Archdiocese of Los Angeles
Homilies and Addresses of Cardinal Mahony

Cathedral Ministry: An Archbishop’s Perspective

Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral Ministry in the New Millennium, San Antonio, Texas
Tuesday, January 11, 2000

Allow me to begin by expressing my gratitude to the Cathedral Pastors and Rectors, to the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians, and to all those who have organized and coordinated this conference on Cathedral Ministry. I am most grateful for the opportunity to address the topic of Cathedral Ministry in the New Millennium from an Archbishop’s perspective.

This is a most exciting moment for me and for Monsignor Kevin Kostelnik, the pastor of our new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, as we are now building our new Cathedral Church in downtown Los Angeles. How exciting to be part of the building of a new Cathedral!

For 32 years now I have lived in Cathedral rectories: first in Fresno, then in Stockton, and now in Los Angeles. I love living at the Cathedral, and I cannot imagine not living there for the years that God has left for me on this earth. It is really exciting to be part of a Cathedral Community and to share in the graces of that special community.

I am so grateful to each and every one of you for your special commitment to your respective Cathedral Churches. I realize that at times your assignment can be difficult. In some cases, your Diocesan Bishop does not live at the Cathedral, and may not be that involved with your Cathedral and your many ministries there. Please do not lessen your ongoing commitment to your Cathedral Church—you are so essential to the life of your Local Church, and I wish today to reaffirm that important role.

I. A Ministry of Ecclesial Communion

My perspective on the ministry of a Cathedral Church may be best expressed in the words of the early Christian bishop and martyr Ignatius of Antioch (d. ca. AD107) in his Letter to the Philadelphians:

“Be careful to assemble for one Eucharist:
For one is the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ,
one is the cup that unites us with his blood;
one is the altar and one is the bishop,
serving with the presbyters and deacons. . .
My friends, I am overflowing with love for you. . .
I take refuge in the gospel,
which for me is Jesus in the flesh:
I take refuge in the apostles,
represented by the church’s college of presbyters.
Let us also cherish the prophets,
because they foreshadowed the gospel –
they hoped in him and waited for him
and were saved by their belief in him;
and so they were one with Jesus Christ. . .”

In Ignatius’ few words we have an understanding of the Church, the Eucharist, the Gospel, the nature of ministry, and the blessed company of friends of God and prophets—the communion of saints. Here we have a view of Christian life and mission in which unity and communion are the defining characteristics. As I see it, these same two characteristics lie at the heart of Cathedral ministry in the Church today, the Church which has just crossed the threshold into the Third Christian Millennium.

Understanding Cathedral ministry requires attention to the ministry of the Bishop, as well as to the celebration of the Eucharist which is at the heart of Catholic faith and practice. For the whole economy of salvation is enacted in the Eucharistic assembly of the Local Church gathered for prayer and guided in worship by the Bishop.

Undergirding the Second Vatican Council’s understanding of the Bishop as the leader of liturgy and prayer are two theological insights. The first is that episcopal ministry is of its very nature collegial. The second is an ecclesiological vision in which the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church is truly present and active in the Local Assembly.

One becomes a bishop, priest or deacon precisely by being received into an ordo, a collegium of bishops, priests or deacons. The presence of “co-consecrators” in addition to the presiding Bishop at the liturgy of episcopal ordination signifies the collegial character of the episcopal ministry and affirms that every Bishop—though ordained for the service of a specific Local Church (diocese)—has a responsibility toward the whole (Universal) Church as well. Every Bishop is both a “local ordinary” and, simultaneously, a living icon of that communion that links Church to Church, Diocese to Diocese, throughout the world. The collegial structure of the episcopate models the way all authority and decision-making should happen in the Church: through collegial consultation, collaboration, networking. The goal of the Bishop’s ministry—indeed of all ministry in the Church—is communio, a communion that is sacramentally enacted and embodied in the celebration of the Eucharist.

