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Westminster Cathedral in London is the mother church of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The site on which the cathedral stands in the City of Westminster was purchased by the Archdiocese of Westminster in 1885.〔(Sacred Destinations: Westminster Cathedral )〕 Westminster Cathedral is the largest Catholic church in England and Wales and the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster. John Betjeman called it "a masterpiece in striped brick and stone in an intricate pattern of bonding, the domes being all-brick in order to prove that the good craftsman has no need of steel or concrete."〔Betjeman on English Architecture, Penguin 1974, p.95〕 ==History== In the late 19th century, the Catholic Church's hierarchy had only recently been restored in England and Wales, and it was in memory of Cardinal Wiseman (who died in 1865, and was the first Archbishop of Westminster from 1850) that the first substantial sum of money was raised for the new cathedral. The land was acquired in 1884 by Wiseman's successor, Cardinal Manning, having previously been occupied by the second Tothill Fields Bridewell prison. After two false starts in 1867 (under architect Henry Clutton) and 1892 (architect Baron von Herstel), construction started in 1895 under Manning's successor, the third archbishop Cardinal Vaughan with John Francis Bentley as architect, and built in a style heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture.〔(Westminster Cathedral Piazza ) from ''London Gardens Online'' retrieved 16 May 2013〕 The cathedral opened in 1903, a year after Bentley's death. One of the first public services in the cathedral was Cardinal Vaughan's requiem; the Cardinal died on 19 June 1903. For reasons of economy, the decoration of the interior had hardly been started and still much remained to be completed. Under the laws of the Catholic Church at the time, no place of worship could be consecrated unless free from debt and having its fabric completed, so the consecration ceremony did not take place until 28 June 1910. In 1977, as part of her Silver Jubilee Celebrations, the cathedral was visited by Queen Elizabeth II. Although there was no religious service (the visit was to a flower show) it was highly symbolic as the first visit of a reigning monarch of the United Kingdom to a Catholic church in the nation since the Reformation. On 28 May 1982, the first day of his six-day pastoral visit to the United Kingdom, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in the cathedral. In 1995, at the invitation of Cardinal Basil Hume, the cathedral was again visited by Elizabeth II but this time for a liturgy, the first participation of a reigning monarch of the United Kingdom in a Catholic church liturgy for several years. On Saturday 18 September 2010, on the third day of his four-day state visit to the United Kingdom, Pope Benedict XVI also celebrated Mass in the cathedral. In January 2011 the cathedral was the venue for the reception and ordination of three former Anglican bishops〔("Ex-Anglican bishops ordained as Catholics ), BBC〕 into the newly formed Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Westminster Cathedral」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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