Bishop Buddy Scrapbook 1941-1945

Hurd Preaches

Eloquent Dedication Mass Sunday DEclb, Calvary, brou~ht to our days and ing place to Him, who brought I our door in all its mut tragedy, 1 peace on earth to men of good in all its divine compa.,:, on, in all will. \\'e build it in honor of Saint ib tender pleadin~s with the Joseph, builder himself, a man of heart. Defore the altar the past, 1 good will, and a man of peace. this solemn occasion of into a unitv and time and eter- dedication, our earnest prayer is nity are on;, where God and man I th~t .peace may never pass from I meet at the mournful tryst of th1:; templl' ~nd tha_t those temples\ death-God the Victim and the not made with hands-our hearts \'ictor, man the Yanquished yet and souls may enjoy the p of the redeemed in the mystical Christ which surpasses all struggle of life with death, where , tanding forever and ever. life seem death and death is only ;-;in.••• the present, the future coalesce I "On

Sermon at

"We come todar to witne , the dedication of thi, noble Cathedral, set up for the honor an

"Side by side with the altar has e,·er sttod the chair of the bishop -the Shepherd of the flock, the High Priest, in the fulness of the priesthood-the successor of the Apostles and charged, like them, with the solicitude of the churches. The altar of the priest-the chair of episcopal authority; the two have ever gone together as neces- sary, the one to the other. The two have ever dealt with sin, or rather w i th sin's annulment through pardon, for the bishop's chair is a tribunal of mercy. He is a judge who holds his courts with penitents and, through the agency of every confessional, passes sentence of grace on con- trite sinners. He is the voice of the Christian conscience, the guar- dian and conservator of the De- po~it of the Faith entrusted to his care, and the heaven-ordained e; fender of revealed trut , . . . I "In all the world today, 'where is there a principle or fore reconstruction that gives any promise of effective aid to our imperiled social system such as is identified with a1tars like this hallowed stone we set up today? Or with a bishop's chair like this which we erect in this new Cathe- dral in this city where almost two centuries ago Junipero Serra be- gan his work, and taught the men of his day and of ours the im- portance of the never changing truth. Today, then, we are assist- ing at a ceremony which, though its roots are shot down into the past, is still full of challenge and promise for the future. This no- ble Cathedral rises over a fair and prosperous city, silhouetted against the sky as a very citad.el of peace where the angels keep faith with men of good will. It rises as evidence of the vision, zeal and devotion of a remark- able prelate's belief in his people and his priests. The abundant blessing of God has brought hi to this moment of pardon le pride in the achievem t of much that tells of t iai£h labors of his episcopate -and gives so much promise of success in the future. "This dedication is an act of faith. It is a pledge that the church makes to the stability of our institutions. It is no empty rite that we enact today, no mere ceremonial form come down om We need the altar; for we need Christ, we need the shepherd or else we are a sheep astray. "In other nations war and ra- pine, fire and sword, march con- stantly forward in a program of destruction. Bombs blast away the material fabric of the church; doubt, discouragement, despair, batter away its spiritual fabric. The great Shepherd of Christen- dom sorrows for the future of his flock. But while others destroy, we build. We build this temple to the Glory of God and as the dwell- other times and other one that speaks to o awakens there a respon ·

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