In the early days of the Christian tradition, the Eucharist was understood as a communal action served by a collegial ministry involving bishops, presbyters, deacons, and other ministers. The Eucharist was and is seen as the celebration of a common faith and witness to the Gospel. From early on, the task of maintaining communion within Eucharistic assemblies and between and among Local Churches was linked to the College of Bishops. The Bishop serves as a leaven of unity among all local assemblies and, at the same time, serves as a leaven that links every Local Church to every other. This was most clearly expressed in the Eucharistic presidency of the Bishop, in his role as prime Liturgist, indeed the prime preacher in the Local Church. As is now more commonly recognized, in early Christian centuries the Bishop was not an administrator or executive, but a real pastor. Most likely, he would not have been thought of as one who travels throughout the Local Church confirming, but more as one whose life and faith, prayer and example, instilled confidence and hope in the baptized for the evocation and realization of their vocation of mutual service, worship, and witness.

All who are baptized are called to mutual service (diakonia), to participation in the liturgy (leiturgia/koinonia), and to witness (marturia) to the Gospel through holiness of life. These are the hallmarks of Christian living. The bishop’s ministry of leadership in the life of the community is related to this threefold mission of the faithful. His mandate to teach, to sanctify, and to govern is linked to the more fundamental mission of the baptized.

The Bishop’s ministry within the Church is best expressed and impressed in the celebration of the Eucharist, even though the relationship between bishop, church, and Eucharist is not limited to liturgy. As modern martyrs like Archbishop Oscar Romero have shown us, a bishop is also related to his community through a public life of prophetic boldness, prayer, and witness. But all these aspects come together in the celebration of the Eucharist. The community grows and flourishes as long as the bishop’s arms are lifted in faithful prayer and witness. The Body of Christ stands forth in its fullness when the bishop celebrates the Eucharist in the presence of his people gathered for prayer and worship in the Cathedral in the company of his presbyters, deacons, and other ministers. This is clearly expressed in Sacrosanctum Concilium, paragraph 41:

The bishop is to be considered as the High Priest of his flock from whom the life in Christ of his faithful is in some way derived and upon whom it in some way depends.

Therefore all should hold in the greatest esteem the liturgical life of the diocese centered around the bishop, especially in his cathedral church. They must be convinced that the principal manifestation of the Church consists in the full, active participation of all God’s holy people in the same liturgical celebrations, especially in the same Eucharist, in one prayer, at one altar, at which the bishop presides, surrounded by his college of priests and by his ministers.

In accord with the practice of the early Church and with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, the Church is defined, indeed brought into being, in the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrament at the Lord’s table. The fullest expression of Catholic worship is found when the one community gathers for worship with its Bishop and other ministers. Though pastoral conditions may make its realization difficult at times, the Eucharistic Assembly under the presidency of the Bishop in his Cathedral is the icon of full Catholic worship. This icon, this model, of the one community gathered with its pastor lies at the heart of the conciliar reform and is expressed in countless ways.

For example, in most parishes today there is one altar at which the Eucharist is celebrated, instead of several different “side altars.” This development springs from the understanding that the model for all liturgy is the one community gathered around its bishop and his ministers at the one Table of the Lord. What it means to be Church is found in every local assembly gathered and guided by its pastor, the bishop, and together enlightened, enlivened, guided and healed by the Holy Spirit in and through the proclamation and hearing of the Gospel and the celebration of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord.

II. A Noble Tension

Parish-based liturgical reform is signaled in the revised Roman Missal’s initial rubric for the Order of Mass: “After the people have assembled. . .” In the old “ritus servandus” (printed at the beginning of editions of the Missal of 1570), the presence of the people was never even alluded to! For most, this shift away from the focus on the priest with his server(s) to the priest joined with those assembled for worship has been a welcome change. Much of the liturgical reform following the Second Vatican Council has been focused on the parish. In the main, this is as it should be. The parish assembly gathered for the Sunday Eucharist has been and remains the prime referent for liturgical life and renewal for most of our people. To be sure, the parish and its liturgical life are the mainstay of Catholic life and nurture for most Catholics. It is in the parish that most are initiated, educated in the faith, married, and share pastoral outreach and ongoing formation with their fellow parishioners. It is principally in the parish that they celebrate the Body and Blood of the Lord in Word and Sacrament.

