A Historic Holiday Moment for L.A.

With Gregorian chant, bells and incense, Christmas will be celebrated at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels for the first time next week, a historic occasion that is expected to draw large crowds to the new mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Dedicated in September, the $189-million downtown cathedral can seat 3,000 people in its soaring, modernistic nave. But there may not be enough room to accommodate the crowds expected for the traditional midnight Mass, according to Msgr. Kevin Kostelnik, cathedral pastor.

“People want to be a part of history,” he said. “It’s very historical to celebrate the cathedral’s first Christmas.”

He said the church is prepared to offer a second -- and simultaneous -- midnight Mass beneath the stars in the cathedral plaza, unless it rains.

An introit from the old solemn Mass, “Dominus Dixit -- The Lord said” will be sung. “It’s the most beautiful chant of all,” Director of Music Frank Brownstead said. “It’s God talking to Jesus, and God says you are my begotten son.”

The chant is a musical expression of classical Christian theology, the belief that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob again intervened in human history through the person of Jesus, whom Christians call the Son of God.

Kostelnik and Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said the belief that God is present is especially reassuring in view of the sexual abuse crisis that has shaken the Catholic Church this year.

“It’s been a terrible year because of the scandal, but it’s also been a year in which the church has been called to grow and heal and express concern and to assist all those who have been” victimized by priests, Kostelnik said. “One of the reasons so many people have come here is, this is a real point of light in the midst of what has been a lot of darkness this year.”

Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, said he has no intention of ignoring the scandal as the nation’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese celebrates Jesus’ birth.

“It has been a very difficult year for us in the church, in the world, our country and in our community. We’ve had the scandal on clergy abuse. We’ve had ongoing ... tensions and terrible problems in the Middle East with Israel and Palestine, and the prospects of war with Iraq,” Mahony said in an interview. Many are worried about their jobs or how they can pay the doctor or dentist, he added.

This year more than 350 priests nationwide have either resigned or retired as a result of sexual abuse accusations. Just this month, Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as archbishop of Boston. The scandal erupted in Boston last January and soon spread across the country, with priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese and the dioceses of Orange, San Diego and San Bernardino accused of molesting children.

The controversy is expected to continue into the new year. Mahony said he expects the Los Angeles Archdiocese to be at least named in several hundred civil lawsuits expected to be filed in 2003. The legal actions would come under a new state law that temporarily waives the statute of limitations so victims of older cases can sue the church or other institutions responsible for placing clergy or other personnel in positions where they could sexually abuse children.

Alluding to the loss of trust in the church, Mahony wrote in his annual Christmas message: “It is a moment for each one of us to take stock of what is deepest in our belief in Christ, the Sun of Justice, even as we experience the loss of so much in which we have placed our confidence.”

The scandal and its continuation into the new year are not happy prospects to consider at Christmas, Mahony said. But during this season, he said, he takes heart in the words of the angels to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid; for see -- I am bringing you good news of great joy.”

“We just seem to have a longer list of woes than usual, and yet in the midst of all of that which seems so despairing and hopeless here come these words -- ‘Do not be afraid; I bring you good news of great joy, that a Savior, a Messiah, has come to bring hope,’ ” Mahony said.

That doesn’t mean the sexual abuse crisis will suddenly disappear Dec. 25, he added. But he said the angel’s words, recounted in Luke 2:10, “give us a new inner strength, a new energy, to find solutions with God’s presence, with God in our midst. So we are not alone, we are not abandoned, and we don’t have to rely on our own human weakness and limited strength.”

Seats for all Masses are free and available on a first come, first served basis. The midnight Mass on Christmas Eve will be preceded by carols at 11:30 p.m. and a choral performance of “O Magnum Mysterium -- O Great Mystery,” a composition by Morten Lauridsen of USC.

In addition, Masses are scheduled Christmas Eve at 4 and 9 p.m. in English and 6 p.m. in Spanish. On Christmas, Mass will be said at 8 and 10 a.m. in English and noon in Spanish. Mahony will be present at all Christmas Eve services, and will preside at midnight Mass.