Cost of Cathedral

Re “Cathedral Cost Now Estimated at $102 Million,” March 5: Has Cardinal Roger Mahony lost what little common sense or moral conscience that he still possesses? The $102-million cathedral project is certainly a match for his massive ego.

There should be outrage in every pew and pulpit in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It is time for rank-and-file Catholics to pull the financial plug on Mahony’s cathedral of the absurd. Every parish should refuse to pay its yearly assessment to the archdiocese until this project is canceled.

JOSEPH F. QUESENBERRY

Los Angeles

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As a Catholic, I find it sad that Cardinal Mahony justifies the over $100 million to be spent on the new cathedral by saying that nobody complains about the amount being spent for the Getty Center and the sports arena (March 6).

Week after week at church, we are told to go beyond the worldly priorities that surround us, yet the cardinal thinks that the church’s spending should be held to no higher standards than the ludicrous fiscal madness of the sports world. And this, at the very time when I receive a plea in the mail from the cardinal to assist our poorer brethren parishes in the archdiocese through its Together in Mission campaign. To paraphrase, “Cardinal, heal thyself.”

VICTOR TRIPPETTI

Los Angeles