Today we observe the third anniversary of the death of our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. And we celebrate the dedication of the new metropolitan cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston. To add to the solemnity and joy of the occasion, the principal prelate at the dedication will be His Eminence, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston—the first bishop of any southern diocese to be given the dignity of a Cardinal. The Church divides the world into dioceses for her own administrative and pastoral purposes. Just as our nation is divided into fifty states and the District of Columbia, so the universal Church is divided into hundreds of dioceses, each one ruled by a bishop in communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. For further administrative efficiency, those dioceses are grouped into what are called metropolitan provinces. The principal diocese in the province is called an archdiocese, and its bishop becomes an archbishop.
There are about fifteen metropolitan provinces with their archdioceses and dioceses in our country. Up until very recently, only one of our American states had more than one province within its borders; that was California, with the provinces of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Now, the state of Texas also has two: San Antonio, and the new archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. Why does it have a double name? Because Galveston was the seat of a diocese when Houston didn’t even exist, but as history developed Houston grew to be a huge and very important urban area, while Galveston remained a nice, quiet little seaport town. But the Church has a long memory, and doesn’t want to demote a diocese, so she moves the seat of the diocese and its bishop to the more populous and important place, and calls the newly-organized diocese by a double name: in this case, Galveston-Houston. The old cathedral in Galveston remains a co-cathedral, the new cathedral in Houston becomes the other co-cathedral, and life goes on. The prefix “co-” in Latin means “with.” So each cathedral in the double diocese is a co-cathedral; it is a cathedral WITH the other one.
Today, the new Sacred Heart co-cathedral of Houston will be dedicated. I look forward to my next visit to Houston to see the new building, which I’ve only glimpsed from the outside about a year ago as construction was going on. And since the archbishop of Galveston-Houston has been made a Cardinal, we can expect that upon the death of our present Pope, Cardinal DiNardo will be one of the world’s cardinals who will go to Rome to elect the successor of Benedict XVI.
When I was born, the Church had had only Italian popes for about three hundred years. Since then, we have had the marvelous Polish pope, John Paul II, and currently, a brilliant German: Benedict XVI. Can we hope that in the future, the Church might have an American pope? Only the good Lord knows that. If the world lasts long enough, I suppose it will happen eventually. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.
In any case, let us be grateful for our new metropolitan cathedral in Houston, for our new American and Texan Cardinal, and for the rapid strides being made by the Church in our country. We hear a lot about the illegal immigration of Hispanics into our country and about the building of walls—both figurative and literal—to keep them out. That may be true in politics and demographics and economics, but in Church history, they may be one of God’s greatest gifts to this nation of ours. In this regard, we can appropriately pray: “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done.” Thank you for seeking God’s truth. God bless you. Father Victor Brown, O.P.
