The following comes from a mid-Sept. posting on the website of the Diocese of Orange.
…Today, at the eighth annual Orange County Catholic Prayer breakfast held within the inspiring glass façade of the Christ Cathedral, the Most Rev. Kevin Vann, bishop of Orange, announced the selection of two architectural firms to collaborate on the renovation and development of the cathedral structure and its surrounding grounds – Johnson Fain and Rios Clementi Hale Studios.
“A Cathedral like any church, synagogue or mosque, says to those who come to it, ‘here we look to heaven for the grace to do God’s loving will on earth.’ The Crystal Cathedral is an established international landmark and is much lauded for its architectural inspiration and iconic stature. At its dedication the Architectural Record described the building as, ‘both an inspiring and an inspired structure’. Johnson Fain and Rios Clementi Hale Studios have the experience and ability to respect the building’s original design inspiration while creating a fitting and functional spiritual home for Orange County’s 1.3 million Catholics. These two firms see this important work as more than a renovation project, but as a reflection of God and his people on earth,” said Bishop Vann.
Johnson Fain, whose design partner Scott Johnson, worked with Philip Johnson, FAIA in the original design and construction of the Crystal Cathedral, has been selected to lead the renovation of the cathedral. This internationally acclaimed design firm will re-imagine the interior of this iconic structure to support the celebration of Catholic liturgy and the Eucharist. Certain elements that will need to be accommodated within the building are; a central altar, crucifix and corpus, baptismal font, tabernacle, blessed sacrament chapel, ambo, narthex and other items. The renovation of this sacred space is more than simply adding essential elements in support of Catholic worship. Johnson Fain will seamlessly accommodate Catholic worship needs within the existing structure while bringing the focus of the building and those celebrating within to the mystery of faith and the Eucharist, while embodying and reflecting the common cultural and faithful experience of Catholics in Orange County. The external façade of this globally recognizable building will remain essentially unchanged; the interior will be altered to support the aforementioned elements….
“In the Cathedral, the landmark architecture of the building shell will be cleaned and restored. Interior improvements on the main floor and mezzanines will upgrade access, sightlines, finishes and environmental comfort. Interior architecture will be designed to host an array of mass, celebrations, sacraments, services and non-liturgical events. The historic and internationally renowned organ which has been in place since the cathedral opened will be meticulously restored and reinstalled. Acoustics and lighting will be improved and the new cathedral will be open in renewed form to all,” concluded Johnson….
I wonder if the ancient art of mosaics will be utilized in any form whatsoever to reflect our Catholic faith and heritage in this glass edifice. It would seem fitting in such a setting both aesthetically and in terms of adding a bit of artistic gravitas to this entirely frivolous, utterly Protestant structure we hope to see born again as a believably Catholic cathedral.
The now-bare surfaces of the Christ Cathedral balconies would make an excellent location for mosaics or bas reliefs. Also, with all those glass panes, I’m sure something really new and inspiring could be done in etched glass.
I don’t think so. While there is nothing wrong with mosaics, bas relief, or etched glass, they simply wouldn’t fit in with Christ Cathedral’s architecture. There’s no question that it can “be done anyway” but it certainly can’t be done from a good taste/design standpoint. If it is done anyway, it will be a mistake.
Like it or not, critics need realize Christ Cathedral is a design (an award-winning design at that) based on modern architecture. Trying to force incongruent design elements onto it because they have been around a long time would be gravely wrong. It would be akin to placing an array of skylights in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral — it’s simply wrong.
Bishop, you might want to put all these $$$ plans on hold until you see the extent of the fall-out from SB 131, now sitting on Gov Brown’s desk (the bill lifting the statute of limitations yet AGAIN for suing certain private organizations for child sex abuse). Recall that the statute of limits already was lifted by a previous act in 2001: the larcenous-lawyer wolfpack is back for seconds on the tasty dish called the Catholic Church in CA. Jeff Anderson, the MN super-attorney, has said he already has over a 1000 plaintiffs’ cases ready to go. And the most interesting part: the actual perpetrators are exempted from the suit process. It may be best to put any capital expenditures on hold for quite a while.
