Thursday, April 9, 2020

Guardian Angel Cathedral, Las Vegas

Guardian Angel Cathedral is located just off the Strip in the heart of Las Vegas. The church was built in 1963 as Guardian Angel Shrine to serve the tourists and casino workers. In 1995 the Diocese of Las Vegas was split off from the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas. This church became the cathedral for the diocese, which means it is the "home" church of the diocese's bishop. The name changed to Guardian Angel Cathedral.

I was surprised to see on their website that the church has a 2:30 Saturday Vigil Mass. I've seen 4 and 4:30 Vigil Masses that I thought were pushing the limit. The bulletin from the cathedral explains that they have a special Indult from Rome to allow the 2:30 Mass to be a Vigil Mass. With people from all over the world visiting (and the weird hours that people keep in Vegas), it's nice to have even more flexibility with fulfilling the Sunday obligation. I went to the 8 a.m. Sunday morning Mass.

The early morning sun was just behind the cathedral, giving it an interesting look.

Guardian Angel Cathedral

At the base of the outside tower is a statue of the Holy Family with a plaque at the base: "May the Holy Family bless our visitors and protect them on their journey homeward." I like the ambiguity of "homeward" which refers to both an earthly address and our heavenly abode.

Holy Family

Inside, the altar is a typical modern style.

Main altar

The cathedra, or bishop's chair, is directly behind the altar with his coat of arms right above.

The mosaic above the main altar depicts guardian angels in action. It's a bit gaudy but also joyful.

Mosaic

The crucifix is nice. The processional cross is the same (though smaller). I liked how they matched.

Crucifix

The stained glass windows follow the triangular motif throughout the cathedral. And the colorfulness too.

One of the stained glass windows

The baptismal font can do both immersion or regular baptism. The holy oils are in a triangular box at the far end.

Baptismal font

A side altar to Our Lady follows the colorfulness without the triangularity.

Chapel of Our Lady

The coats of arms of previous bishops are in the back.

Bishop's coat of arms


Bishop's coat of arms

Another side chapel has a burial area for bishops.

Grave


No comments:

Post a Comment