Cathedral marks 75th

The early establishment of the Bismarck Diocese concentrated on bringing priests to serve the new settlers of Western North Dakota. When Bishop Vincent Ryan took over in 1940, his focus on providing more priests remained, but his added strength for fundraising was soon put to the test.

Bishop Wehrle, the first bishop of Bismarck, had a dream of building a cathedral and began planning for it in 1922. He bought land and commissioned a design of the Cathedral, but harsh economic conditions prohibited his dream from becoming a reality. The St. Mary’s parish in Bismarck, it’s only church at the time, had been serving as the diocesan pro-cathedral.

Construction on a cathedral was held off because of the Great Depression. When Bishop Ryan became bishop in 1940, he set the wheels in motion to begin construction, which would also provide the city with a second parish. By the fall of 1941, Bishop Ryan could see that the diocesan fund appeal was meeting its quota, so he ordered construction to begin—breaking ground in September of 1941. Within two months, the nation was at war, yet despite an acute shortage of men and materials, construction continued throughout the next four years.

Completed in 1945

A group of seven men worked away through the war at pouring the monolithic concrete walls by hand. The skeleton crew utilized the help of teenagers during summer vacation from school. Yet, the real drama of the building lay hidden in a nearby slough. Just before the war, the steel roof beams were shipped to Bismarck. But, soon the government requisitioned all steel for the war effort.

As it’s written in the book dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the diocese, Bishop Ryan apparently felt that patriotism could only go so far, so he had the steel hidden away lest it be commandeered. As the walls went up and up, people wondered to what purpose? Then one day in 1944, the beams appeared out of nowhere and the building was enclosed.

In January 1945, Bishop Ryan wrote in the Dakota Catholic Action, the diocesan newspaper he created in 1941, “When our cathedral is completed, as it will be in 1945, all the people who gave will rejoice; for their contributions made the cathedral possible. They can truly say ‘Our Cathedral,’ and they will then understand better the phrase ‘Our Diocese,’ so often repeated in the columns of this paper. God has blessed the people of the diocese with good crops during the past four years. The cathedral will remain as symbol of their gratitude and their trust in God.”

At the first Mass on Aug. 30, 1945, there was much that was incomplete, especially interior decoration and furnishings. These were added as materials became available after the war.

Symbolic of Bishop Ryan’s vision

Although the Cathedral was already designed in Bishop Wehrle’s time, it suited Bishop Ryan’s idea of what a cathedral should be. He commented several times that travelers on both the railroad and the highway would see its shining white tower above the skyline as they approached Bismarck. He was proud of the fact that the building is virtually fireproof and should outlast most of the other buildings in the city. All this was symbolic of his vision of the Church itself: prominent, articulate, outlasting the vagaries of worldly turmoil.

A critical shortage of workers was a key reason the project took so long. At the peak of the construction, the general laborers made $26 per week. The general contractor, James Guthrie, a staunch Catholic from Bismarck, was said to be a stern task-master, sharp-tongued but fair. Sadly, James died suddenly and unexpectedly shortly before the completion of the project. James’s son, Bob was also a member of the crew before he was drafted into war to eventually fight as a U.S. Marine pilot in the South Pacific. Grandson and son of these two men, Father John Guthrie who is currently pastor at parishes in New Salem, Center and Almont, served as the third pastor of the Cathedral from 2008-2012.

“That building has a very deep link to my family,” Father Guthrie said when asked about the Cathedral. “And, not just to me personally. My family is on the ground floor of that place.”

His grandfather had established his construction business in St. Paul in the 1910s before coming to Bismarck to work on Boniface Hall at St. Alexius hospital and the World War Memorial building in downtown Bismarck. James Guthrie moved to town in the 1920s. After Bishop Ryan arrived in 1940, the two struck up a friendship. That’s likely why the bishop came to James with his idea to build the new chancery in 1940 as a sort of prototype for the Cathedral.

