You may be wondering why there are no recent posts on this project. The reason is simple; I am heavily involved in completing my first book, to be published by Paulist Press in November. Entitled Ascend: The Catholic Faith for a New Generation, it is a contemporary, visual overview of Christianity in a full-color magazine-style format. It’s available now for pre-order at Amazon.com.

You can appreciate that writing this book, undergoing a theological review, researching and selecting over 100 images, negotiating image rights AND designing the entire book took a great deal of time! It is pretty much complete now and should be shortly delivered to the printer.

Once the smoke has cleared from Ascend, Francesco and I plan to pick up this project again.

Bishop Allen Vigneron has set a date for the dedication of the new Cathedral of Christ the Light: September 25, 2008. This is sure to be an inspiring celebration, when we’ll all finally get to see this amazing new cathedral come to life on the shores of Lake Merritt.

The diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Voice, has all the goods. The cornerstone of the former cathedral, St. Francis de Sales, will be opened on September 14, Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross, and the cathedral mausoleum will be dedicated on November 2, Feast of All Souls.

These three dedication events will inaugurate a Year of Jubilee for the Diocese of Oakland, which will include multiple ecumenical, interfaith, civic and cultural events to involve the entire East Bay community, according to Fr. Paul Minnihan, cathedral provost.

Meanwhile, the business community in Oakland envisions urban renewal as a result of the new cathedral similar to what happened in Los Angeles with the construction of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Although we’ve already been referring to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Los Angeles as the new pro-cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles (due to a tip we received), the designation was made official on October 7 by Bishop Jon Bruno at the annual clergy conference. A service to inaugurate the new role for St. John’s will take place on February 2, 2008.

While technically a pro-cathedral, St. John’s will be called “St. John’s Cathedral” to avoid confusion. It will share status as the mother church of the Episcopal diocese with the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Echo Park. According to the Very Rev. Canon Mark Kowalewski, dean of St. John’s, the new pro-cathedral will serve the liturgical functions of a cathedral.

This status of a pro-cathedral bearing the title of “cathedral” is nothing new for the Episcopal diocese here; the old St. Paul’s Cathedral downtown (demolished in 1979) was also technically a pro-cathedral for most of its existence. The new role for St. John’s was a long time coming, as talks on taking this move were afoot as early as the 1980s. According to Fr. Kowalewski, even as early as the 1920s the first rector of St. John’s had aspired to have the impressive new church named the diocesan cathedral.

His Holiness Karekin II, Archbishop Hovnan Derderian and others release doves at cathedral groundbreaking

We were sorry to miss the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Armenian cathedral in Burbank on October 2. His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, presided over the event as part of his patriarchal visit to the United States. The milestone was due to the hard work and winning ways of Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America. Details are at the diocesan website. No word yet on when the cathedral will be completed, although we heard it will take about two years.

His Holiness Karekin II arrives at cathedral groundbreaking

I recently set up an interactive Google map of all the cathedrals of California. As we go, we’ll add photos of the cathedrals to the map. For now you can see photos of the former cathedrals when you click on their place marker.

You can zoom in to see each cathedral in a satellite view, switch to a map view and even get directions. Enjoy!

Go to the map.

Glad you found this blog. Stay with us as visit all the Cathedrals of California and post images and progress on this site. We hope you enjoy joining us in this virtual pilgrimage and along the way you learn something interesting.

You can learn more about us, the project and about cathedrals by visiting the links above. And of course your comments are always welcome!