Hire the homeless and unemployed to fix up the cathedral. They will transform the cathedral and their lives!
It does seem that the Church has forgotten the many (just like the government does when they no longer count those who remain unemployed after a certain time). Instead, this diocese campaigns for $53m more for the cathedral (with this, it will top $100m). Wonder how many jobs this could mean? How many dinners? How many students in Catholic schools?
Priorities, I guess….
“Priorities?” Yes. Giving glory to God and creating a space in which to worship Him in a magnificent manner.
In any event your comments are inaccurate because the $100M given for the cathedral would NOT likely have been given for the things you mentioned. Those that give to the cathedral already support those areas. This is above and beyond.
Nice try though.
” Interior architecture will be designed to host an array of mass …” What is an array of mass? Since the word “mass” it is not capitalized, does it have anything to do with liturgy? Will the Traditional Latin Mass be said? Let’s pray there are no earthquakes in that area or the Crystal Cathedral will become the Crystal Mausoleum.
More attacks on the structure, aye? The catehdral building is designed to withstand a 8.5 on the Richter Scale. It we’re hit by something bigger than that just about EVERYTHING will fall.
This statement is absolutely false. Could you please clarify where you got this information from (about the structure designed to withstand an 8.5 magnitude earthquake)? Feel free to contact me for a discussion on this subject. Perhaps I can point out a few significant structural issues on the design of this building…
Sarah, you are absolutely correct about your statements.
The project is aid to accommodate a “central altar”. Hope this does not mean an uncatholic altar encircled by pews as in wreckovated churches.
I don’t know where you got the photo of an organ but that is not the Christ Cathedral instrument.
Fixed. Thanks, Father.
Yes it is. It’s the Hazel Wright pipe organ that is being dismantled and shipped to Italy to be refurbished and possibly reconfigured.
The good bishop should have hired the architectural firm of Curly, Moe & Larry. This insane purchase will produce a costly edifice to Catholic culture and liturgical decay, which continues to plague the Church. The language of this engagement reverberates with the promise that “not much will be changed.” Many believe that this means that the Church will not adopt much of anything Catholic, whether a centrally located tabernacle (No — there will be a “Chapel”), or kneelers, or much in the way of interior art and statuary to show what this space is. Let’s see, there will be a big slab of something to show the altar (?like in Los Angeles?), and probably to permit prancing nuns to carry incense, much like pagans everywhere throughout history. What about confessionals, and all that stuff? And, finally, who cares about keeping “essentially intact” a structure that was created for televsion protestanism? Many architectural structures that celebrates other religions and governments might be noteworthy, but should not be kept for present use as Catholic Churches (and why is the bishop equating the “Cathedral” to “any church, synagogue, or mosque?” — this is ecumenism run rampant; many bishops, USCCB staffers, and Vatican curia, embrace “indifferentism” like this in so many ways, giving the cue that many accept that the Catholic Faith is like anyother).
Wow, you really are full of anger, aren’t you? The purchase of this campus for $57.5M is a GREAT DEAL! It took God’s intercession to make that great of a deal.
That “big slab of something” is Laguna Rossa Marble quarried in Turkey. It’s absolutely gorgeous close-up. Have you actually seen it in person?
I’m sorry but your personal taste is no reason to attack a gorgeous edifice…
It doesn’t matter if they got this secular piece of vertical greenhouse absolutely free. As usual these bishops are just trying to outdo each other while everything truly needed by the people who are expected to sacrifice and give for this monstrosity. It’s time for bishops to realize that their vanity should be suppressed and the money that suddenly becomes available is a wonder to me. It even pisses me off that the organ is being dismantled and sent to Germany(?). Outrageous. What kind of nitwits are we and then the church wonders why people become so jaded against those do nothing bishops. Fortunately there are some very good as well as somewith well developed consciences in the church now.
