The following is a Diocese of Oakland press release:
For the past several months, Dr. Margaret Turek has been holding listening sessions with pastors and parish staffs throughout the diocese. Clergy and lay leaders shared the conviction that there is a need to develop conditions in our diocese and parishes that support the formation of “missionary disciples” (to use a phrase of Pope Francis). Specifically, there are three pastoral priorities that clergy and lay leaders most often identify as deserving our best efforts: 1) a deep and ongoing renewal of spirituality; 2) a robust renewal of lifelong faith formation; 3) a “new” evangelization.
Moving forward, the department is being rebranded and reconfigured, and is now called the Department of Faith Formation and Evangelization (FFE). The FFE mission statement is: We serve and support parishes in the lifelong formation of missionary disciples. To the Director’s position are added a number of responsibilities concentrated in the areas of adult spiritual/faith formation. Patti Collyer is now the Coordinator of Children and Youth Faith Formation, which combines in one office our diocesan catechetical initiatives, programs and resources for ages 3 to 18.
We are presently seeking a Coordinator of the New Evangelization and RCIA. This is a position shaped in response to the needs of our local Church and the challenge of Pope Francis that we reach out to those on the peripheries of our faith communities – those who have drifted away from the faith, the non-practicing, the unchurched. Within this group we include Young Adults, ages 19 – 39, who respond to new and different methods of communication and forms of outreach than the young adults of a generation ago.
Looking at the picture, is that an aviary? Kind of reminds me of the one in San Diego’s Balboa Park.
It’s suppose to be like a Bishop’s Hat on the outside and a Noah’s Arc from the inside…….
Ann, do some research because you aren’t even close. By the way, this Cathedral was built from the top down. First the “eye” at the top was installed and then the sides were built to support it. One of the things I admire about this church is the figure of Christ at the back of the altar. It is a figure taken from the doors of the Chartres Cathedral in France. The figure is a reverse of a newspaper printing process. Instead of black dots, it has clear dots. Very innovative. By the was, the light from above goes directly through a glass panel on the high altar to the table in the mausoleum that holds caskets before burial.
It really does!!
Above comment was in response to Paula.
So long as MISANDRY (Hatred of Men & Boys, Masculinity & Normal Heterosexuality) continues to be the Main Agenda of so many of the radical leftist / gender feminist / homosexualist political activists living off the donations of the Faithful – who they use the same funds to trash…
Then ‘Evangelization’ in to the Catholic Faith – by those Deeply Opposed to and actively working to undermine said Faith (like Santa Clara, Loyola…) Is an Oxymoron – and should Not be supported with the donations of those the ‘Fundamental changers’ despise and want to destroy… AKA the brutish pork byproduct ‘Patriarchy’.
Catholics are disgusted with the ‘bait & switch’ tactics of the type Radical Political Activist who exploit sympathy for the…
I’d like to see a turning away from support of the homo agenda which was really behind most of the ‘priest scandals.’
I also want to see a return of the Cathedral and that building in which is now called a church can be sold as a museum or train station or a food court which is what that architecture is more suited for.
Agree 100%. Churches, even designed with modern architecture, can still be built to look like CHURCHES at first sight. Let’s get back to it! Sure, allow the architect to use his full talents. But only after the Church authorities are assured that the finished product is an unmistakenly sacred place.
I know, right! I still rue the day when stained glass was first used in Church architecture! It is nothing but a profane modernist tool that infantalizes believers with cartoonish versions of our faith but really disguise stories of the devil!
What are you talking about?
I spoke with a Priest who described that Church as resembling an empty mausoleum during the week, although I have yet to attend weekend services there, and plan before long enter through the Door of Mercy…
Goodness knows I could use some – Mercy, and Grace, and Forgiveness; but then Who aside from Canonized Saints Couldn’t?
Still – So Much Money to build and maintain such a Pretty Church – while the Catholic Schools are desperately in need of – you name it, and add a dozen more like that for catchup purposes….
We are in danger of becoming like far too many European Churches – more of a tourist attraction than a place of Worship.
What use a pretty Church building, when the pews are empty because we neglected to focus our…
After seeing the photo, I don’t feel as disgusted with the design of LA’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels as I used to be.
I simply don’t like it. Too modern and Cold.
Gail, I like your answer: you simply don’t like it. Too many, me thinks, don’t like it but use some made up theological reasons to put it down. If you go to the Cathedral Book Store there are excellent books that explain every aspect of the building’s design. Each time I go back, I see the oil marks on the cement walls from when the building was consecrated, I marvel at the way the tabernacle is an extension of the altar platform, the fantastic organ and the small chapels that invite you to spend some time. Great design work.
And you, Bob One, use made up theological reasons to celebrate it. We do not need a book by some “expert” to tell us what is or is not beautiful. Great design work? I think not! (By the way, those oil marks on the cement walls were made because many of us in attendance had too much product in our hair… sorry about that.)
The confessional is amazing!
Of course Bob One would marvel at this modernist nightmare..In the world of Bob One anything of the old is bad and anything new, hip and cool is good. Perhaps this structure will be used in the next Star Wars movie….Good God….
One has to ask: missionary to whom? Evangelize what? Let’s see, we have women here, and women there, and, maybe, a few feminized men sashaying around — whom are they going out to see? No one is much interested in what they are selling, theology wise (except for some other women, homosexuals, and pretty much non-Catholics. You can only evangelize if you have the Catholic Faith, the True Faith, not some Protestant version so beloved of the Vatican. Teach the 4 last things, not the 4 feel good things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell (and how to avoid the latter). Does someone pay these people?
If this is a church, i am a monkey’s uncle.