Cathedral

The woman wailed outside the ruins of Cathedrale de Notre-Dame de Port-au-Prince, the Roman Catholic cathedral that symbolized Haiti's religious fervor. "This is what God did!" she cried Friday morning. "See what God can do!" Tuesday's earthquake brought down the roof of the enormous pink-and-cream cathedral, filling the apse and nave with tons of rubble. The quake punched out its vivid stained-glass windows, twisted its wrought-iron fencing and sliced brick walls like cake. The western steeple, which had soared more than 100 feet in the sky, toppled onto parishioners praying at an outdoor shrine to St. Emmanuel.

On Aug, 24, 2011, the earthquake that jolted the East Coast from Georgia to Quebec rattled through the bricks, plaster and paint of one of Baltimore's architectural jewels, the Basilica of the Assumption, sending nearly 1,000 linear feet of cracks through its ceilings and walls. On Sunday, as Christians worldwide commemorate the resurrection of Christ on Easter, the 207-year-old cathedral, too, will enjoy a rebirth. Construction workers have put the finishing touches on a seven-month, $3 million restoration job, and Sunday morning's Mass will mark the formal reopening.

Pub Date: 4/23/97

Three deer scurried past the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen as Steve Thomas and his wife, Debbie, arrived for Sunday Mass to celebrate the new spiritual leader for Roman Catholics worldwide, Pope Francis. The symbolism struck the Arbutus man, who said the recently elected pontiff sent a message to the faithful in his choice to take the name of the 12th century saint Francis of Assisi, known for his love of animals and for embracing a life of poverty. "We need to get back to basics," said Thomas, master of the Maryland district for the Knights of Columbus.

Not so long ago, you couldn't see the cathedral for the trees.The Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation, at the northwest corner of St. Paul Street and University Parkway, has been regarded as one of the more impressive religious structures in the Baltimore area since its construction 60 years ago.However, until some recent remodeling and landscaping, the church was concealed by a brick wall and a stretch of trees along St. Paul Street."

Chase-Brexton Clinic Inc. said it will buy the 20,000-square-foot office building at 1001 Cathedral St. by the end of the month, giving the city's second-biggest AIDS clinic needed expansion space and generating a new use for a building that had been foreclosed upon."

A jewel-studded, silver chalice was stored in a safe at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation on East University Parkway, kept out of view so no one would be tempted to steal it.But the strategy failed.In the course of telling the police about an office break-in that occurred over the weekend, church officials checked the safe on Monday and discovered the chalice had disappeared.The cup was silver and adorned with diamonds, topaz and amethysts, according to a police report."We don't use these items for precisely this reason," said the Very Rev. Van H. Gardner, dean of the cathedral, referring to the risk of theft.

To passersby on the tree-lined streets of Northwest Washington, the web-like scaffolding that surrounds the Washington Cathedral seems as permanent as the structure itself. Begun in 1907, the august cathedral has always been a work in progress, destined to remain forever unfinished.But no more! Late this month -- consecration ceremonies are scheduled Sept. 28-30 -- the cathedral will be a work completed, its scaffolding torn down.This article, by a free-lance Baltimore historian, tours some of the cathedral's thousands of carvings, not all of them saintly.

There's a sad irony involving the Cathedral Street building that was selected as the new home for Chase-Brexton Health Services Inc.In the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was the home of Girard's, one of the most sophisticated discos Baltimore had ever seen -- the local equivalent of New York's Studio 54.Now, as the headquarters of Chase-Brexton, it's home for Maryland's largest community-based provider of HIV-related health care.And many of the people who go there now for care were once patrons of the well-known nightclub.

Parishioners of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Mary Our Queen will celebrate on Saturday the rehabilitation of a fifth vacant house in as many years.The improvements are to a house in a blighted North Baltimore neighborhood that parishioners adopted in 1989.Working with the St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center and the Pen Lucy Improvement Association, the parishioners have held to their schedule of renovating and selling at a modest price one vacant, single-family house a year in the 600 block of Cator Ave.Renovation of the fifth house, at 612 Cator Ave., was completed last month, and it is now for sale.