“The Cathedral Church,” the third chapter of the Ceremonial of Bishops, affirms the singular importance of the Cathedral Church and its ministry, especially for the celebration of Stational Liturgies. For the Cathedral is the place of the cathedra of the Bishop, the locus of his ministry of teaching, sanctifying, governing. But the Bishop’s celebration of the Eucharist, as well as other sacramental celebrations, cannot always take place in the Cathedral. The fullest expression of Catholic worship, then, has more to do with the fullness, the catholicity, of the faith community gathered around its Bishop at Eucharist than it does with the building in which the Eucharist is celebrated. Recall the words of Ignatius of Antioch in the Letter to the Smyrneans:

“Just as where Christ Jesus is, there also is the Catholic Church, so also should be the whole assembly of his people.”

Even with its affirmation of the importance of the cathedra and of the Cathedral liturgy, the Ceremonial of Bishops implicitly recognizes that the ministry of the person who occupies the cathedra is more central and evocative a symbol than the chair itself. The Bishop’s cathedra is not merely a physical object; it is also a metaphor of the Bishop’s relationship to the Local Church. What is crucial here is the relationship between Bishop and his people. While the chair is located in a particular place, its significance is present wherever and whenever the Bishop ministers. Thus, the Ceremonial clearly recommends that “arrangement should be made for gatherings of this kind (Stational liturgies) at different times and in various parts of the diocese” (no. 13).

From my perspective there is a noble tension here. We have the ancient and hallowed icon of the bishop with his presbyters, deacons, and other ministers gathered together with all the People of God in the Cathedral around the one bread and the one cup, becoming fully the Church in the Eucharistic Sacrament. Indeed the Second Vatican Council appeals to this tradition as the fullest expression of Catholic worship. But this is not, in fact, where and how most Catholics assemble for the celebration of the Eucharist. Further, even while recognizing that the bishop’s ministry is that of a pastor, one who is himself deeply given to the grace and task of ongoing conversion in Christ and able, therefore, to lead others in prayer and worship along that path, the bishop’s ministry today is a good deal more complex than in early Christian centuries. So even as we pay homage to the venerable icon of the fullest expression of Catholic worship, and strive to give it expression in our liturgical practice, we must face the fact that pastoral conditions in the Church today may make this ideal more difficult.

Even though there are many factors that would prevent the Bishop from being the prime Liturgist, as well as the prime preacher, within the Local Church, it is my belief that this is his principal task, the sine qua non of the episcopal ministry of teaching, sanctifying, governing the People of God in their vocation of witness, worship, and mutual care and service. Further, it is my belief that the Cathedral and its ministry, preeminently its liturgical ministry, is the center, the heart and soul of the liturgical life and ministry of the Diocese. The Cathedral liturgy is to be the heart of the prayer of the people of the Local Church, the model for every liturgical celebration throughout the Diocese. In the Ceremonial of Bishops the liturgical life of the Cathedral is understood as a model for every parish in the Local Church (nos. 44 and 46).

How might such a vision of Cathedral life, liturgy, and ministry be rendered incarnate in the life of the Church in the new Millennium? Quite simply and very concretely at the parish level, liturgy is to be celebrated in a way that embodies the characteristics of the Cathedral liturgy. People throughout the Diocese should be able to look to a specific place where the seminal liturgy occurs within that Diocese. Too often, priests and people have the chancery building, the “downtown office” as their point of reference for Diocesan life. From my perspective, THE point of reference for the whole life of the Local Church should be the Cathedral and its liturgical life and ministry. This point of reference, this connection, this link between the parish and the Cathedral is sacramentalized in the fermentum in Eucharistic celebration within a Diocese. In earlier Christian centuries the fermentum was understood as the validation by the Bishop of a Eucharistic celebration presided over by a presbyter.

