing channels so
I don’t know the amount of wor that went into it.

Thanks for posting the video so those of us who missed it can watch it.
 
When you’re well into the 21st century but you really wish you could have a 70’s style “worship-space” for your cathedral…at least they just used an existing one instead of adding another 70s style one to the world, which is what would have happened…

On the bright side, there weren’t nuns dancing around the altar during the incensation like Mahoney had with his…
 
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I don’t get why some (most?) of our leadership is intransigently stuck in that decade, but it is what it is…to be fair to that generation, the dancing nuns in that case were habited and looked younger…that I really don’t get…
 
One thing I had never seen before is the ritual toweling up of the chrism, by lay people in this case. Is that something usually done? I checked some other videos of recent consecrations (including Pope Francis doing it in Panama) and none have that. Did they pour too much in this? It looked choreographed and planned (I couldn’t listen to the sound, so maybe it was explained in the video).

See around 2:04:35 in the video tisbearself posted.
 
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