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Unitarians Begone!

New Oakland Cathedral -- More Catholic Than it Might Have Been

BY CHRISTOPHER ZEHNDER

(Note: Please see interview with Bishop Allen Vigneron that accompanies this article.)

Four years have passed since I wrote about the Oakland diocese's proposed Cathedral of Christ the Light. (See "Not Architecture," May 2001 Faith.) Much has changed since then, including the architect and the cathedral design itself. But the basic vision remains the same, though with some important alterations. The new cathedral design, like the original, is "contemporary," as Bishop Allen Vigneron has put it; yet, even if it is not quite (in the bishop's words) "thick with Catholic and Christian meaning," it is certainly offers more of that meaning than did the original design.

The diocese had originally awarded the project to the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Calatrava designed a building which, he said, represented praying hands, though others thought it looked more like a clam. "Calatrava's desire that the top of the building open and close seemed to support the latter opinion.) But the diocese later rejected the Calatrava design for unspecified reasons and instead chose one by San Francisco architect Craig Hartman in October 2003.

Hartman's design echoes Calatrava's -- even to the point of evoking sea life. According to Lee Nordlund, who directs the cathedral project for the Oakland diocese, the fish-shape inspires the "very shape" of Hartman's design. But unlike Calatrava (the interior of whose design reminded one of the ribcage of a whale), Hartman seems less inspired by actual than symbolic fish. The cathedral's shape is "based on a sacred geometry, a vesica pisces, which is the intersection of two circles," Nordlund told me in May. "So if you imagine the intersecting area, it will be shaped kind of like a football, and that sign has been a symbol of gathering place or meeting place universally since ancient times. But when you extend the lines, it forms a fish" -- the symbol, representing the name of Christ, by which early Christians recognized each other.

The twofold universal and specifically Christian applications of the vesica pisces lend important symbolism to the cathedral, said Nordlund. It indicates a "cathedral which is meant for all people, not just Catholics. It is our reaching out to all people, just as Christ is the light of all people."

Another common feature of the Calatrava and Hartman designs is that both call for a structure made mostly of glass, which will allow sunlight to illuminate the interior by day and artificial to shine forth to the outside world at night. This is, of course, important symbolism, since the cathedral is named "Christ the Light." According to an address Bishop Vigneron gave earlier this year, he seems to see the cathedral as a beacon of unity for the diocese and between Catholics and the outside world. Quoting Vatican II' s Lumen Gentium, which says the Church's mission is to be "a sacrament -- a sign and instrument ... of intimate union with God and of the unity of the whole human race," Bishop Vigneron said that, from this mission, "the Cathedral of Christ the Light receives its own unique mission, as the foremost resource for our Diocese to build up the unity of men and women with God and with one another." It will, in particular, serve as a center of ministry for the "needy" and "those at the margins of society." It will be an "ideal gathering place for unifying events in the Diocese." Vigneron said he sees the cathedral "being a center for furthering the renewal of Eucharistic devotion in our Diocese: for example, as the site for an annual Diocesan Corpus Christi procession on the Plaza, or gatherings to pray for peace and solace in times of tribulation." The bishop also said that he hopes "liturgical celebrations" at the cathedral "will enrich liturgies throughout our Diocese."

Hartman's current design diverges from the Calatrava cathedral in one important aspect -- the position of the altar and tabernacle vis-à-vis the congregation. The Calatrava design placed the altar nearly at the center of the cathedral, on a level with the congregational seating, which was situated in a fan shape around the altar. Hartman's original design, approved before Bishop Vigneron came to Oakland, also placed the altar towards center of the church, with the congregation seated almost in a circle around it. Since Vigneron became bishop, however, the Hartman design, though it maintains the fan-shaped orientation of the seating, elevates the altar above the congregation and places it at one end of the church, the north wall. The tabernacle will also be placed in an aperture that communicates with a Eucharistic chapel and will be situated behind the altar. It will thus be in a place of honor and visible to the entire church.

The Hartman design, therefore, though modernistic, preserves something of the traditional orientation of altar and people. But, as Lee Nordlund told me, the proposed cathedral "is not a hierarchical structure." Rather, said Nordlund, the Cathedral of Christ the Light conforms to the "requirements of Vatican II," particularly in the semi-circular placement of the seating around the altar.