The ministry of the Cathedral is to be directed to creating and sustaining a place, a space, for the gathering of all God’s People. In this place, the people are washed in the Word. This is where they express and receive their identity as the Body of Christ. It is here that they listen to the best preaching in the diocese, hear and sing the finest liturgical music. This is the place from which the People of God are sent to go and do likewise in their own parish churches. In such a view, the parish-based liturgical model and the hallowed icon of the fullness of Catholic worship are interrelated. Many of the insights expressed in my Pastoral Letter Gather Faithfully Together: A Guide For Sunday Mass are rooted in the conviction that there is a kind of cross-pollination between Cathedral liturgy and the liturgy celebrated week by week in our parishes. In both Cathedral and parish liturgy, we should seek to embody several distinguishing features. Foremost among them:

  • Focus on the assembly and its role in the liturgical action. This is expressed in manifold ways, not least of all in the arrangement of seating, the placement of altar, ambo and font;
  • Attention to the richness of symbol—bread, wine, water, oil especially—but also to light, movement, touch, and the rich array of words, gestures, actions, and objects that lend the fullness of the sacramental economy;
  • Attentiveness to the Word in all its dimensions and to its pivotal role in the Sacramental celebration, with particular attention to the liturgical homily as integral to the Eucharistic Sacrament;
  • Adherence to the standards and norms for liturgical music;
  • Inclusion of a diversity of ministries, ordained and non-ordained, as integral to the fruitfulness of Sacramental worship.

At a minimum, these characteristics should be found in the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist in our parishes. But, they should be expressed preeminently in the liturgical life of the Cathedral Church.

It is my conviction that the Cathedral liturgy is in some sense portable, precisely because the relationship between Bishop and people is portable. It is this relationship that Cathedral liturgy embodies and enacts. The distinguishing features of Cathedral liturgy, then, should be found in any liturgy at which the Bishop presides. This, of course, demands a Diocesan-wide commitment to first rate liturgical celebration, the kind of commitment I have sought to engender throughout the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by means of the Pastoral Letter Gather Faithfully Together.

I have been heartened by the positive reception given to my Pastoral Letter across the country, as well as in other English-speaking countries. There is a deep longing for sound liturgical renewal, the renewal envisioned and set in motion by the Council. My Pastoral Letter seeks to implement the Conciliar vision, echoed in Dies Domini, chapter 3, “The Assembly.”

III. The Cathedral and Its Ministry: An Eschatological Symbol

My perspective on Cathedral ministry rests on an understanding of the Cathedral Church itself as central to the life of the Local Church. I am fully aware of the many factors in contemporary life that make it difficult for the Cathedral Church to function in this way. Many point to the fact that Cathedrals in this country are located in urban centers, far removed from the easy reach of so many Catholics who live in suburban areas where their homes and parishes are situated. On these grounds, some would try to make a case for what I might call the “permanent portability” of the Cathedral liturgy, so that the Cathedral liturgy takes place now in an athletic complex, then in the arena of a convention center, but rarely, if ever, in the Cathedral Church itself.

Our former Cathedral was closed permanently in May of 1995, and I can tell you quite honestly that having to “re-create” a Cathedral Church in so many parish Churches simply does not bring about the desired result. I long for the day when we will at last have our new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, a permanent home that becomes the Mother Church which a Cathedral should be.

Now that we have finished the major design and planning for our new Cathedral, I look back on our former Cathedral of St. Vibiana and realize how very unsuitable it was. Dedicated in 1876, the space was never envisioned for the Church’s liturgical renewal: no presbyterium for the clergy and ministers, no adequate expression of the Assembly and their linkage to the entire space, the poor location of the choir, and the like.

The argument for “permanent portability” is usually on purely logistical, practical terms. Often the governing concern is with transporting suburban Catholics into the heart of the city, where many Cathedrals are situated, for Stational Liturgies. This is too often and too easily judged as an insurmountable task. Added to this is the legitimate concern for safety in our inner cities. The result far too often is that the Cathedral becomes marginalized in the life of the Local Church rather than its center.

