LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A $10 million donation from News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch will be used to build a conference center for the $163 million Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, currently under construction.
The donation from the Murdoch Family Foundation was announced Thursday by Cardinal Roger Mahony.The structures "will serve the people of Southern California as a whole," said Murdoch, who is not Catholic. "Cardinal Mahony's vision for this beautiful new cathedral and all that goes with it deserves everybody's support."
The 3,000-seat cathedral complex, scheduled to open in 2001, will include a landscaped plaza, meditation garden, conference center and a 24,000-square-foot residence for Mahony, resident clergy and visitors.
The cathedral will replace tiny St. Vibiana's Cathedral, which was closed after suffering damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.