Bishop Garcia to the rescue

Leader of Monterey diocese will allow embattled cross to be moved to Catholic cemetery


Monterey Bishop Richard Garcia has come to the rescue of an embattled 20-foot-tall beachfront cross erected in 1969. The cross had become the center of controversy after vandals cut it down in September 2009 and the ACLU objected to its re-erection by the city of Monterey.

“The 20-foot cross that stood for 40 years on Del Monte Beach will be re-erected at San Carlos Cemetery in Monterey,” the Monterey County Herald reports. “Mayor Chuck Della Sala and Bishop Richard Garcia of the Diocese of Monterey announced the decision Monday at the cross's new home on cemetery property off Pearl Street near El Estero.”

The newspaper said Bishop Garcia hopes to have the cross installed in time to bless it on Good Friday. "The cross belongs here," Garcia told the Herald. "The sign of the cross leads to resurrection. Many of our forefathers and foremothers are buried here. It is a sign of our own life with our God."

“The cross originally was installed on the shore near where historians believe explorer Don Gaspar de Portola and Father Juan Crespi raised a wooden cross in December 1769 as a signal to the ship San Jose, which was expected to arrive from Mexico to resupply their overland expedition,” said the Herald. “The explorers left a message in a bottle for the ship's sailors to find.”

The cross was erected on Del Monte Beach in 1969 to celebrate the bicentennial of the founding of the city of Monterey, said the newspaper. “Vandals sawed the cross down in September, and it has been stored in a city yard during the legal wrangling that ensued over the city's proposal to restore it,” the Herald reported.

The ACLU of Northern California had objected to any plans by the city to replace the cross on municipal property, saying putting a religious symbol on government property would violate both the California and federal constitutions, the newspaper said. “The City Council, in voting to restore the marker, did so contingent on a legal defense fund being raised to defend the city against lawsuits,” the Herald reported.

Bishop Garcia seems to have resolved the dispute by agreeing to have the cross relocated at the 13.5-acre San Carlos Cemetery. “Garcia said he hoped the public will respect the fact that the cross will be on consecrated ground and that it will stand for many years at the cemetery, which is owned by the diocese,” said the Herald.

The mayor told the newspaper that labor and materials for placing the cross in the Catholic cemetery would be donated by Monterey Peninsula Engineers.

The cemetery was originally established in 1834 as San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, according to the San Carlos Cemetery website, and “is associated with the second mission founded by Father Junipero Serra… Many of the founding members of our local community are laid to rest in this historic cemetery. A succession of outdoor crypts were built in the last four decades with the largest, Our Lady of Angels (1,000 crypts), built in 1993, with a new addition (400 crypts) in 2007.”

From http://www.calcatholic.com/

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