ATM is unsurprising addition to controversial Los Angeles cathedral

ATM is unsurprising addition to controversial Los Angeles cathedral

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Tags: Retail / Off-Premise
9/6/02

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LOS ANGELES -- Not surprisingly, the gift shop at the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels has an ATM, according to an Associated Press report.

The gift shop at the controversial $190 million cathedral sells $24.99 bottles of Our Lady of the Angels chardonnay, among other keepsakes.

Cardinal Roger Mahony has taken heat for the cathedral's price and the cost for everything from parking to crypt space, which is being sold to help fund the structure's upkeep.

One Los Angeles Times columnist called it the Rog Mahal. Others have dubbed it the Taj Mahony.

"I have never heard of this practice before of selling crypts under a cathedral,' said Lawrence Cunningham, a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. "It's kind of like selling sky boxes.'

But many who attended Sept. 4's dedication said the trinkets and parking fee -- up to $12 -- did not detract from their experience.

Barbara and Tom Warda purchased a $24 coffee table book in the gift shop. "We really do feel it is a donation,' Tom Warda said.

The couple said the souvenir -- like the rosary beads they purchased on a pilgrimage to Catholic cathedrals in Spain and Italy last summer -- are a remembrance.

The commercial offerings grew out of Mahony's promise not to charge the parishes "one dime for the construction or maintenance' of the new cathedral, said Tod Tamberg, director of media relations for the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

Tamberg said he believed the decision to sell crypt space in the cathedral's mausoleum -- for $50,000 to $3 million -- was unique. But he said he has never seen any cathedral in the world that did not have a gift shop.

"People visit a cathedral and if they are moved by it, they want to take something back with them. That is really what we wanted to provide," Tamberg said.

Theologians and a leading liturgical consultant agree that it would be virtually impossible for the church to separate itself entirely from economic forces.

"There is always a little bit of commercialization of sacred shrines and holy places,' said the Rev. Thomas Rausch, a Jesuit priest and professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University in Marina del Rey. He said people travel from around the world to buy vials of holy water from Lourdes in France, for example.

"If a cathedral is at the heart of a community ... the life of the community in all its various manifestations will be exhibited there,' Rausch said.