The pair worked with William Kurke of Fargo, an architect who had worked on the state capitol building. The idea to build with that much concrete and in the art deco style was something quite new at the time, Fr. Guthrie explained. The men wanted to try out the concept on the chancery completed in 1941, located on Raymond Street just south of the Cathedral School. Today, it still functions as the bishop’s residence.

Following in the family business, Father Guthrie’s father ran his own construction company building several iconic structures in Bismarck including the Church of Saint Anne, Annunciation Priory and the Civic Event Center.

Establishing a parish

The Cathedral parish was formed on Jan. 1, 1947 with 250 registered families. By 1950, there were 410 families and, as the area of town developed, the parish grew quickly to 715 families by 1955. Today, the parish is home to 1,491 families.

There was only one parish prior to the construction of the Cathedral—St. Mary’s. The “cutoff” boundary at the time was 5th street, Fr. Guthrie explained. “And, we lived on the west side of that street so our family became members at the Cathedral. The neighbors across the street remained parishioners at St. Mary’s.”

From the beginning, the building was special to the Guthrie family especially for Fr. John and his seven siblings. “As a kid, I was raised knowing that we took great pride in my family being involved in the construction of the Cathedral,” he said. “I received all my sacraments there from baptism to holy orders and everything in between. It was a great sense of pride knowing that our grandfather, who we never had a chance to meet, built that building.”

A major renovation

Much of the Cathedral, inside and out, remained virtually unchanged through the 1980s. When Bishop Kinney arrived in 1982, he wanted to renovate the churches of the diocese to conform to the directives of Vatican II. In most parishes, the changes meant replacing the altars, removing the canopies over the altars, eliminating the communion rails and simplifying interiors. In many churches, the tabernacles were moved to Blessed Sacrament chapels. Following the annual Chrism Mass in April 1992, Bishop Kinney broke ground for the Cathedral renovation project, saying it would “carry the diocese well into the 21st century.” It was the first major renovation of the Cathedral to be carried out.

Father Tom Kramer, pastor of the Cathedral from 1976-2008, oversaw the $1.7 million project. Some of the most notable changes were adding a gathering space, moving the baptismal font to the center of the church, creating a side chapel for smaller services, renovating the interior of the church and converting the former front entrance into a Blessed Sacrament chapel.

Recently, a small-scale renovation took place. In mid-August, the baptismal font was moved from the center to what had been recently the Blessed Sacrament chapel and originally the main entrance before that. The space was converted into the area for baptisms. Placed near the entrance, baptism is the symbol, theologically and sacramentally, as the entrance into the life of grace—into the family of God. The pews in the area where the font was will be extended to add more seating.

Ordained in 1990, Fr. Guthrie began his ministry as an associate in the very building that meant so much to his family. During those first years of the priesthood, he watched Fr. Kramer put in many hours researching and consulting on the renovation project in the early ’90s. He returned as pastor years later in 2008 which he said was an incredible blessing.

“Both Msgr. Garvin, in the early years, and then Fr. Kramer were the only two pastors of the Cathedral until I was appointed there in 2008. When planning for that renovation began, I was a newly ordained priest and Fr. Kramer was a role model for me to watch him manage that kind of a project,” Fr. Guthrie expressed. “He understood that this church belongs to the people and watching him work, with Bishop Kinney, of course, but with the people in that process that took years, made an immense impact on me.”

Father Guthrie recalled that he, Fr. Kramer and Bishop Kinney had the rare opportunity to get a true “bird’s eye” view from the top and leave their mark for posterity at the steeple during the painting portion of the renovation project. “There was a crane on site for the painting, so we were able to go to the very top inside the steeple near the iron cross. While we were up there, we were able to sign the cross beam. When I signed that beam, I signed ‘grandson’ in parentheses under my name. That was a special moment for me.”

Preserving history

Three diocesan seminarians, John Windsor, Greg Hilzendeger and Josh Hill, spent their summer break from the seminary working at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit. Among their duties was to compile a history of the Cathedral in commemoration of the 75th anniversary. The trio did so in the form of a series of scrapbooks documenting the historical building and life of the parish. There are plans in the works for a public celebration of the anniversary possibly this fall, but details are tentative.