[Catholic Caucus] First cathedral built after Vatican II celebrates 50th anniversary

Aletia ^ | May 30, 2021 | JP Mauro

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[Catholic Caucus] First cathedral built after Vatican II celebrates 50th anniversary

The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption was the first cathedral built with the Second Vatican Council in mind.

The debates over design were compounded by innovations suggested by the Second Vatican Council. The council made many proposals for reform, but among them was a call to bring a “noble simplicity” to church design. Taking inspiration from the council, St. Mary’s architects heeded the call of Pope Paul VI.

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A picture is worth a thousand words.

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Ping

[FatherofFive]

I really don’t see how that qualifies as a Cathedral

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How about Mahoney's cathedral in Los Angeles:

[irishjuggler]

Yes, it’s bad. Yes, it’s hideous. But then Mahony and the L.A. archdiocese said, “Hold our beer” and came up with 3 or 4 times worse.

[fishtank]

It makes a great moon of Endor shield generator, too.

[Bookshelf]

The idea was to simply, and not to make offensive.

[KarlInOhio]

One problem with both this article and the home page of the cathedral (http://smcsf.org/) is that they don't give any sense of scale. The picture posted here could be of a small office building or an immense structure.

I went to google's map page and took some measurements. The front of the cathedral show is 260 feet and the raised roof section (can't really call it a steeple) is a cross shape 130 feet across.

[KarlInOhio]

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cathedral+of+Saint+Mary+of+the+Assumption/@37.7843874,-122.4261971,157m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1

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I don’t see any cross.

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Pre VC II

Post VC II:

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Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston:

Pre VC II

Post VC II

[Don W]

Post looks positively SOVIET!

[who_would_fardels_bear]

The above ground bomb shelter. The only beautiful part are the crypts beneath the church done up mostly in white marble.

The ironic thing is that this monstrosity is at the corner of Grand and Temple.

[KarlInOhio]

1. I was referring to the oddly curve section on top of the building. If you look from above it is cross shaped and I was measuring across it. I don't know if the shape was intentional or an architectural accident.

2. Post 9 does show a regular cross mounted on top.

My original parish church was built in 1970. The pews surrounded the altar in about a 120 degree arc and had abstract patterns in rough cut stained glass windows. More than anything it reminded me of the circular baseball parks of the early 1970s with the raised area around the altar as the infield. The nuns did not like it called Riverfront Church after the stadium in Cincinati.

I don't know if this cathedral's problem is Vatican II or just bad architecture of the 1960s.