Nordlund's evocation of Vatican II requirements reminded me of the conversation I had in 2001 with the then-director of the Oakland cathedral project, Brother Mel Anderson. Brother Mel said that Calatrava's design for the interior "really follows the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium." And he explained, "one of the major features of the liturgical movement out of Vatican II was Communio, and so I think having the seats in fan shape brings the community closer together around the altar, rather than the in the old type of lining them up, row after row, in the nave. People can see one another, and see everybody in the congregation from wherever they are sitting. They can see that they are part of a community, rather than just individuals saying prayers in a church."

Brother Mel gave no citations from the council to support his contention; neither did Nordlund, who told me he was not a liturgist and thus had no expertise in such questions. Fair enough. But, I thought, the copious documents on the cathedral website must offer citations. I was disappointed.

Rather, the documents I read simply reiterated the claim that the cathedral design either does or must reflect the directives of Vatican II. One document addressing Hartman's design, "Cathedral Design: The Poetic Use of Light," notes that "in keeping with the themes expressed at Vatican II," the "floor plan positions the main altar near the center of the cathedral's interior, so that those attending Masses and liturgies can better become a community of participants. This represents a change in philosophy from centuries past, when cathedral naves were long and narrow with the celebrant and altar positioned linearly at the head of the congregation."

I found this citation interesting since it interprets the "themes expressed at Vatican II" as at least inviting the location of the main altar "near the center" of the cathedral. Yet, the final design places the main altar near the northern wall, suggesting a more traditional, though non-linear, design. Both, however, allegedly express the intentions of Vatican II.

The closest thing I could find to a direct reference to Vatican II was in a May 11, 2000 "Companion Document" prepared by the cathedral's liturgy committee in response to some "Concept Statements" prepared for the cathedral feasibility study by the third meeting of cathedral advisors on February 17, 2000. The "Companion Document" notes that the "architecture of the space must encourage and facilitate the full, conscious, active participation of the people." This phrase, full, conscious, active participation, is, of course, drawn from Sancrosanctum Concilium, the council's decree on the liturgy. Presumably, the fan seating fulfills the requirements of such participation, though the "Companion Document" does not indicate where the council actually called for such seating.

May not one just as easily conclude that the council fathers, in calling for full, conscious, and active participation, had the traditional church design in mind? The absence of directives to the contrary would seem to indicate that the fathers contemplated no change in the Church's architectural tradition. "Liturgy's something different from architecture," said Michael Rose, a Catholic writer who has written extensively on church architecture, including the books The Renovation Manipulation and In Tiers of Glory: The Organic Development of Catholic Church Architecture Through the Ages. "There were no architectural directives from Vatican II," Rose said. "Liturgical directives had not to do with the arrangement of spaces or the new Mass. If you go back to what the council said about architecture, it's very, very little, and it's very much contrary to what the new architecture proposes. The bishops were encouraged to preserve traditional images and the patrimony of the Church. That's where it really started and ended." According to Sancrosanctum Concilium, "in the course of the centuries, [the Church] has brought into being a treasury of art which must be very carefully preserved."

The "Concept Statements" drawn up by the cathedral project advisors in 2000, however, call for a design that departs markedly from traditional church design. Little if anything is said of the church as a place of worship; rather, the emphasis is laid on the church building being a place of gathering. The liturgical committee's "Companion Document" does refer to worship in a couple of places; the cathedral project, it says, "can become a worthy servant to the prayer and worship of the Church of Oakland"; and "the Church building is the sacred place where Christ, the high priest, calls and gathers the People of God to undertake the sacred task of giving glory to God and celebrating the saving presence of Christ among God's people." Yet, in what follows, the emphasis is laid on the Church's mission to the world, not on the worship of God, which is the culmination and very reason for that mission.

"If a place of gathering is the primary focus," says the "Concept Statements," "then hospitality becomes the hallmark by which this cathedral will be known.... Cathedral, when understood as hospitable gathering place, frames the discussion of accessibility and diversity." Accessibility demands "that the whole complex is safe and barrier free. This includes the areas of liturgical focus, which traditionally have been platforms with limited access." Though the Hartman design maintains the platform, it has no altar rail -- traditionally the "barrier" between the sanctuary, reserved for the clergy, and the nave, where the assembly gathers. Further, the design places the ambo or lectern in the choir, thus situating that part of the assembly in the sanctuary (presumably the cathedral will not be staffed by canons). To this degree, at least, the design undermines a sense of hierarchy in the liturgy.

