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Christ on a Bun! $190 Million: That's Alotta Church

What would Jesus build? Would Jesus spend $190 million on flash and glass? From the California Catholic Daily:

According to the Oakland Tribune, the city’s rising Cathedral of Christ the Light complex is "the most expensive in American history." The complex, which includes the nuclear reactor-like church itself, chapels, a plaza, a mausoleum, a conference center, diocesan offices, "gathering places," and Bishop Allen Vigneron’s residence, is currently running about $190 million – $10 million more than the Los Angeles archdiocese’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, which opened in 2002.

What pomp, pride, and excess. But not everyone's happy about it.

Some have criticized the project, saying the money could be better spent elsewhere – on schools, for instance, or services for the poor. The diocese, however, says the monies for the cathedral ($91 million raised by last December) will not come from diocesan funds but from earmarked contributions.

Good job diocese; you've verbally exemplified your illogical puffery! Who cares where the money came from? Who cares where or in what building you worship? If you are in charge of the diocese, you are in charge of God's mission on your little piece of Earth.

God's mission is not to win architectural awards; it is love and compassion for others, perhaps just like the Vatican's Guidelines for Pastoral Care of the Road, released the day after this overspending report. The Vatican's release focuses on the "pastoral care of road users, pastoral ministry for the liberation of street women, the pastoral care of street children, and the pastoral care of the homeless."

This is exactly what $190 million could be used for.

"Neither shall they say, Lo here or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."
- Luke 17:21

Perhaps they should take some time, read their own book.