Church #32 - Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, Providence

With my excellent sense of timing, I came here the day after the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. The cathedral has a noon Mass on weekdays that's by far the most well-attended daily Mass I've been to. This makes sense given the Cathedral's proximity to all the workers downtown on their lunch breaks, not to mention all the employees of the Diocese who work in the adjoining buildings. It was very cool sitting before the start of Mass and watching everyone coming in. You definitely get a sense of the church's diversity compared to a typical Mass, with virtually all ages and races represented in the congregation.

The church has recently received some restorations (particularly the cleaning of its windows) and it looks great inside, as befits the flagship church of the Diocese. There are two sets of presider's chairs: one facing forward behind the altar, and the other off to the side. I'm guessing that the one facing front is reserved for the Bishops themselves, or maybe just for Sunday Masses. There's also a truly epic organ, possibly the biggest I've ever seen.

I never gave too much thought to why Sts. Peter and Paul would be celebrated together, but the priest at Mass on the day before mentioned it during his sermon. Peter specialized in preaching to the Jews (aka his own kind of people, and people within his own church), while Paul specialized in spreading the Gospel to outsiders (aka the secular world). The church now is still called to both of these aspects of preaching and bearing witness.

The tomb of Bishop Hendricken

As usual when I'm in a church close to the start of Mass, I felt very self conscious about walking around and taking pictures, and hopefully I didn't bother anyone. I didn't dare try to get up into the balcony - if I'm going to get in trouble for doing something like that, I'd rather it not be in the Bishop's own personal church.