A different kind of Catholic

Mary Beth P. Adomaitis For the Coastline Pilot

“If you’re going in the wrong direction, God allows a U-turn.”

This outgoing message left on the answering machine of the Cathedral

Chapel of St. Francis By-The-Sea basically sums up what the 69-year-old

Laguna Beach church is all about.

“St. Francis loved everything God created, all the real brothers,

sisters and all the real children,” said the Most Rev. Simon Talarczyk,

archbishop of the American Catholic Church in California, which oversees

the Laguna Beach church. “We like helping human beings as much as we can,

so that’s the reason for the chapel being open to the public.”

While most of the beliefs are the same, the American Catholic Church

is autonomous of the Roman Catholic Church. It doesn’t recognize the pope

as its head and allows priests to marry and earn a living.

Talarczyk, 74, has been the head and Primate of St.

Francis-By-The-Sea, which is the only one of its denomination in

California, since 1971. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in Rome

in 1954 but converted to American Catholicism and came to St. Francis

By-The-Sea in 1967. He taught at Orange Coast College from 1966-76 and

became a founding instructor at Coastline Community College in 1976 where

he taught for five more years. He also was a Latin and English teacher

for the Garden Grove Unified School District.

“We do have a Roman Catholic service on Sundays, but there are very

few [American Catholic Churches] around,” the archbishop said.

The Most Rev. Joseph Rene Vilatte was founder and first archbishop of

the American Catholic Church, which made its way to the United States in

1915. The church’s ancestry dates back to the Syrian Church of Antioch,

founded by St. Peter, in about 88 A.D.

The Cathedral Chapel of St. Francis By-The-Sea on Park Avenue is just

that -- a cathedral because it holds a bishop’s throne called a cathedra.

The chapel was built with rubble from the 1933 Long Beach earthquake,

under the direction of the Most Rev. Percy Wise Clarkson, as a means of

ministering to the community. Clarkson also founded St. Mary’s Episcopal

Church, located next door, in 1922 before he converted to American

Catholicism.

At one time, in the 1980s, St. Francis By-The-Sea was listed in the

Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest Catholic cathedral in the

world, seating only about 48 people. The church itself is 60 feet long

and 17 feet wide and is a favorite spot for weddings, baptisms and

memorial services. And because the church itself is so small, so is its

staff. Richard Norris is the only other staff member at the cathedral.

For 19 years, this retired concert pianist has been St. Francis’ organist

and director of music, not to mention gardener and sometimes even

secretary.

“I came here on Christmas morning 1983, and I came back the following

Sunday,” he said, “and I’ve never left.”

Norris, 74, said when he came to his first service, he realized there

was an organ in the chapel but no one to play it. So, after 30 years of

touring such places as Europe as an interpreter of Liszt and Chopin, he

came home to play the organ at St. Francis By-The-Sea. He was an organist

years earlier during a stint in the Army.

Norris knows this chapel inside and out. He proudly shows off the

tablets on the wall that represent the stations of the cross, as well as

overhead painted wood beams, stucco walls and stained glass windows that

shine light on the 16 pews. Mass, he said, is celebrated only on Sunday

mornings in the traditional Roman Catholic manner -- with Talarczyk

facing east and his back toward the congregation. But one of Norris’

most proud moments was talking about this chapel’s historical value.

“In 1990, it was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places by

the United States Department of Interior,” he said. “Now, they can never

tear this place down.”

But in 1993, it almost was. Because the building did not meet the

codes for earthquake safety, the city was going to demolish it unless

funds could be raised for an extensive retrofitting. After many donations

the chapel was upgraded in 1994.

The chapel’s congregation, which has never been counted because the

cathedral doesn’t require membership, comes from not only all over Orange

County, but the country and world too. A guest book at the church’s

entrance keeps record of the visitors.

“We are here to service the public and to help with their spiritual

needs,” Talarczyk said.

FYI

Mass is held at 9 a.m. every Sunday at the Cathedral Chapel of St.

Francis By-The-Sea, 430 Park Ave., Laguna Beach. (949) 497-4678.