CARDINAL LIKENS NEW CATHEDRAL TO LAKERS.Byline: - Martin Kuz As the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is a cathedral church of the United States in the City of Los Angeles in California. It is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles[1] and seat of its archbishop, Roger Cardinal Mahony. takes shape in downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or , church leaders said Tuesday that they hope the unfinished edifice one day approaches the eminence of the city's other awe-inspiring institution - the Lakers. ``We have a great city, a great basketball team,'' said Cardinal Roger Mahony His Eminence Roger Michael Cardinal Mahony (born February 27, 1936) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He currently serves as the fourth Archbishop of Los Angeles, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1991. , archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles (Latin: Archidioecesis Angelorum in California) is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the western region of the United States. . ``Now we're going to have a great cathedral.'' Mahony led a brief media tour Tuesday of the 65,000-square-foot, $163 million cathedral, slated to open in September 2002. The 128-foot-tall structure, located on Temple Street between Grand Avenue and Hill Street, will replace St. Vibiana's Cathedral, damaged in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake The Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17, 1994 at 4:31 AM Pacific Standard Time in the city of Los Angeles, California. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6. , as the archdiocese's home. The tour allowed Mahony to show off the completed installation of the first of several alabaster alabaster, fine-grained, massive, translucent variety of gypsum, a hydrous calcium sulfate. It is pure white or streaked with reddish brown. Alabaster, like all other forms of gypsum, forms by the evaporation of bedded deposits that are precipitated mainly from windows that will occupy 27,000 square feet of the cathedral's wall space. The church will feature more alabaster than any other religious structure in the world. The windows, made of stone quarried in northern Spain, each will consist of thousands of whitish, translucent tiles that are veined with colors ranging from deep green and red to dark gray and brown. The windows will ``let in all the natural light of Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, ,'' Mahony said. ``To see the cathedral rising on the site, it's a very, very emotional experience,'' he said. ``It's a confluence of God's providence and circumstances that brought about this, with a little help from the Northridge Earthquake, I might add.'' The Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. office of Leo A Leo A ( as known as Leo III ) is an irregular galaxy that is part of the Local Group. It lies 2.25 Mly from Earth. References 1. ^ I. D. Karachentsev, V. E. Karachentseva, W. K. Hutchmeier, D. I. Makarov (2004). Daly is serving as the project's architect, and Morley Construction Co. is the general contractor. The cathedral, now filled with floor-to-ceiling scaffolding and piles of wood, metal and other building materials, will seat 3,000 people when finished. Construction began in late 1997. Mahony said Tuesday that the church's new 600-car parking garage will open to the public Jan. 2, 2002. The cathedral's conference center, plaza, gift shop and cafe will open April 1, he said. Mahony also announced a list of cathedral-related dedication ceremonies for next year, starting with the dedication of the church and its altar Sept. 2, 2002. A series of 13 celebrations will unfold in the two weeks following that initial dedication, with the civic community, church donors, cathedral construction workers, the homeless and Catholic youths among those honored. The ceremonies will herald the full evolution of the church from conception to completion. On a site that was once a parking lot, one of the world's largest cathedrals will stand for the next 300 to 500 years, Mahony said. ``Long after I'm gone, this will continue for centuries,'' he said. ``It's a very powerful experience.'' CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1) Cardinal Roger Mahony discusses on Tuesday the progress of the new downtown cathedral. (2) Stone masons work on the floor beneath a new alabaster window at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. John McCoy/Staff Photographer |
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