Modern design, $190 million price tag draw attention to Catholic church in Oakland

OAKLAND

A maze of wooden planks and glass panes is gradually taking shape among the austere office buildings of downtown Oakland.

To passers-by puzzling over the structure alternately described as a bee hive, an inverted basket or a nuclear reactor, only an inconspicuous sign on a fence offers a clue that this curious complex will soon be one of the nation's most ambitious -- and expensive -- religious sites.

When it's completed in fall of 2008, the

$190 million Cathedral of Christ the Light will be the centerpiece of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, which lost its old cathedral to the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The project already has drawn attention for its high cost and modernist design.

More than 1,000 sheets of glass will cloak a Douglas fir skeleton, forming a luminous 12-story dome inspired by the fish shape known as the Vesica Piscis, an ancient symbol of Christianity.

In addition to the 1,300-seat cathedral itself, the 2?-acre site will house the diocesan offices, bishop's residence, a conference center and a garden plaza that will be open to the public. Within the 60,000-ton concrete foundation -- built to protect the structure against another earthquake -- lies a mausoleum designed for 2,700 crypts and urns.

The cost estimate was $131 million in 2003, when the design was chosen, but that later rose to $190 million after officials accounted for inflation and construction costs not initially included.

The concept for Christ the Light was part of a building boom among Catholic dioceses around 2000, when about two dozen cathedral renovation or construction projects were underway nationwide, said Duncan Stroik, an architecture professor at Notre Dame University who specializes in cathedral design.

But building slowed as dioceses became mired in priest sex abuse settlements that have forced some into bankruptcy. The Oakland diocese took out a loan to cover half its $56.4 million settlement with 56 sex abuse victims in 2005. The cathedral, however, was financed by donations solicited specifically for the project, a separate pool from the money used to settle those cases, officials said.

Bishop Allen Vigneron, whose diocese serves more than 500,000 parishioners, envisions Christ the Light generating "new energy for us as a church community."

"The cathedral is an occasion and catalyst for the rededication of Catholics of the East Bay," he said.

Some say a better catalyst would have been spending the money on other community-improvement projects, such as building new schools or combatting violence in a city that saw a 57 percent spike in homicides last year.

"Should we give to organizations that help people daily or to a facade that to me is embarrassing and a disgrace?" Virginia Everist, a parishioner from Moraga, wrote in a letter to the diocese newspaper.

Vigneron points out that the cathedral funds are separate from the $350 million the diocese spends annually on social services.

Still, the diocese came under fire in January when it announced the fundraising campaign for a new Catholic high school in Livermore would be temporarily halted to allow officials to focus on raising money for the cathedral's completion. Just over $100 million had been pledged to the cathedral as of June, officials said.

The cost may seem high, until it's compared to other community projects such as museums or sports stadiums, said Richard Kieckhefer, a Northwestern University religion professor who authored "Theology in Stone: Church Architecture from Byzantine to Berkeley."

The De Young Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park carried the same price tag when it opened to much acclaim in 2005, and a new ballpark for the Athletics in Fremont is projected to cost $500 million.

"You have to judge a cathedral differently from an ordinary parish church," Kieckhefer said. "It stands as a cultural work that can provide a source of beauty and inspiration for the general public."

Vigneron said a grand cathedral also could generate interest and investment in the church.

"Beauty is one of the principle qualities of God's own being," Vigneron said. "The cathedral is a testament that there's a reason to hope."

That beauty, however, is another point of contention.

Light is the central focus here, bathing visitors in filtered sunshine by day and glowing against an urban backdrop by night.