One hundred and sixty-nine years ago, the third bishop of Philadelphia was intentional and ambitious in dedicating his planned cathedral to Saints Peter and Paul – having settled the trusteeism wars which marked Stateside Catholicism's greatest crisis until recent times and shepherded his growing flock through the burning of the city's churches, the Romanesque temple on the city's western frontier would be the embodiment of a new structure, literally a fortress church, which would withstand assault from within or without.
The first American bishop to be trained in Rome, Francis Kenrick's project of an institution-centric church built as womb-to-tomb service center would become the most sprawling collection of Catholic education and social work in the global church, an empire which endured for nearly two centuries... until it all collapsed under the weight of the clericalism which underpinned the enterprise and a laity anesthetized as a result, a "perfect storm" culminated in a decade of abuse crises and widespread parish and school consolidations.
In a nutshell, getting this place back on its feet – and rebuilding the house for a different time – is the reason the Eighth World Meeting of Families, and by extension this PopeTrip, have come to the place Rome's long seen as its staunchest US bastion... and now, ten bishops since its builder, for the first time the place once known as "Kenrick's Folly" finally has the Pope for Mass within its walls.
The liturgy to use the votive text of Mary, Mother of the Church, again, here's the livestream; text to follow.
by Rocco Palmo via Whispers in the Loggia
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