A parody of a cross that obscures the sacrifice of Christ", "A shocking image out of place": strong reactions to the Jubilee cross installed in Glasgow Cathedral, which the Archdiocese defends to the hilt.

As the 2025 Jubilee Year begins in earnest, Catholics in the Scottish Archdiocese of Glasgow may be surprised to learn that their cathedral has become the center of an international scandal.
Indeed, a newly installed cross in the somewhat unassuming Cathedral has now earned the scorn, ridicule and horror of Catholics in the U.K., along with those further afield, including an internationally famous Fox News host and a best-selling author and columnist.

What has prompted such international concentration on Glasgow’s St. Andrew’s Cathedral? Nothing less than the Archdiocese’s Jubilee Cross, unveiled on December 29 by Archbishop William Nolan. Each diocese around the global Catholic Church has been tasked by the Vatican to place a Jubilee Cross in the Cathedral, as Catholics are urged to make special pilgrimages to the mother church of each diocese if they cannot journey to Rome itself. Such an item ought hardly to be a source of controversy or debate.

But Glasgow’s cross is without doubt an item of ecclesial furnishing which will be remembered for some time – and not favorably. Described by critics as being more akin to an LGBT-themed cross rather than anything suited for worship – and also accused of presenting a risk of “alienating the faithful” – the Jubilee cross is without doubt striking.

It comprises the markedly bright colors of the Jubilee logo on the four branches of the Greek style cross with all four branches of equal length. The Jubilee logo itself is positioned in the very center of the cross, rather than a corpus of Christ. So garish are the colors and their merging with one another than observers have suggested the Archdiocese is veering into the territory of promoting … instead of giving honor to the crucified Lord.
“It is no accident that the Bergoglians have placed their vulgar multicolored cross in the place where God was once offered fit and proper worship at a neo-gothic high altar according to the Usus Antiquior,” U.K. Deacon Nick Donnelly commented to this correspondent about the cross.

EWTN and Fox News host Raymond Arroyo quipped about the cross, asking “[w]as it sponsored by Milton Bradley? Why must every new initiative of the church jettison the rich visual legacy of Catholicism for plastique, childish confections?”

The Glasgow Archdiocese stated publicly that the cross was specially commissioned, and would be in situ for 12 months, the entirety of the Jubilee Year.
“In Glasgow a new cross has been created which will be placed above the Archbishop’s ‘cathedra’ or chair on the rear wall of the sanctuary behind the altar throughout the Holy Year,” the social media announcement read. Further explaining the cross, the Archdiocese wrote that:
'It will be a Greek cross (each arm of equal length) made of wood with the traditional symbols of St Mungo (bird, fish, bell and tree) represented at the extremities of the cross while at the centre the symbol of the 2025 Jubilee will feature bearing the image of ‘Pilgrims of Hope’.

This is an excerpt from an article taken from: https://newdailycompass.com/