Cathedral marks 100 years

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
September 2, 2004

The Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the church building on Sept. 12.

There will be an all parish, trilingual Mass at 1 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Epiphany followed by a street party outside the Cathedral on Douglas Street. All of the regular Masses are cancelled due to the all parish Mass.

"We are going to not only celebrate the three cultures that we have here now, but also all of the cultures that have been here since the church was built 100 years ago," said Father Paul-Louis Arts, the rector of the Cathedral.

Up until the mid-1980s the Cathedral was a typical American parish, a mixture of all cultures, commented Father Arts. Then in the mid to late 1980s, the Vietnamese and Hispanic, "the new immigrants," entered the Cathedral community.

The street party will consist of food and ethnic music from the different cultures that are at the Cathedral and have been at the Cathedral. The food will be free to those attending.

Posters will also be sold to commemorate the Cathedral building. The poster features images from the church's stained glass windows. The poster will be accompanied by a brief description of the images written by Father Brian Hughes, vocations director of the diocese, who headed up the renovation effort of the Cathedral in 1998.

Photos and design of the poster were by G.R. Lindblade and Co. The poster is available in two sizes - 36- by 12-inch vertical for $20 or 18- by 7-inch for $15.

Past rectors of the Cathedral will be invited to the celebration.

"We are excited because it is a milestone for the diocese and for the parish to celebrate 100 years in this beautifully renovated 19th Century German Gothic church," said Father Arts.

While the building marks 100 years, the parish that was originally called St. Mary's was formed years earlier.

Heritage of Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City dates back to the 1860s. The first church in Sioux City was constructed in the city in 1862. Records refer to it as Immaculate Conception. The lot on the corner of West Seventh and Perry Streets was purchased for $25. The first pastor was assigned in 1867.

At this time, the church was under the jurisdiction of the Omaha Diocese and was a mission of St. Patrick's in Jackson, Neb. The Dubuque Diocese took over jurisdiction in 1870.

When a new church was built in 1876 at Sixth and Pierce Street, the present site of Security National Bank in downtown Sioux City, it was eventually named St. Mary's.

Construction began on St. Mary's at its new location of Tenth and Douglas Streets in Sioux City in 1891. Father Timothy Treacy was the pastor at the time. The cornerstone was laid on Sept. 6, 1891, with Father P. Burke, chancellor of the Diocese of Dubuque, officiating.

On April 5, 1892, Bishop Hennessy ordained Thomas McCarty to the priesthood. Father McCarty was a member of St. Mary's Parish and the first young man from Sioux City to become a priest. Several days after his ordination, Father McCarty came to Sioux City and offered his first Mass in the large hall of St. Mary's School. St. Mary's School, which was constructed in 1889 at a cost of $30,000, was located on the Southeast corner of 10th and Grandview Streets.

The doors and windows of the upper portion of the church were boarded up and the completion of the church was left to later years. The basement of St. Mary's was ready for occupancy in 1892 with a dedication ceremony held July 6 of that year.

This new church building was intended to serve the pastoral needs of a growing number of Catholics who lived in the central part of Sioux City. The parish was made up of an ethnically diverse group of immigrant parishioners with Irish and Germans being the predominant group and also included Polish, Lithuanian, Italian and French parishioners. In 1892, a nationwide economic depression threatened the local economy and completion of the building project was postponed.

For a period of nearly 10 years, the members of St. Mary's Parish worshipped in the basement of the present church building. Once the Diocese of Sioux City was established in 1902, it was decided that St. Mary's Church would serve as the Cathedral. The church was incomplete at that date, and it was recommended that the upper church also be completed. The building was dedicated as the Cathedral of the Epiphany on Sept. 8, 1904.

Over the past 100 years, the Cathedral of the Epiphany has been redecorated on a number of occasions. The photographic record of these various renovations exhibits a wide array of design motifs. However, the general arrangements of furnishings on the interior remained the same until a major renovation was undertaken by Bishop Joseph Mueller in 1961.

In 1987, the priceless stained glass windows, a product of the Mayer Co. Studios in Munich, Germany, underwent a complete restoration.

The most recent changes are the restoration project that was started in the summer of 1994. The roof and gutters were replaced, and the exterior was tuckpointed. Several other exterior changes were made such as removal of the worn bridge between the church and rectory and replacing it with a courtyard. The interior has been restored as nearly as possible to the original and in keeping with the architecture.

In the months during the renovation of the Cathedral, the church of St. Thomas at Emmetsburg was closed. The people of St. Thomas Parish donated their altar and stations of the cross to Cathedral, due to the similarity to Cathedral's previous items.

Cathedral of the Epiphany is listed on the National Historic Register.

Cathedral Parish has fostered many vocations during its lengthy and illustrious history. In addition, Cathedral Parish has continued to grow and expand its diversity. Masses are offered in three languages, English, Spanish and Vietnamese, plus a Latin Mass.