2007 is the Sequicentenniel of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend – the commemorations begin at a Cathedral Mass today, but last night at Mass we prayed a special prayer for the Jubilee  – from a prayer card that will be sent to all homes next week, etc.

And do you know what?

It was a Psalm. Psalm 117, as I recall.

Why is that a pleasant surprise? Because it wasn’t some list of platitudes pulled together by a diocesan committee thanking God for our diversity and our gifts and talents in this diverse, gifted and talented world …it was a Psalm!

In other news, the parish was gorgeously decorated – here’s a photo from the parish website from a past year’s decorating. It doesn’t really capture the – I don’t know – warmth – that the scheme produces. Gothic and warm? Sure!

Music was Christmas carols, homily was on St. Joseph – a historical rundown of the history of devotion to St. Joseph and three qualities which we can discern from the life and witness of St. Joseph.

And was it over in five minutes? I think so. Six, tops.

In gratitude, Michael the Toddler was pretty good during Mass, until we got to, you know…The Lights. The bulbs which outline various arches and other features in the altars, and which are switched on as Communion begins. Stupidly, I was trying to keep Michael interested by whispering to him about the lights, and the excitement infected him to the point where he started yelling, "Come on, lights! Come on, lights!"

Back of the church for the rest of Mass for us.

What about you? Gashwin is still in India, and reflects on the Feast of the Holy Family there.

BTW, here’s a good article from today’s paper about the Jubilee:

Joseph White, a church historian at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, says the anniversary is significant in a diocese that it has traditionally wielded influence beyond its size. White is writing a history of the diocese for the celebration.

“It has two outstanding institutions in it, the University of Notre Dame in South Bend and (the national Catholic weekly newspaper) Our Sunday Visitor in Huntington, which are so influential in terms of Catholicism nationwide,” he says.

snip

Catholic clergy rarely visited the area from 1800 to 1830. When they did, they were beset by “detestable” roads as one early priest put it, pigeons cooked with their feathers still on presented to them as food by their American Indian hosts and often indifferent potential parishioners who traveled too quickly, following canal-building work, to build churches.

The appointment of priests was problematic for years because the area’s Catholics spoke three languages – French, German and English – and priests needed to speak at least two languages to be useful. The first two priests sent specifically to Fort Wayne each quit within a year. The third was needed to rescue a congregation in Logansport, and the fourth was often absent and later let go for apparent alcoholism.

But by 1857, when the Rev. John Henry Luers – German-born and serving in Cincinnati, was named the diocese’s first bishop – Fort Wayne had two churches under way: St. Augustine’s, which is the present cathedral, and St. Mary’s, which catered to German Catholics.

The latter burned in 1993 and was rebuilt soon after.

And, the Rev. Julien Benoit had been working to set up schools, including one for girls staffed by Sisters of Providence from the Terre Haute congregation headed by Mother Theodore Guerin.

Guerin was canonized a saint in October.

Still, Luers had little good to say about Fort Wayne. He complained bitterly to superiors that Indianapolis would be a far better place from which to lead, and he even proposed moving the headquarters to Lafayette. He longed to be named bishop of Toledo instead of staying in “this wild Hoosierdom” where “most of the congregations are small and poor.”

“Fort Wayne is rather a poor place for a Bishop to accomplish much,” he concluded.