Archbishop William E. Lori will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving next week for the papacy of Benedict XVI, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced Friday. The Mass is planned for 5 p.m. Feb. 23 at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, spokesman Sean Caine said. It will be open to the public; tickets will not be required. Benedict, 85, said this week that he would step down at the end of the month after nearly eight years as spiritual leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics. He became the first pope to resign voluntarily since Clementine V in 1294.

Yet another downtown commercial building is being converted to apartments. The red-brick building at 300 Cathedral St., known as Odd Fellows Hall, is currently being refurbished by a Washington-based developer, Broadwater Capital LLC, the Downtown Partnership said in a statement Monday. The building will contain 59 market-rate apartments and will begin leasing next summer, the partnership said. It is situated between West Pleasant and West Saratoga streets. “There continues to be a significant demand for professionals to move closer to their work and 300 Cathedral's proximity to Baltimore's City Center, Mount Vernon and the Westside provides tenants a Class-A living space that is within walking distance to major businesses, the Inner Harbor, Medical Centers and local restaurants,”  said Ahmad Hajj, a principal with Broadwater Capital, in the partnership's statement . Broadwater purchased the 72,000 square foot building in September for $1.1 million, according to state tax records.

Monsignor James Vincent Hobbs, former rector of the Basilica of the Assumption who during his tenure oversaw a two-year, $32 million restoration of the 200-year-old structure, died Monday of cardiac arrest at his Thurmont home. He was 81. James Vincent Hobbs was born and raised in Thurmont, where his father owned a grocery store and his mother was proprietor of a hardware store. He attended Frederick County public schools as an elementary school student before entering St. Anthony's parochial school in Emmitsburg.

Mercy High School conducted its 2012 graduation ceremony on June 6 at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore. The following are members of the Class of 2012: Brooke Nicole Agenllo, Danielle Rae Agnello, Shannon Leigh Aikens, Karley Elizabeth Ames, Ty'Aunna Trevae Dennis Armstead, Jasmine Tamera Armstrong, Faryn Nikole Ash Abigail Christine Baker, Emily Taylor Borkowski, Margaret Irene Bortner, Rachel Nicole Bourne, Caroline Ross...

They remembered Mary-Marguerite Kohn's enthusiasm and service, even her style - one mourner recalled "a large, bright yellow brimmed hat, terrific dangling earrings. " There was hardly an empty seat Tuesday inside the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore, as family, friends, colleagues and congregants packed a memorial service for Kohn, who died from gunshot wounds sustained from a Thursday shooting at her church in Ellicott City. Kohn, 62, the church's co-rector, and Brenda Brewington, 59, the church's administrative assistant, were shot inside St. Peter's Episcopal Church offices.

Norman Henley, a retired Russian-language and world literature teacher and academic editor, died of congestive heart failure at the Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville. He was 96 and had earlier lived in Remington and Charles Village. Born in Auburndale, Mass., he earned a bachelor of arts degree at Boston University. He then studied at Andover-Newton Theological School and the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif. While a student in Boston, he worked as a hospital orderly and assisted in the care of the injured in the 1942 Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire.

Washington -- The National Cathedral offers European tradition with a New World twist. From stained glass embedded with a moon rock to a gargoyle of Darth Vader, there's no question the church in northwest Washington is as American as apple pie.But with flying buttresses and soaring towers, it just happens to look as Old World as Notre Dame.Cathedrals sometimes elicit yawns from tourists, but this one has so many intriguing details even children will be fascinated.There's the corner dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, with shiny pennies embedded in the floor.

I would appreciate information on cathedral tours in Cologne, Aachen, Mainz, Speyer and Freiburg, Germany.Tours are available at the cathedrals in the five cities you mention. Individuals who are not in tour groups are free to enter the cathedrals during open hours.A guided tour of the Cologne Cathedral, which took more than 600 years to build (it was completed in 1880), may be arranged at Domforum, 3 Domkloster, 50667 Cologne, (49 221) 9258 4730. Tours for individuals with English- or German-speaking guides cost about $50 an hour.

Stanley F. Stearns, the photographer who captured the image of a young John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his late father, a picture that instantly evokes memories of the Camelot era, died of lung cancer Friday at Hospice of the Chesapeake in Harwood, his family said. He was 76. A former United Press International photographer who later ran a studio for 40 years in his native Annapolis, Mr. Stearns snapped the president's son outside a Washington cathedral as the family left the funeral Mass on Nov. 25, 1963.