I appreciate being pinged to these threads about Mahoney's Cathedral, but I just can't get worked up about it. Since it was financed privately and not on the backs on Los Angelenos, I find little to complain about as far as costs are concerned. Five or so years ago, a $100 million monstrosity was built in some third-world country amid absolute squalor, and the Pope defended its construction. Personally, that kind of money spent on a building dedicated to the One who had nowhere to lay is head is scandalous, to me.
As to the architecture itself, I prefer the cross-shaped churches, but much simpler. This Cathedral looks horrid from the outside, but not bad once inside.