[Bell Historians] Birmingham RC Cath

[Carl S Zimmerman]

David Cawley seems to have drawn inferences which I did not intend to 
imply in my reply to David Hird's question.  I was attempting to 
demonstrate concisely how the appellation of "basilica" (which DC had 
clearly explained) is usually attached to the titles of RC cathedrals 
and churches in my experience.  I intended to imply that the question 
of what a basilica is has nothing to do with the question of 
cathedral versus church.  (Perhaps that implication was 
unsuccessful.)  But nothing that I wrote had anything to do with why 
a particular place is or is not a cathedral, and I am at a loss to 
understand why DC thinks that I ignore his lucid expositions on this 
or other topics.

As to the question of "major" vs "minor" vs "patriarchal", I relied 
on the reasonably authoritative-looking source which Google found for 
me at www.gcatholic.com/churches/bas.htm - see their definitions of 
terminology at the bottom of that page.  If instead I had found 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica, I would have found that the hierarchy 
of basilican designations is far more complex than I could have 
imagined, or than DC has indicated.  Curiously, that Wikipedia page 
references the same Giga-Catholic page using the title "List of All 
Major, Patriarchal and Minor Basilicas."  Regardless of the 
classification system used, that seems to be a good reference for the 
titles of basilicas throughout the world, whether they be cathedral, 
church or otherwise.  Finally, the Wikipedia article also references 
an article in the Catholic Encylopedia, wherein "major" is apparently 
equated to "patriarchal", and extends beyond the four great churches 
of Rome.

I make no defense of the strange things that some non-Catholic 
Americans do with the word "cathedral".  Additional examples that 
could be cited include the Crystal Cathedral in California 
(non-denominational, but initially organized as a Reformed church) 
with its Eijsbouts major-third carillon, and the New Refuge 
Deliverance Cathedral in Baltimore (non-denominational, in a building 
which was formerly an Episcopal church) with its concert-pitch 
13-bell McShane chime.

Carl