Holy Family Cathedral, Anchorage
Downtown Anchorage
Fifth Avenue and H Street
Anchorage, AK 99501
Phone: 907-276-3455
Pastor: Reverend Francis Hung Le, OP
Website: www.holyfamilycathedral.org/hfc/
DirectionsThe Cathedral, the central or mother church of the Archdiocese, is the Archbishop's church. The word cathedral is derived from the Greek noun καθηρα (cathedra) which translates as seat and refers to the presence of the bishop's (or archbishop's) chair or throne. In this sense therefore, the word cathedral, although colloquially used as a noun, is in fact the adjective of the proper term cathedral church, from the Latin ecclesia cathedralis (where "church" is the operative word). The seat marks the place set aside in the prominent church of the diocese for the head of that diocese and is therefore a major symbol of the authority of the Archbishop as head of the church.
Benedict XVI has explained that 'cathedra' literally means the established seat of the bishop, located in the mother church of a diocese, which for this reason is called 'cathedral,' and is the symbol of the authority of the Bishop and, in particular, of his 'magisterium,' that is, of the evangelical teaching that he, insofar as a successor of the Apostles, is called to guard and transmit to the Christian community.
