Thank You, Cardinal Mahony...and I'm sure St. Vibiana is thrilled, as well
I love this headline, don't you?
Scantily clad women, two men kissing, and a transvestite
Here's a bit of the article from The California Catholic Daily;
Los Angeles’ former cathedral, St. Vibiana’s, built in 1876, has gotten a new life since the Los Angeles archdiocese sold it to developer Tom Gilmore in 1999. It is now called “Vibiana’s Place,” and reopened as an art center in 2006.
“Church law requires that former churches be used for a dignified purpose,” archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg told the Associated Press in 2005. St. Vibiana’s transformation into an art center is “really a wonderful second life for the former cathedral," said Tamberg.
From Oct. 11-13, the old cathedral served as a venue for LA’s “Fashion Week.” BOXeight, a nonprofit arts organization, held its contribution to Fashion Week at Vibiana’s Place. The event, “Have Faith in LA,” was a “fashion, music and art collaborative.”
Among the entertainment groups featured during three-day event was “You Wear It Well,” which calls itself a “traveling presentation of short films and videos that investigate the intersection of fashion and film.” A short clip, “A Shaded View of Fashion,” featured on the group’s web site features scantily clad women, two men kissing, and a transvestite.
Another entertainment group was the Hysterica Dance Company, whose choreography, with barely clad men and women, emphasizes the erotic.
Remember fellow bloglodytes... this is in a former cathedral. The site of countless Baptisms, Firsy Holy Communions, weddings, Funeral Masses, ordinations... and this is St. Vibiana's final bow? It's enough to make you weep.
But of course, Roger The Dodger had nooooooo idea what developer Tom Gilmore was going to use St. Vibiana's for. Right?
Hey, it's not much worse than what we've seen taking place in his multi-million dollar NEW cathedral.
ReplyDeleteThe Old Server has a point--but maybe now we know why SoCal is on fire.
ReplyDeleteVir-
ReplyDeleteANYTIME a holy placed is "decommissioned" I feel like I've been put on the market as well. To be perfectly honest - and I don’t know how this is going to sound to you - I’d rather see it burnt to the ground than defiled by an apathetic and unscrupulous irreligionist. Isn’t that one of the ways we properly dispose of flags?
Tom
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ReplyDeleteTom
ReplyDeleteI've always felt the same way. Nothing worse than seeing a "former" church being used as a restaurant or community theater, to name a few, with the possble exception of the wreckovations that the Moderninsts have done to existing churches.
I couldn't agree with you more, Tom
ReplyDeleteI'm playing for a show in a former church, but it was a prot church. I confess to having sung in a former Catholic church turned into a concert hall. I also agree that I'd rather see a church leveled than defiled.
ReplyDeleteI'd be happy if this church were a community theater or an arts center. http://www.coclubs.com/church/churchMain.html
ReplyDeleteANYTIME a holy placed is "decommissioned" I feel like I've been put on the market as well. To be perfectly honest - and I don’t know how this is going to sound to you - I’d rather see it burnt to the ground than defiled by an apathetic and unscrupulous irreligionist. Isn’t that one of the ways we properly dispose of flags?
ReplyDeleteTom and Cavey, I can understand your sentiment. It is heartbreaking what goes on in those hallowed walls.
And yet, I had the privilege, when I was a kid, of visiting St. Vibiana's as a chorister, and getting a view of it from the choir loft (back in the days of Cardinal Manning, whose ring I got to kiss -- how often is that done anymore?) It was an unspeakably beautiful cathedral, and despite this, and its historical significance, Cardinal Mahony longed to tear it down. After the Northridge earthquake, I can remember it was alleged that the cathedral was now too dangerously unstable ever to be repaired, an allegation that is clearly belied by its continued existence 13 years later. The earthquake provided the cardinal with what he thought was his excuse; he even tried to pull a surprise early Saturday demolition stunt, but was thwarted in this by citizens who got a last-minute injunction.
Contrary to the Cardinal's boast that the new "cathedral" will stand for five hundred years, at some point in the not-too-distant future, the people of the long-suffering Archdiocese of Los Angeles are going to need their real cathedral back. You can be damn sure a great many of them want it back already, and in order for their wishes to be fulfilled, it will have to remain standing.