Another factor that must be brought to bear on any discussion of Cathedral ministry is that the Cathedral Church is not simply the site of what are too often thought of as occasional Stational Liturgies. In addition to serving the entire Local Church as the center of its liturgical life and ministry, the heart of the prayer of the People of God of a given Diocese, most Cathedral Churches minister to the parish community that gathers there for worship, week by week, day by day. In Los Angeles, in addition to these two constituencies, our Cathedral ministry will be directed to at least two other constituencies: Those 350,000 people who do not live in the Cathedral parish but work within its boundaries each day; and the many anticipated pilgrims, visitors, and tourists we will welcome at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

The ministry of the Cathedral must take stock of the obstacles to be faced in assuring that the Cathedral is the heartbeat of the Local Church, the center of its prayer, liturgy and mission. But examples abound of Local Churches which have managed to cultivate, nurture, and sustain a vibrant Cathedral ministry, a flourishing liturgical life serving various constituencies, even, indeed especially, because of the factors that I have mentioned. Note the pastoral success of the Cathedral Churches of St. James in Seattle, Assumption in Louisville, and Saints Peter and Paul in Indianapolis. Need these obstacles be as daunting as some are inclined to think? To that question, I reply with a resounding “no!” This is because my perspective on the Cathedral and Cathedral ministry, specifically the Cathedral liturgy, is shaped by an understanding of the Cathedral as an eschatological symbol.

The symbol is evocative of the vision of heavenly worship in the fourth chapter of Revelation, as well as of the new heaven, new earth, and new Jerusalem in Revelation, chapters 21 and 22. The Cathedral is not simply the locus for the Local Church to be and become the Body of Christ, though it may be that first and foremost. The Cathedral is itself transformative of the whole city. True, a Cathedral may transform by bringing new life and energy to the inner city as we have seen in San Antonio, Seattle, and Louisville. But far more importantly, the Cathedral is transformative of the city and its people by reminding them, inspiring in them, evoking from them a deep awareness of what a city is to be and become. The Cathedral is an eschatological symbol, calling all who see it and dwell therein to the realization of all that is good and noble in the humanum, inviting all to the fulfillment of the human capacity for the true, the good, the beautiful.

The Cathedral is not only the center of the life and prayer of the Local Church, but also a symbol evocative of the deepest aspirations and hopes of the whole polis, the whole people of Los Angeles, the earthly city yearning for consummation, the completion yet to come in the new Jerusalem. Just as the Bishop of the Local Church is not called the Bishop of the “Church” of Detroit or Memphis, but the Bishop of Detroit or Memphis, thereby signaling his solicitude and responsibility for all the people of the city, so too, Cathedral ministry, directed to the Church in a specific location, must also be attentive to the whole people who constitute the polis in that particular place.

The Church is meant to be a light for ALL nations as we are reminded in Lumen gentium and, in this process, the Cathedral, its ministry and its worship, must take the lead. In Los Angeles, our new Cathedral will be a resource and a symbol of pride and commitment, not only for Roman Catholics, but for all Angelenos. From my perspective, what better way to serve the city, the good of the polis as a whole, than to make available for all a symbol, an icon, of what we are to be and become together.

Consequently the Cathedral Church, no matter how modest, should be a jewel. Its purpose is to evoke the hopes of a people, to call forth the desire for all that is noble in the human spirit. It is to stir up in the human heart the desire for fulfillment, for completion. At the same time, it must bespeak the truth that lies at the core of Christian faith: we have here in this earthly city no resting place. The Cathedral—precisely as a place, a physical focus, a sacramental resource, a sign lifted for all peoples—is a prophetic structure that signals the Church’s ongoing commitment to the city as a living icon of how men and women share in the life and goodness of a world created and blessed by God. So, the Cathedral becomes a powerful symbol of the Church being and becoming its best self.

We are on a journey, guided by the light of Christ. The Cathedral, then, is a place to roost, not to nest. It is a place of gathering and of prayer and worship. But it is a place from which we are sent forth to receive the gift of being and building the new Jerusalem in our midst. It is a place wherein the deepest aspirations of every human heart, indeed the longings of the whole people of a city, find their proper focus. And hope for their authentic realization.

