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Holy Name Cathedral’s Church will remain closed through July. At the weekly meeting I attended on April 11 with the quarterback from Wiss, Janney, Elster Associates, the structural engineering firm on whom we are relying; the other trades representatives; officials from the Archdiocese, and Cathedral staffers, I heard the sad news that the solution to our unique structural problem is necessarily being tested and installed at a excruciatingly careful pacmsg08Apr20e. Workers are here six days a week tending to fixes that we know need to be accomplished. Still, the critical solution crawls along. Consequently, we have contacted all bridal parties and all representatives of special events through July to tell them that the Cathedral will not be available. Weddings keep their Cathedral contacts – a priest or deacon. All weddings have alternative sites. August weddings also have a safety-net site and a promise that we will give them a final word by June 13. Let me ask the parishioners now for five things - (1) prayers; (2) resolve to keep coming to Mass on the weekend; we are stronger when you are here; (3) appreciation for the staff, the Parish Council, and all who are working overtime to make the weekends prayerful and joyful; (4) patience; and (5) more prayers! We have been away from our place of prayer since a piece of the pretty ceiling fell on February 12. I eagerly wait to announce the day we can celebrate our return to the beautiful and strong Holy Name Cathedral. Loyola University has made a gracious offer to Holy Name Cathedral. Father Dave Godleski SJ, the Jesuit in charge of the All Saints Chapel in Baumhart Hall, has opened that chapel during the daytime for those from Holy Name who want to pray in a chapel with the Blessed Sacrament and who cannot get into the regularly-available Holy Name Cathedral during our painful construction ordeal. Baumhart Hall is located at 26 E. Pearson, the northwest corner of Pearson & Wabash. Enter, turn left, and go to the 3rd floor. The security desk will point you in the right direction if my map confuses you. Thanks to Father Godleski and our kind neighbors at Loyola University. I am looking forward to the Confirmation of many adults on Tuesday evening, June 24. The catechesis or preparation will begin shortly. Contact Cathedral Pastoral Associate Ann Klocke at 312-573-4467 if you are a baptized Catholic who has already received Communion and who never was confirmed. One big change – because of that pesky construction in the Cathedral, this year’s celebration of adult Confirmation will take place at St. Joseph Church (“the pretty pocket-Cathedral”), 1107 N. Orleans, just south of Division. The whole Catholic Church will be stronger after that powerful Mass in June. I was Confirmed when I was 11. Today young adolescents normally are Confirmed at 13 or 14, sometimes in high school. At the late, great St. Veronica Church near Belmont & Kedzie in the early 1960s, a bishop came every other year to administer the Sacrament to 6th & 7th graders. We were taught that we were to become “soldiers for Christ”. Part of the ritual included a “slap” (really just a light touch) on the face to symbolize our willingness to exercise the virtue of courage. That is not a piece of the ritual any more. Too bad. A sponsor remains important. I chose my grand-uncle Mike, my grandmother’s brother. Mike was a butcher by trade, a fun-lover, a faithful husband (although he and Aunt Ruth never had children), a charitable soul who helped raise his brother’s children, and a regular at Sunday Mass. Our family celebrated Christmas Eve in his house every year. It was there that I remember sitting before a black-&-white TV to watch the beginning of Midnight Mass from Holy Name Cathedral, my first memory of seeing our famous Church. Mike was a good choice. I also chose well when I picked my Confirmation name. Some recent teachers encourage the kids simply to affirm baptism and to take their original name. Nonsense! For a good reason, let the kid pick a hero. Mine was St. Philip Neri. Today I describe him as “the happiest priest who ever lived”. How’s that for a link to my future vocation? The bishop who confirmed me was Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Cletus O’Donnell. White-haired, tall, handsome, articulate, Bishop O’Donnell looked as if, rather than consecrated, he had been hired for his part by central casting. That night at St. Veronica, he moved gracefully (excuse the pun) down the Communion rail sealing each of us with the gift of he Holy Spirit. “Philip, be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Clete said the words in Latin. Uncle Mike smiled blissfully in English. That was April 23, 1963 – 45 years ago this Wednesday. A few years later, O’Donnell, before a distinguished episcopal term in Madison where he died in 1992, served one year (1966-1967) as Rector of Holy Name Cathedral. On that holy night in my happy memory of 1963, the blessed bishop never realized he had just confirmed a successor of his as Rector of Holy Name Cathedral. Thanks, Bishop Clete. Mark your calendars for two Sundays from now – May 4, when our Parish Pastoral Council will sponsor “Leadership Day”. Have a cup of coffee after Mass and see what ministries and activities make up the great Holy Name Cathedral parish. Join us! Come to the cafeteria after Mass on May 4. See the spirit of Holy Name Cathedral! I wrote this column Sunday, April 13. More next week on the historic visit of the Pope. Next weekend I will be away from the Cathedral. From Friday, April 25, through Monday, April 28, Fathers Boivin, Novick, and Compton will make the pastor’s decisions. I will look for you at Mass on the first weekend of a beautiful May! Pray on Friday for John Cardinal Cody, the Archbishop of Chicago from 1965-1982. He presided as the successor of the Apostles over the Chicago Church in turbulently changing times; he renovated our Cathedral; he left an indelible mark of governance on our local Church; he ordained me (and Cathedral Frs. Lagges, Boivin, Moriarity, and hundreds of other priests); he voted in the conclaves that elected Popes John Paul I and John Paul II; and he welcomed John Paul II to Chicago. Cardinal Cody died 26 years ago Friday - April 25, 1982. God rest his soul forever tethered to Holy Name Cathedral.
Fr. Dan Mayall |
