The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston dedicated its new cathedral today:
The three-hour consecration of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart started this morning with elaborately uniformed members of the Knights of Columbus lining up at the front doors of downtown’s newest house of worship.
The 23 bells in the bell tower began to ring and a procession of about 200 Roman Catholic deacons, 300 priests, 50 bishops, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo and visiting cardinals entered the $49 million co-cathedral.
As the deacons and priests walked from the nearby Cathedral Centre, many used their cell phones to take photos of the procession and the new building.
Waiting inside were the 2,000 invited guests who began arriving at 10 a.m. when the mahogany doors opened. The more than 100 choir members, who had arrived even earlier, greeted the procession in song.
The Chronicle’s coverage has been excellent, including a great photo spread. It’s truly a beautiful church, and I can’t wait for it to see regular use.
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What is a co-cathederal? I am assuming it means that this church has 2?
A co-cathedral is a cathedral church which shares the honor of being a bishop’s seat, or cathedra, with another cathedral.
The two cathdrals in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Hoeuston are this new one and the one in Galveston, which was one of the few buildings to survive the 1900 storm
Is the Catholic Church seeing an upsurge in membership in the Galveston-Houston area, or is this a result of slow steady growth? Either way, it gladdens my soul to see the Catholic Church getting good press and seeing success in this area.
I think it’s slow, steady growth throughout the Archdiocese, plus booming growth downtown.
The co-cathedral isn’t just the seat of the Archdiocese…it’s also a local parish just like any other. And with all the new residential development downtown and in midtown, that parish has seen major growth. Sacred Heart Parish has outgrown the old co-cathedral. Just a few years ago, it had a few hundred families. Now it’s up to more than 2,000 families.
I’ll be very interested to see what the archdiocese does with the old church. I have no idea what the plans are (or even if the plans have been made yet), but I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets knocked down to make way for offices and/or parking.
I took confession in the old cathedral last year before Easter. It’s old, but beautiful inside. I would love for the Church to either find a way to use the stained glass windows and statuary elsewhere, or auction them off and use the money to better the archdiocese.
On another note, my parents were members of Sacred Heart years ago, before I was born. Though I never participated in mass there, I feel like it’s part of my family history. It’s kinda sad to see it go. But it will probably come down - it has code problems (another reason for building the new cathedral). My plumber husband has the inside scoop on some of that info.
As far as I know the old church will be torn down to make room for a new parish center & parking.
I watched a programme last week which showed the building of the Church and the Beautiful Statues. May we wish a blessing on Houston for the addition of the wonderful building. Congrats Houston-Galveston
Back in the 1950’s, one of our family’s rare treats was to drive up Telephone Road to Sacred Heart for Sunday Mass, then walk across the street to the Union Station cafe and have breakfast. The water in that cafe was some of the best tasting water I can remember {Pancakes & French Toast were very good, too}. Unfortunately, the water was probably that tasty due to the lead water pipes…