The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-08-14
DEDICATION OF ST. MARY's CATHEDRAL

The Dedication of st. Mary's Cathedral tonor-
row, will mark epoch in the history of the Cath
olic Church in Utah and the intermountain region
On Sunday morning our venerable Prelate will wit
ness the fulfllment of his dreams of twenty years
ago, the contamination of his nearer hopes and the
conservation of contract entered upon nine years
ago. This great Catholic temple, overlooking from
Its commanding SITE the expanding city, the fasci
mating valley and its wondrous sailed sea, imparrs Il
tone of dignity and quiet grandeur to its immedi-
ate neighborhood. 1t is an architectural achieve
ment worthy of the Ages of Faith. a dream Of
plastic art materiaized in stone, and an enduring
monument to the faith of Bishop Seaman and the
generosity of the men and women that made it DOS.
sible.
The Dedication tomorrow will be an event in the
history of Utah and in the annals of our city the
Importance of which can hardly be overated. Sun
day, the 18th of August, will be memorable day,
not alone in the history of the Catholic Church in
state but also in that of the entire region
lying west of the Missouri river. To the Catholics
of the state of Utah, and of Salt Lake CITY in par
ticular the opening of our great Cathedral for
Divine Service will be subject of religious conso-
lation and patriotic joy
To Catholics everywhere in America it is con-
ISOLATION and motive for honorable pride that the
zeal, the energy and the patriotism of our bishops
and priests, strengthened by the generous coopera
ton OF our laity have raised all over our great con-
tnent magnificent temples to God, built UNIVERSE
ties, colleges and academies for the education of
our youth, and opened everywhere splendid homes
orphanages and hospitals for the care of the help
less and the assuagement of physical pain.
The growth evnapcion
church in our country, the multiplication and
structural spendor of her churches educational and
charitable Institutions and the steady and irresst-
able increase Of her membership excite the wonder
if not the admiration of thoughtful minds outside
the fold.
There is striking and dramatic scene in
Athlete" when the veil of the Temple is drawn
apart by invisible hands, and the voluptuous and
terrified Alfalfa beholds her victim Joas-whom
she thought to be dead-standing in his glory and
his strength, surrounded by his warriors wearing
their war-bonnets, and with swords and shields IN
lifted impatient for the charge. Even so is the
Catholic Church today revealed to the old men of
our land, who, fifty years ago, thought her form
was bent with age and her forehead wrinkled by
time, her gait hating and feeble. her steps trenb
ling with decrepitude and her garments moth eaten
As she was, to all appearances, entering upon her
agony of death it was safe to extend to her the
charity of silence and watch her staggering to her
grave, old and unlamented. They said she dared
not TO trust herself advancing civilization and
free Institutions but must cling to the Wondering
fashions of age that was past to sleep for ever
more with dynasties dethroned and sepuchred
But these old men this morning look, as did Ath
ala Joas, with wonder and awe on the resurrec-
ton Of the dead. The step with which she moves
forward is elastic with triumph-vera incessu paint
deaher face is radiant, her brow erect and starit.
her garments, as those of Shebas queen, fragrant
with the odor of spices And the old men look upon
her with staring eyes, marveling how, like the
tabled phenix, she got back her youth. O. beloved
of God, in thy beauty and thy comeliness go forth
move forward prosperously and reign for all time
intende, prospere procede ct regna.
This providential Church has now survived for
close two thousand years, or nearly twice as long
the most venerable commonwealth in history
She appears to the world today in unimpaired vigor
with her constitution, laws and government un-
changed. So far from betraying any signs of ad-