A Cathedral with an Identity Crisis

Today I visited a place that probably should not exist – Salt Lake City’s Catholic Cathedral. I say it shouldn’t exist because it’s Salt Lake City, but then again, I have been surprised, to say the least, by my first trip to this city. You see, one thinks of the place as a haven for the bizarre LDS (Mormons). And it is true that the Mormons do have an outsized presence here. But it has been clear to me in just 24 hours that SLC is something akin to Austin in Texas – the ultra liberal outlier in a somewhat conservative state.

For instance, my wife and I went out to dinner today for our anniversary. I asked the woman at the front desk for recommendations. She sent us to a trendy restaurant covered in the garish flag with the multiple colors. But I digress…

The Cathedral of the Madeleine claims to be the only cathedral in the US named after Mary Magdalene. The cathedral was dedicated in 1909 and possesses all the beauty it should for that time period. The stained glass windows in particular are quite impressive, depicting the glorious and joyful mysteries of the rosary. Of course, in the 1990’s the bishop of this place “brought the cathedral in line with Vatican II”. That’s a quote from the pamphlet they have in the back of the church. It simply means he attempted to wreck the place. Somehow he did not totally succeed. What he did (at least to my perception) was to wall off the original sanctuary with a chancel screen to create a “Eucharistic chapel” while building a new altar out in the center of the transept. He also commissioned a local artist to make new stations. The only thing is that there are way more than 14 of these in the church. Again, according to the pamphlet, they wanted to follow the stations that were “approved by the Vatican” in 1975. These are not rightly stations but rather the whole of the Passion and thus include the 14 stations. The artist apparently thought that making Our Lord look like an extra in the Planet of the Apes was a great tribute.

Take a look for yourself.