Cathedral a Star for Pilgrims

Christmas this year ushered in a sort of Yule miracle in downtown Los Angeles: After midnight, on a hill overlooking City Hall, the street was bustling.

Devout Roman Catholics as well as the religiously unaffiliated, Southern Californians and tourists from points far beyond, flocked to the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels for midnight Mass.

Many of the estimated 4,000 to 5,000 in attendance, as well as the thousands at the other six Masses celebrated Tuesday and Wednesday, wanted to be part of the historic first Christmas at the $189-million cathedral.

And some, who rarely venture downtown, said the church could inspire them and others to return.

Visiting the cathedral “is an urban adventure,” said Brian Hardin, 33, an interior designer who moved to West Los Angeles from New York several years ago. “It may help to solidify downtown as a destination, which is apparently what it is doing tonight.” Another transplant to Los Angeles, Nathalie O’Gorman, 37, said, “It is a real cathedral.”

O’Gorman, accompanied by her parents who were visiting from Paris, said she grew up amid the great cathedrals of Europe, but added that Los Angeles now has one as well. “L.A. needs something like this ... a cathedral for the third millennium,” she asserted.

But not everyone was convinced that Our Lady, which opened in September after five years of construction, will have a significant impact.

Ata Martinez, 35, a molecular biologist visiting from Queretaro, Mexico, pointed to the families scattered across the cathedral’s spacious 2.5-acre plaza. “A sense of community is lost in L.A. That’s a problem,” said Martinez, who was educated at UC Irvine.

On the other hand, Martinez suggested that maybe it is too much to expect a cathedral to change a big city. The cathedral, he said, “fits the L.A. concept: cool. We don’t expect all the communities [of the world] to behave in the same sense. L.A. is very independent .... It has its own concept of community, its own sense of city.”

Hours before midnight, the streets downtown near the glowing cathedral filled with hundreds of people streaming toward Mass. They came by bus and by limo, in black leather pants, bright Christmas scarves and Santa hats. By 11 p.m., the 600-car parking lot beneath the cathedral was full and, churchgoers said, neighboring parking lots were charging up to $30.

“My friends, welcome to your new cathedral,” said Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, after the choir had sung. “We gather with all of our joys as well as our sadness and disappointments.”

On Christmas Day, the scene was similar, with the flocks of people around the cathedral marking a sharp contrast to nearby sections of downtown. A sprinkling of homeless men and women populated the sidewalks outside the shuttered courthouses, government offices and shops along Broadway. But on Temple Street, hundreds of people streamed up the hill for noon Mass.

Large Congregations

“We wanted to try the new church for Christmas,” said Burbank resident Al Ramirez, 70, as he and his wife, 60-year-old Fita, walked up the stairs into the plaza. “It’s very beautiful, and that draws us here today.”

Archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg said the cathedral draws large congregations every Sunday. Between 1,000 and 1,500 people usually attend the 8 a.m. Mass, while the 10 a.m. and noon services are usually filled to the 3,000-person capacity. To accommodate the overflow crowd at midnight Mass, church officials allowed worshipers to stand behind the seating areas.

In his homily at Wednesday’s 10 a.m. Mass, Mahony briefly cited a long litany of worldwide and domestic problems, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, fighting in Afghanistan, terrorism, the possibility of war with Iraq and the nuclear threat from North Korea. He also touched on the job-security anxieties caused by the sputtering U.S. economy and California’s ballooning budget deficit, along with gang violence in Los Angeles.

“In the past year, even our own church has had its darkness, its sinfulness and our own problems to deal with,” Mahony added, alluding to the sex abuse controversy, which has prompted the resignation or retirement of more than 350 priests nationwide this year. In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, six current or former priests have been arrested and charged with child molestation.

Cathedral Praised

Yet in his remarks about the new cathedral, which has been criticized for its high cost -- an issue made particularly poignant by the recent elimination of seven headquarters ministries and the layoffs of at least 60 workers in archdiocese headquarters -- Mahony focused on the praise the new mother church of his diocese has received.

He cited how “over the last several months, the number of people who have come up and said that coming and praying in this beautiful space, they have found a new presence of God. I’ve had letters from people whose lives have been totally changed because of their experience of God here.”

For their part, many worshippers at the cathedral Wednesday said it was their first visit, one they decided would make Christmas more holy.

Inside the plaza, Rafael and Eulalia Gomez posed their young son and daughter inside a large manger scene, snapping photos of the wide-eyed children.

“We usually go to our church in Pico-Union, but we came here today to tell God that we are doing well,” said Rafael Gomez, 24. “It feels more special here. It feels like it was built for us, for the people.”

Nearby, hundreds of people milled about the plaza, some meditating by the gateway pool, others relaxing in the orange and yellow chairs scattered outside the main sanctuary.

Pico Rivera resident Araceli Toscano, 28, skipped Mass at her usual church to bring her parents, who were visiting from Jalisco, Mexico.

“It’s very big, very impressive,” said her father, Victoriano De Leon.

“Elegant,” added her mother, Carmen De Leon.

Richard and Angie Lopez usually worship at the San Gabriel Mission in Alhambra, but after attending the 10 a.m. Mass at the cathedral, they said they would be back.

“You get a feeling that’s very welcome, very warm,” said Angie Lopez, 73. “It feels like a family. It cost a lot of money, but I think it’s more than worth it. It does so much for our emotions and our faith. This was a beautiful way to start Christmas Day.”

Just before noon, the sound of tolling bells filled the plaza, drowning out the rush of traffic on the nearby Hollywood Freeway. As she headed inside, first-time visitor Candy Del Rio examined the large bronze doors framing the entrance.

“We came so my children could appreciate Christmas inside the cathedral,” said the 30-year-old Bell Gardens resident, who added that she was a bit taken aback by the modern look of the building. “I’m used to the cathedrals in Mexico.”

But later, after wandering through the structure, Del Rio said she was overwhelmed. “It’s so beautiful -- it looks like something out of the Roman Empire,” she whispered, as she and her three children toured the marble-encased mausoleum in the basement.

Harry Dorsey came just for the architecture. The Playa del Rey man said he is not Catholic, but wanted to see the building when it was full of worshipers.

“I wanted to hear the acoustics and see how it fits with the people,” Dorsey said. Referring to the cathedral’s modernist Spanish architect, Jose Rafael Moneo, Dorsey added, “The guy’s a genius. It’s a beautiful building, it really is.”

Inside, people packed the seats as the service began. The organ swelled with the melody of “O Come All Ye Faithful” as four altar boys carrying processional candles moved slowly down the aisle, followed by several priests and Mahony, dressed in red vestments. As the Mass began, a priest sent clouds of incense into the air, illuminated by the light glowing through the alabaster windows.

In the back of the sanctuary, 74-year-old Guadalupe Alarcon knelt before a 17th century altar piece featuring an image of Jesus on the cross. Her eyes closed, the woman prayed silently, her lips moving as she rocked back and forth.

Alarcon said she began coming to the cathedral regularly when it opened in the fall. The building is beautiful, she said. But it is not aesthetics that draws her.

“I come here,” the Pico-Union resident said, “because this is where God is.”

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Times staff writer Larry B. Stammer contributed to this report.