Does anyone know whether or not the “TABERNACLE with Our Lord In It” will be the main focus behind the altar? I want the Tabernacle “Front and Center” behind the altar. I called Marywood and they couldn’t tell me.
I suspect it the Blessed Sacrament will be reposed in a chapel dedicated to it, much like St. Peter’s Basilica or St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC.
Don’t bet the ranch on it! How can they secularize the church real fast when a money making even occurs???? Maybe one of those water ponds on the grounds can have an outdoor tabernacle stuck in the middle of it for the piety of the laity. The worst example that I have ever seen was a suspended by a chain from the ceiling with a glass box exposing the Blessed Sacrament Host in it at less than eye level.
“A Cathedral like any church, synagogue or mosque, says to those who come to it, ‘here we look to heaven for the grace to do God’s loving will on earth.’
Oh boy, if Bishop Vann think a Catholic cathedral is just like a synagogue or mosque, then it gives us quite an insight to the modernistic building we can expect. How I wish Duncan Stroik was the architect. His designs are beautiful and traditional. The “Spirit” of Vatican II rears its ugly head again!
Oh, dear.
Just looking at this building, I think anyone coming in for Mass will have to slather on gobs of sunscreen…
Why? No UV rays pass through the glass. Nice attack, but no sale…
“A Cathedral like *any* church, synagogue or mosque, says to those who come to it, ‘here we look to heaven for the grace to do God’s loving will on earth.’
Goofy ecumenism leads to religious indifferentism. Why did Bishop Vann bring up synagogues or mosques and other churches? Please read the book ‘Amchurch Comes Out’ by Paul Likoudis. Many Catholics in the United States have not been taught the identity and the teachings of their own faith. Charity begins at home. Cardinal Dolan even admitted this in the Wall Street Journal when he stated that Catholic Church leaders have been negligent in catechizing and addressing the hot topic issues of the faith because they were too uncomfortable to talk about. Warm and fuzzy political correctness within the Catholic Church helped in the election of the most pro-abortion President in our nation’s history. So now have a new warm and fuzzy feeling religion which often shows it’s weakest and indifferent link from authentic Catholicism in the form of ambiguous political correctness or goofy sounding ecumenism. There are many un-catechized Catholics who will interpret that above quote as a statement that infers and suggests that all churches and religions are equal.
It would be surprising to read publications where an imam or a rabbi or evangelical protestant pastor is writing to their followers that their churches, mosques and synagogues are like *any* Catholic Cathedral.
Some religions think that it is the will of God to murder the unborn or infidels. Faithful Catholics in Orange County will NEVER donate one red cent for a structure that is like *any* mosque, synagogue or church.
Luke 6:30; Matthew 5:42
The mention of other religions is not ecumenism and it is not a betrayal of the faith. Pope Benedict began his catechesis on prayer with prayer in the ancient world to show that prayer is a universal need. https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110504_en.html
Likewise, those who build temples or mosques or churches build them to worship God and to do what is pleasing to Him.
See John Paul II address of September 9, 1998
https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/1998/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_09091998_en.html
I agree with Catherine.
Pro Life Mom,
They couldn’t tell or THEY WOULDN’T TELL YOU?
I almost feel sorry for Bishop Vann, he inherited this Glass Menagerie from “Bishop” Brown.
It will take a major miracle for that Glass Menagerie tribute to Robert Shuler’s heretical theology (that’s right, heretical) to be changed into a real Catholic Church, am-church sure, real Catholic Church, it will take a major miracle!
May God have mercy on an amoral America!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director, Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
It’s going to be a GREAT campus! The “Vatican of the West!” Sad to see you so upset because it doesn’t meet YOUR personal taste…
It’s sad to hear the same old attacks when someone doesn’t like a church building — “why are we spending money on a cathedral when people are going hungry?” “How many homes would this have paid for, how much clothes could have been bought, etc., etc?” We spend money on such buildings to glorify God and to facilitate our own spiritual nourishment:
Matthew 26:7-11: “a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head, as he sat at table. But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for a large sum, and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. ”
It a “traditional” structure was being built we wouldn’t be hearing a thing about such “concerns.” What a load of bunkum.