To some degree, the final design for the interior of the cathedral, with its altar platform, prominent placement of the tabernacle behind the altar, which is located not at the center but towards an extremity of the cathedral, departs from what is envisioned in the "Concept Statement." However, the end result appears merely a compromise between two concepts of church arrangement -- a kind of architectural griffin unhappily uniting elements of two discordant natures.

The cathedral's exterior, however, displays little of the traditional. This is perhaps not surprising, since the "Concept Statement" seems to want a structure that is not religious-specific. The statement seeks "a space" which "speaks of God," but not specifying the Christian God, the Holy Trinity. It is nice that that "the creative struggle is to express the diverse and marvelous ways the face of God is shown in creation, in humanity, in a gathered assembly and in the great mystery that is beyond all expression," but the same sentiment could have been crafted by a Unitarian. What is specifically Catholic, or even merely Christian, about it?

To be sure, the conception for the interior artwork is specifically Christian. Lee Nordlund told me, "the cathedral's basic theme is the creation story, from the very beginning of time to the last judgment. This is reflected in the two main windows. The first is the window over the entryway, which we call the alpha window, which reflects the beginning of time. The lights that God created, the chaos that evolved into the creation as we know it -- the stars, the seas, the earth, the animals and the plants -- all those are embodied in some way in that entry area of the cathedral. And then there is, of course, the creation of man, which also will be described in some way. Then you have the fall of man, the fall from grace, original sin, which will be depicted; and then you've got the baptismal font, new birth in the new life, just as each of us enters the Church through the sacrament of baptism. And then you'll go up the main aisle, and there will be other symbols that have to do with salvation history, which then culminate in the sacrifice of the altar. And then going further beyond that, [to the north wall behind the altar], you'll have the omega window, which represents the end of time, the last judgment."

In an August 3 interview, Bishop Vigneron said that he had recently bought an antique crucifix from South America. "It's a life-size crucifix, done in the colonial Spanish style, he said." It will not be placed above the altar, however, but in "a special chapel to Christ crucified," said Vigneron. The bishop said he was not sure whether the sanctuary would have a large crucifix; "I think it will go more in the direction of the way they do things at St. Peter's Basilica and have a very beautiful processional altar crucifix." Instead, said Vigneron, "we're in the discussion stage with artists right now to have a glass sculpture, monumental size, of Christ in glory [over the altar] -- something like Christ seated in glory over the doorway of Chartres. Not a reproduction, but a contemporary rendering of that kind of image."

The cathedral project will include more than just the cathedral itself. Besides the church, a chancery office building, a residence for clergy and bishop, a plaza, a conference center, a mausoleum, a café, and a bookstore will form the cathedral complex. The price tag for all this is $131 million, a ceiling price that Nordlund says the diocese will not break. "We're managing to budget," said Nordlund. "So if we need to, we will cut programming to hit budget." All parts of the complex, Nordlund said, "have different finishes on them and different degrees of sophistication, and so we can go for a Rolls Royce of a gift shop or a Chevrolet of a gift shop. And so we adjust our budget accordingly to fit that $131 million."

Some of course have questioned whether it would not be more Christian to invest the money in the poor rather spend it on a building complex. In some of its documents, the diocese cites Catholic Worker founder, Dorothy Day, who wrote, "our cathedrals are centers of hospitality that our parishes often are not.... Why is it that we think we only need to give the poor the basics when the poor also need beauty?" But looking at the cathedral model, observing what, to me at least, appeared to be cold, modernist lines, a design that has few if any cultural signposts to designate it a church, a form more reminiscent of a nuclear reactor than a place of worship, I thought: sure, the poor need beauty, but would they find this beautiful? Modernist abstraction, I thought, is not the common men's "language;" mightn't a church so designed alienate rather than attract the common man, not to mention the poor?

"Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder," Nordlund said in response to this question. "I don't totally agree with your premise that the common man avoids modern design. I think in fact that there are a lot of people who respond extremely strongly to contemporary design and artwork."

Nordlund assured me that the cathedral will have something for everyone. "This cathedral will have artwork that we think will resonate with people whose preferences are more traditional in scope," he said, "and, in fact, part of the design is to create spaces that allow for that. There are some side devotional areas, and those can take many different styles."

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