Spanish cardinal: Cathedrals should be special places of Christian activity

Madrid, Spain, Apr 19, 2006 / 22:00 pm

The Archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, said this week that Spain’s cathedrals should be special places of Christian formation and stressed that they should be used as a starting point for the re-evangelization of society.

During a series of reflections on the Cathedral as a “place of evangelization and a means of social communication,” the cardinal warned that today’s society has turned its back on God and in response to the negative consequences of this, the Church should “respond by cultivating the expression of God in those places that are most suitable for it.”

One such place is the Cathedral, he said, which has lost its identity in recent years.  Cathedrals are an expression of the reality of the “Church as mother,” and should be places where “new sons and daughters of the Church should be born,” he said.

More than places of adoration, the cardinal continued, Cathedrals should be places of Christian initiation, and that special “attention to the celebration of the liturgy to ensure that the Eucharist is the center of our Cathedrals” should be a priority.  He also said priests there should always be readily available for confessions.

Regarding music, the cardinal said “compositions that offer the diocesan community quality music and content of faith” should be dug out of the archives.  He also encouraged guided tours of the Cathedrals “in order to evangelize through art.”