Awe-Inspiring or Indulgent?

It continues to amaze me that people who claim to be religious (and therefore moral and ethical) applaud the construction of the new cathedral in downtown Los Angeles (“The New Cathedral, Continued,” Letters, Sept. 22).

Mimi Sheean asserts that these “magnificent edifices” are here to “fill us with awe and wonder at the glory of God.”

Just what does a huge, multimillion-dollar building, even a beautiful one, have to do with the glory of God? Why is a man-made structure supposed to generate awe in the viewer? I would argue that Yosemite and a sunset on the Central Coast are better evidence of the glory of God.

There were in fact “better things to do with the money” used to build Notre Dame and the other “great cathedrals” of Europe, but we have lost track of those who suffered needlessly while these structures were built. They are gone forever, so who cares about them? Where is the morality in that point of view?

Sheean claims she “believe(s) feeding the spirit is as important as feeding the belly.” How nice for her. Has she spoken to anyone with an empty belly? (She can find them not far from the cathedral.) I wonder if the new cathedral feeds their spirit enough to silence their growling stomachs. Only those with full bellies can truly believe a building is a better use of money than helping people.

It was wrong to spend the money on cathedrals centuries ago in Europe, and it was wrong for the Catholic Church to build “Mahony’s folly” now. It will be a better world when the members of the congregation live in big houses and have full bellies, and the church is a tumbledown shack.

Sheean says “soon enough no one will think about who built our own awe-inspiring cathedral.” Wrong. I (and, I suspect, many others) will always remember who was responsible for this sinful act of self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement.

Isn’t this Cardinal Mahony with “courage and vision” the same one who transferred pedophile priests to new parishes and covered up their crimes against children? I find nothing awe-inspiring in any of this, and I am forced to wonder about the morality of those who do.

BILL WOLFE

Shafter