Bishop Kevin Vann of Orange, California, likes to tell the story of once visiting Orange County while he was still serving in Fort Worth, Texas, with no idea of what the future might hold.
Bishop Todd Brown of Orange, who at the time was about to hit the usual retirement age of 75, gave him a tour of the Crystal Cathedral, the once-glimmering home of the Rev. Robert Schuller of the Reformed Church in America and his famed “Hour of Power,” which had been put up for sale after Schuller’s ministry went bankrupt and was destined to be taken over by the Catholic Church.
By 2012, when the Orange diocese negotiated the sale of the cathedral compound for $57.5 million – a steal by Orange County standards, with some of the most expensive real estate in the world – years of delayed maintenance and the complications of converting a quintessentially Protestant space for Catholic liturgical use made the project one of the most logistically daunting ever undertaken in American Catholicism.
“I really pity whoever gets this place next,” Vann said he was thinking, laughing out loud at the memory.
The joke turned out to be on him, because Vann was named to Orange County in September 2012 and installed in December, meaning the Crystal Cathedral, now Christ Cathedral, was suddenly his baby.
Ten days from today, in a sense that baby will be baptized, as Christ Cathedral will be formally dedicated. That doesn’t mean all the work is done, as the cathedral isn’t actually expected to be open for daily use until February 2020. However, it does mark a major milestone and something of a victory lap for Vann.
Christ Cathedral will be Vann’s legacy, and no one will ever visit the remarkable facility without thinking about him.
Full story at Crux.
Come now, this is not really a Catholic Church, except to the fomenters of the NewChurch. Do you want the Basilica of St. Peter, or something that “moves into” the Roman Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus? Really something to see the videos of “Christ Cathedral” too. There is Dr. Schuller and all the Protestants, and look, all the “catholic” people at Mass holding hands. What is that? No, even at the Novus Ordo hand holding cannot be mandated (even in Orange County). What a waste of money, and what a very mixed message at best of the triumphalism of Catholicism and the true dangers of false ecumenism. Avoid this place.
St. Christopher, this has happened all down through history. There are eleven churches in Rome that were previous pagan temples. Three other Christian churches there were built over previous shrines to the god Mithras. I was told that in Santa Clara County, California, the chapel called Our Lady of Perpetual Help Oratory — now SSPX — was previously a Seventh Day Adventist Church.
Whether we like it or not, these changes happen.
“Anne TE”: You are correct, historically. My point, however, was a broader one. When the SSPX moves into a Protestant church, it is sanctified to God, as were those moves of ancient times. I was trying to demonstrate that the acceptance of the basic architectural plan of the Protestant “Crystal Cathedral,” when joined to the hand-holding, lap-pool baptizing, shows that the NewChurch liturgy, if not theology, is likely not much different than that of the departed Dr. Schuller (who openly admired the Catholic Church). I would have rejoiced in the complete bulldozing of the “campus,” or at least the church part of it, and new construction of a true Catholic design for a new Church.
Although I do not like the shape of the building, I do like the spire like bell tower, and I hope they put some bell sounds in a mechanism up there, perhaps more musical than clanging. I like the reflection of the trees and God’s creation in the windows, but it does need something traditionally Christian atop the building, such as a beautiful tall crystal cross or crucifix that lights up at night — or even a crystal Christ figure holding a cross that matches the bell tower.
Of course that would probably cost a lot more money.
It does seem that there is already a carillon in the bell tower that plays hymns. Whether they are only Catholic hymns, I do not know. I think there is a chapel at the bottom of the tower. It is good to get on many of the websites with pictures of the renovation to find out exactly what is being done.
“SC,” you’re merely speaking in that same, old, tired, worn-out cliches of your beloved SSPX. “New Church theology”?? Right. Your hatred for the true Church of Christ, that is the Church of Pius XII, of Gregory the Great, of Sarah, of Burke, of John Paul II, of Benedict (the latter four are firm supporters of Vatican II by the way), is blatant as it is plain wrong.
Some seem to think the only proper fate for the Crystal Cathedral involved a wrecking ball. Then the Diocese should build a Cathedral replicating one from medieval Europe. I continue to suspect medieval cathedrals had their critics when built.
I believe that, twenty years from now, most will have forgotten about the issue and Bishop Vann.
In fact, the great cathedrals of Europe are empty if not for tourists.