This eschatological symbol is most efficacious when it is enlivened by the Spirit, moving like a mighty wind through the hearts of the People of God who gather for worship within its walls. It is not only the building, magnificent or modest though it may be, that functions as an eschatological symbol. It is preeminently the ritual life of the People of God that allows the symbol to sing of the new heaven, new earth, the new Jerusalem. The symbol functions to the degree that the Cathedral is a house for the Church, the Body of Christ called forth to full stature in its life of prayer and worship within its walls.

The Body stands forth in full stature when the Local Church gathers for prayer and worship together with their bishop, his presbyters, deacons and other ministers at the one Table of Word and Sacrament. It is here that the unity and communion of the Church, described by Ignatius of Antioch, is rendered visible. It is in this fullest expression of Catholic worship that the marks of the Church stand forth, are most poignantly sacramentalized. Indeed, the Cathedral liturgy should be distinguished principally by the manner in which it allows the marks of the Church as one, holy, catholic, and apostolic to stand forth in bold relief. This is in no small measure due to the Bishop’s presence and ministry, symbolized in the cathedra, of preserving communion within Eucharistic Assemblies and between and among Local Churches of the apostolic faith.

The Cathedral’s font, and what happens there, should be seen as the mater Christianorum, reminding all that to become a Catholic Christian is to enter into a vital relationship with the Bishop and “his” Church. In this place God’s people, made holy by their incorporation into the Body of Christ, gather for prayer and praise, to be commissioned for various ministries in the Local Church. It is here that catechists hear the word of God and are sent forth to teach as Jesus did. It is in this place that some are ordained to the order of presbyter and of deacon, and where priests gather with their Bishop for the Chrism Mass to receive from his hands the consecrated oils for their ministry of healing. It is here that the Sacraments of Initiation are celebrated in their fullness during the Easter Vigil, beginning with the gathering at the lucinarium. It is in the Cathedral that the people hear the call to repentance and forgiveness, and the challenge to ongoing, lifelong conversion in Christ. It is from this place that lay missionaries are sent to different parts of the world to spread the Gospel, expressive of the catholicity of the faith and life that is celebrated in the Cathedral Church—a faith so full and whole that it stretches out and pours itself forth in lives of service to other peoples in other lands. The Church catholic opens a vision beyond the Diocese and also shakes us from self-sufficiency and self-absorption.

The liturgy of the Cathedral must open its arms to all the people of God in an inclusive way. The people of the whole city and environs should be invited, welcomed, embraced. For us in Los Angeles, this will be possible because of our 2 ½ acre great Plaza that fronts the Cathedral, and from which people enter and depart the Cathedral.

Further, the ministry of the Cathedral must be particularly attentive to the need for cultivating a prophetic consciousness responsive to the requirements of justice and social outreach. Only if the commitment to welcome, inclusivity, and the embrace of diversity is expressed in a commitment to build a world of communion and justice beyond the Table of the Lord, can the Cathedral and its liturgy be credible as the eschatological symbol it is intended to be. And only then are the People of God awakened to a recognition of the costliness of the call to grow to full stature in Christ, summoning the city to its best self, drawing the city to become what it is yet to be.

The spirit of the Cathedral ministry and its liturgy then moves beyond its own walls becoming a source of gathering and sending throughout the Diocese, amidst the city. The Cathedral is to be a place, a space, of openness and light. Its walls and its liturgy are porous. For there are no longer two cities—the City of God and the City of the Human Family. But one city, gathered in this place. And sent forth from it. In worshiping God in Spirit and in Truth in this place, we prepare for the coming of the day of the Lord, the time and place of a new heaven and a new earth!

The Cathedral as eschatological symbol calls us to fidelity to our vocation as a Christian people: to be a sacrament of the new Jerusalem, the kingdom of God, in our own time and place. This is your ministry as pastors/rectors and staff of the Cathedral in your Local Church. However modest or magnificent the Cathedral, and the Cathedral Liturgy which is the heart of its ministry, it must be a jewel, drawing all by its simple beauty to the abundance of light and life in Christ. And by that light, to move forward in preparation for the coming of the Day of the Lord!

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