PERSPECTIVE ON LOS ANGELES : Why a New Cathedral Is Needed : Liturgical, pastoral and historical reasons call for a new structure to accommodate today’s Catholic populace.

“Spare St. Vibiana’s the Wrecking Ball” was a Times commentary headline last Sunday, over an article questioning the need to raze the current cathedral so that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles can erect a new cathedral complex on the historic downtown site.

There are liturgical, pastoral and historical reasons for building a new St. Vibiana’s. First and of utmost importance for us is that a cathedral church is the spiritual font and source of identity and unity for the entire Catholic community. Its main purpose is to provide adequate worship space for the various liturgies, especially those involving the archbishop of the local church.

Failing to consider worship and liturgy misses the centrality of this vital mission of the cathedral. Because the current cathedral was never intended to accommodate today’s Catholic liturgy, its structure cannot be reconfigured to accomplish this primary goal. Clearly missing from the old cathedral, but essential to the new one will be:

* A main altar close to the people with adequate space for the deacons and priests to surround the archbishop in solemn liturgy.

* A Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

* New rooms for the sacrament of reconciliation.

* A baptismal font of immersion.

* A plaza or gathering space for the people attending cathedral events.

The intent of the Catholic community to build a new and more adequate cathedral goes back to the early 1900s. In 1904, Pope Pius X signed the decree authorizing a new cathedral because “the present cathedral is too small and entirely inadequate to the needs of the parishioners, and will grow more so with the rapid increase of the city.” Bishop Thomas Conaty’s plan to build a new cathedral on Ninth Street between Whittier and Green streets was thwarted by the outbreak of World War I. His successor, Bishop (later Archbishop) John J. Cantwell, added the vestibule and choir loft to the current cathedral--totally destroying the original facade--as a temporary measure even as he anticipated building a grand cathedral.

Archbishop Cantwell died in 1947 and his successor, Cardinal James Francis McIntyre, put off building the new cathedral because of Southern California’s massive postwar expansion. Other pressing priorities occupied the pastoral leadership of Cardinal Timothy Manning, although he did authorize the 1976 renovation and strengthening of the old cathedral necessitated by the 1971 Sylmar earthquake.

Throughout these 90 years of deliberation and planning, extensive consultation was taken with the appropriate Catholic leaders and consultative bodies.

Today, as the Archbishop of Los Angeles, I remain committed to what I said at my Jan. 6 press conference announcing the new cathedral complex: “Every great city in the world with a Catholic heritage has a dynamic and functional cathedral at the heart of its central core. Los Angeles will be no exception as the archdiocese plans ahead for a new millennium in the service to the people of God.”

There are very real seismic problems with the old cathedral. Of the three buildings that originally stood on the site--the cathedral, the bishop’s and priests’ residence and the school--the latter two had to be demolished after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Successive quakes have taken their toll on the remaining cathedral, so that we can permit only its very limited use.

The Northridge earthquake and its very serious damage to the cathedral and its bell tower was but one of four events in 1994 that contributed to the decision to construct a new cathedral complex. The others were the move of the Union Rescue Mission, permitting the archdiocese to acquire that pivotal site adjacent to the cathedral; the loss of the parking lot to the north to new development, and the lack of any commitment to fund the rebuilding and renovation of the old building while donors offered gifts for a new complex.

Nearly 50 years ago, on Aug. 31, 1945, the 50th-anniversary issue of the archdiocesan weekly, the Tidings, heralded: “Archbishop Cantwell Reveals Plans for New Cathedral; Great Basilica to be Constructed on Wilshire Boulevard Site.” The archbishop’s choice of imagery to explain the need for a new cathedral then is no less valid today:

“Mighty and far-reaching changes have come to Los Angeles since the building of St. Vibiana’s. The little pueblo is but a picturesque dream of the past, and the metropolis that is today has taken its place among the great cities of the world, with a beautiful architecture of its own. As a people grow in material prosperity and in appreciation of all that is fine in art, their community should, and does, record their advance. Our Civic Center has done this . . . . To erect a great cathedral will not only be a spiritual satisfaction but a fulfilled obligation to this city and to the past; not to do so would be to break the long sequence of Catholic projects of which this noble edifice would be the next crowning addition.”