Cathedral Funds Would Have Better Served the Poor

The church of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with a “cathedra� (a bishop’s official throne) (“How the Cathedral Will Become ‘Catholic,’ � Aug. 20). There is no throne except the throne of God, and he has no earthly building, but dwells in the heart of every Christian: “Do you [Christians] not know that you are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwells in you?� (1 Cor. 3:16). A physical building has no significance except as a convenient place to assemble. Jesus said that the place of worship does not matter, but rather “worship in spirit and truth� (John 4:21-24).

This cathedral is largely about expense and ostentation, hierarchy and hullabaloo. Especially when perhaps the majority of the area’s Catholics are needy immigrants and their children, the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars on a building is truly obscene.

GENEVA SHELTON

Hawthorne