RUPERT MURDOCH CHIPS IN; MEDIA BARON GIVES $10 MILLION FOR L.A. CATHEDRAL PROJECT.Byline: Douglas Haberman Staff Writer International media baron Rupert Murdoch announced Thursday he is giving $10 million to help build a conference center at the new $163 million Roman Catholic cathedral under construction 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 . Murdoch and his son Lachlan joined 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 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. , at the site of 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. , near the Hollywood Freeway. ``The Murdochs have long recognized the importance of Los Angeles as a key city for the new century and millennium,'' Mahony said, ``and they are demonstrating in a significant fashion their commitment to providing this world-class city with a world-class cathedral church and conference center.'' Murdoch, whose primary residence is Los Angeles, is head of News Corp., with nearly 800 businesses in 52 countries, including Twentieth Century Fox and the Los Angeles Dodgers "Dodgers" and "Brooklyn Dodgers" redirect here. For the American football team, see Brooklyn Dodgers (football). For the Eastern Basketball Association team, see Brooklyn Dodgers (basketball). , 200 newspapers and four satellite services covering three continents. Forbes magazine estimated his personal wealth at $5.3 billion. ``My family and I are really delighted at this opportunity to contribute to this great cathedral project,'' Murdoch said. ``Cardinal Mahony's wonderful vision for this new cathedral . . . deserves everybody's support.'' Noting the two-story, 55,000-square-foot conference center will host meetings of interfaith, ecumenical and cultural groups in its 13 rooms, Murdoch said, ``We hope it will play a part in building a better community for all of Los Angeles.'' The $10 million donation - one of the three largest to the cathedral project - is being made by the Murdoch Family Foundation. Murdoch said discussions about the donation had been going on for several months. ``Cardinal Mahony's very persuasive,'' he said. ``There was never much doubt.'' Murdoch's other son, James, and his daughter, Elisabeth, didn't attend the news conference. But Mahony thanked them also in his prepared remarks. Mahony said the Murdochs for years have quietly provided scholarship money for poor Los Angeles youths to attend Catholic schools. In January 1998, Mahony conferred Murdoch and his then-wife, Anna, with papal knighthoods for their contributions to church institutions. Murdoch is not Catholic, but Anna Murdoch is. The two divorced in June after 32 years of marriage. On June 25, he married an employee of his Star TV satellite company, Wendi Deng Wendi Murdoch (née Deng) (simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: Dèng Wéndí, originally ; pinyin: Dèng Wéngé) (born 1968) is a Chinese born American businesswoman, and wife of News Corporation Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch. , 32, of Hong Kong Hong Kong (hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. . The ceremony took place on Murdoch's yacht while it cruised around New York Harbor New York Harbor, a geographic term, refers collectively to the rivers, bays, and tidal estuaries near the mouth of the Hudson River in the vicinity of New York City. This is sometimes construed in the sense "the Ports of New York and New Jersey". . The Murdoch family's $10 million donation brings to nearly $136.6 million the amount raised for the cathedral project's construction so far, Mahony said. That leaves about $27 million more to raise. ``I think we'll have most of the major gifts completed by the end of the year,'' he said. In addition, he announced the establishment of a fund to help adorn and endow the cathedral and to support its ministries and operations. The archdiocese has raised more than $4.6 million for this fund, Mahony said. ``The cathedral was going to open fairly plain vanilla Refers to the bare minimum of functions that are known to be available in an application or system. Contrast with bells and whistles. ,'' Mahony said. Now it will be furnished with more artwork and adornment, he said. Construction of the cathedral complex is on schedule and, weather permitting, the cathedral could be completed by December 2001, with the conference center in use even months earlier. Our Lady of the Angels, at the northeast corner of Temple Street and Grand Avenue, will rise 12 stories above street level on a 5.6-acre site across Temple Street from the County Hall of Administration and cater-corner from the Music Center. On the other side of the Hollywood Freeway stands the headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. . The cathedral will be the religious center for 4 million Catholics in the Los Angeles area. It will replace St. Vibiana's Cathedral, which was irreparably damaged by 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. . Seating 3,000, the church will house more worshippers than any cathedral in the country. Designed by Spanish architect Jose Rafael Moneo José Rafael Moneo Vallés (born May 9, 1937) is a Spanish architect. He was born in Tudela, Spain, and won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1996. He studied at the ETSAM, Technical University of Madrid (UPM) from which he received his architectural degree in 1961. , the cathedral will be surrounded by a landscaped plaza, meditation garden, children's hedgerow hedgerow Fence or boundary formed by a dense row of shrubs or low trees. Hedgerows enclose or separate fields, protect the soil from wind erosion, and serve to keep cattle and other livestock enclosed. maze, pools and fountains. The two largest donations before Thursday came from the founding donors, the Dan Murphy Foundation and The Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation, which gave $25 million and $10 million respectively. Murphy was an oil magnate. The Leavey Foundation is a longtime contributor to Catholic schools, including Loyola-Marymount University. Other contributors to the cathedral project include Roy Disney and his wife, Patty; department store heiress Betsy Bloomingdale; Universal Studios Chairman Emeritus Lew Wasserman; Mayor Richard Riordan; comedian Bob Hope; and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: In front of the old St. Vibiana's, Cardinal Roger Mahony and donor Rupert Murdoch study a 20-foot-high scale model of the new cathedral. Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer |
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