St. Patrick Cathedral — Attraction in El Paso

Beautiful church. Well organized. Mass starts on time and the 7AM service has respectful worshippers. The problem I have is I cannot understand the priest homily. It's an English mass and English is my first language so it's not a language barrier because I can understand Decan Andy fine. But whoever the priest is he mumbles and speaks as if he is reading a newspaper to himself. There is no emotion as he speaks fast and mumbles his words. First I switched from the noon mass to morning mass because I thought it might just be too noisy. Then I seated closer to the front and still had a difficult time understanding the priest. Finally this morning I asked someone in front of me is it me or is it hard to understand him. The fellow Catholic explained that the priest is difficult to understand because sometimes he mumbles and sometimes he doesn't. The past 6 months I would have to take the bulletin home and read it just to get an idea of what the priest was explaining. I am walking distance from this church but it's important that I can at least hear the message/homily so I will find a different Catholic church...

I attended a funeral at this church for an elderly man named Rudy who was recently struck and killed right in front of this church after attending and serving this church for many years. Apparently the priest does not value it's members, especially those who are indigent like Rudy. The church priest who at first tried to ignore many requests for the service only accepted to do Rudy's service after days of pressure and eventually a warning that the churches refusal to acknowledge Rudy would be referred to the local media. The priest looked annoyed through the service and everyone at the service was shocked to witness such a dry and half hearted service. To the point where he had his staff abruptly turn off the lights and close the church right while those who attended were still sitting. We were not welcome, nor did this church value Rudy or his years of service to this church. I want to put this out there so people understand what kind of priest this is and that this church needs prayers, as those running it do not really care for...

The three best things I love about this Cathedral are the stained glass windows, the pillars, and the high altar. This makes it efficacious to know you're in a holy place. Only the Novus Ordo Missae is celebrated here but at least it's a Catholic Church so you know the True Presence is here. The Holy Tabernacle is hidden away in a side chapel but at least you know Sanctifying Grace is dispensed here. Many times the Penitential Rite is skipped in lieu of a hymn repeating "Holy Spirit" but what can you do? At practically every Mass, there is the hand holding during the Pater Noster, which is another liturgical abuse, but what can you do? During communion, you will always see "extraordinary ministers" who presume they have the right to hold the most precious Body of Christ in their hands but, again, this is the mass of the "New Order" so what can you do? At least they don't have Eucharistic dancers yet so...