Saint Patrick’s is undergoing restoration in NYC right now. Just the restoration will cost 2-3 times what it cost to buy and remodel Christ Cathedral.
I wonder how many hear would be making the tired and limp “this money should be used for food, housing, Catholic schools” etc?
Saint Patrick’s is worth many times more than Christ Cathedral. Saint Patrick’s is a beautiful building with a long and holy history, while Christ Cathedral is a mass-produced glass facade echoing any number of steel and glass corporate headquarters. That, unfortunately, is what its use by the Diocese of Orange will be.
R.B. Rodda- Why do you defend the Crystal Cathedral with the fierce passion of a jealous and insulted lover, against many sincere and thoughtful architectural, artistic, religious, and economic criticisms? Are you a convert from Rev. Schuler’s religion or former congregation?
The CC was designed, built, and used by Modernist Protestants from it’s very inception. It is an extreme example of 20th century “Modern”, “functional”, industrial-ethos, Bauhaus-inspired architectural design. That even Protestants attempted to use this bizarre, sterile, inherently un-religious structure for Christian worship is remarkable, but spiritually futile. The CC was a spectacular studio and stage setting for Rev. Schuler’s religious entertainments and theater productions for many years, but it is inescapably a utilitarian structure, not a religious one. With all due respect, Bishop Vann’s efforts to successfully adapt/modify/alter/transform the CC into a truly Catholic church, let alone a diocesan cathedral, are doomed to failure, no matter how much of the Faithful’s money he may spend on it; the basic design and fabric of the building will not allow it. Persisting in the present course will end with the CC joining the Los Angeles and Oakland cathedrals as another of the most bizarre, expensive, and profoundly un-Catholic cathedral churches in the world.
There is still time for Bhp Vann to sell the CC property to some other owner, hopefully at a handsome profit seeing that he got such a “great deal” on it, and use the proceeds to design and build a truly Catholic diocesan cathedral church and chancery comples to serve the Catholic faithful of the Orange diocese. I sincerely hope he does so.
FourMarks
I’m guessing that RB works in the Diocesan office.
For one so unrelenting critical of personal taste – with the exception of the personal taste of Philip Johnson – RB is certainly eager in expressing it.
Editor-The link to the story takes the reader to an article on the Red Mass. I cannot find the story on the diocesan website. A headline which would appear to link to it only takes one to a story about the prayer breakfast.
This link and the links in the Depo Provera story now broken. Just removed from the stories until we hear otherwise.
If post vatican II period is ya cup o tea, this Church, or shall I say, worship space is a piece of heaven.
The Chystal Cathedral is designed to be viewed from the exterior, from where it resembles MGM’s version of the Emerald City, and not from the interior where it looks like a cross between an airplane hangar and a greenhouse.
Why should this be surprising? It was built through donations from people who were fans of Dr. Schuller’s television and radio performances and who never set foot in the place.
But RB Rodda right about one thing – I am perfectly willing to spend money on beauty while I am unwilling to spend money on ugliness. This is hardly “bunkum”, but judgement.
I myself am still smarting over the brutal takeovers of Catholic churches and cathedrals from the Hagia Sophia to the western shores of the British Isles, acts attributed to Muslims and Protestants who also murdered, robbed, pillaged and in many cases usurped or destroyed beautiful edifices designed, built and paid for by faithful Catholics, in some cases later abandoning them out of lost interest or bankrupt congregations. Millions visit Turkey to admire the Hagia Sophia, many not realizing this was originally built by Catholics. Happily, this abominable style of acquisition of important pieces of real estate is not that of our own Catholic Church. Whether or not we show good taste in architecture, we do engage in honorable means of acquisition and, sadly, occasional disposal of real estate. I am still sad about the loss of some of our most wonderful churches, but truthfully, God is there for us no matter where we are, and He dwells within as well.
Editor- I found this on the diocesan site
https://blog.ocbishop.org/