Praying New Cathedral Will Serve to Unite Humanity

Reed Johnson’s “A Modern Sense of Sacred” (May 22) is one of the best expositions I have seen of what I fondly hope L.A.’s new cathedral will be. I hope it will be, for those fortunate enough to visit, a chance to respond, resonate, and hold in the tensions and bridgings of their quieted hearts a lingering sense of their unity with every member of the human family, in an all-seeing, all-loving God.

As an 86-year-old priest of an ancient church, I see an old faith community, with its thousand flaws and faults, its thousand tongues and cultures, reaching, once again, from the bosom of the City of the Angels, to greet all peoples, to proclaim, in silence, in word, in symbol and sacrament, the mystery of an unconditionally loving God.

I may not be around, as I once was in the little chapel on Flower Street, to extend a hand to every wayfarer and passerby--regardless of creed or cult. But I thank God for the people who are making, finding, concretizing so majestically the modern sense of the sacred in the city we have grown to love.

MONSIGNOR JOHN V. SHERIDAN

Our Lady of Malibu Church

Malibu