Anchorage’s Holy Family Cathedral celebrating 100 years

CatholicAnchor.org
As Anchorage prepares for the celebration of its 100th anniversary, so does Holy Family Cathedral, which sits in the downtown heart of Alaska’s largest city.

Located at the corner of 5th Ave. and H Street, the cathedral, office, rectory, educational center and St. Paul’s Bookstore, occupy most of an entire city block.

Established on Sept. 15, 1915 the parish became the first church built in Anchorage. The humble, wooden structure was replaced in 1947. Christmas that year was celebrated in the basement of the present church. It would take more than ten years for the cathedral, built in an art deco style, to be completed.

In its earliest days, Jesuit priests provided for the pastoral needs of railroad workers and their families who hailed primarily from Eastern Europe. The Jesuits were responsible for much of the vast territory of Alaska. With statehood in 1959 and attention focused on Anchorage following the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, Rome announced, in 1966, the creation of the Archdiocese of Anchorage.

By 1974, Archbishop Joseph T. Ryan sought out the Western Dominicans (Order of Preachers) to serve Anchorage’s growing Catholic population. Eager to serve in mission territory, the Dominican fathers accepted the considerable responsibilities of managing a cathedral.

In 1981 Saint Pope John Paul II visited the cathedral, where he prayed, adored the Eucharist and blessed parishioners, before celebrating Mass on the park strip. It was, to date, the largest gathering of Alaskans in one place.

Dominican Father Augustine Hilander, parochial vicar of Holy Family Cathedral, explained that a cathedral is the home parish of the archbishop, who is normally its pastor. A rector is responsible for the day-to-day operations. In the case of Holy Family, however, Dominican Father Anthony Patalano is the current pastor, assisted by Father Hilander, Dominican Father Mark Francis Manzano and Dominican student Brother Thomas Aquinas Pickett. The Dominican priests generally serve for approximately three years at a time.

The added responsibilities they assume in caring for a cathedral include maintaining the Divine Office — the prayers of the church prayed daily and in public — as well as celebrating eight weekend Masses, including a Spanish language Mass and a Dominican Rite (Latin) Mass.

Over the past century, Holy Family has grown to reflect the diversity of Anchorage. More than 750 families call the parish home. Many ethnic and cultural groups are represented, including Filipinos, Eastern and Northern Europeans, and a large Spanish-speaking population from Mexico, Latin America, the Dominican Republic and other places. The number of Spanish speaking parishioners is so large that nearly every ministry at the cathedral has a Spanish counterpart, according to Father Hilander.

While diversity is a blessing, the challenge is to integrate parishioners with different ethnicities into the larger life of the church. Florence Ward, who has been at the cathedral since 1940, and is currently in charge of Liturgical Art and Environment, noted the challenges with facilitating the Hispanic community full participation with many of the wider church-sponsored events.

Letha Flint, a self-described on-call volunteer and active member of the parish for 28 years, praised the Dominican leadership and solid preaching. A Catholic convert since 2008, Flint is the editor of “Glad Tidings” a monthly newsletter highlighting activities in the parish, biographies of past and present staff, and archdiocesan news.

Flint said the parish has worked hard to be welcoming and inclusive. Flint described her parish as one “which takes liturgy very seriously and enjoys sound preaching and excellent teaching.”

A vibrant religious education program in which 125 youth are enrolled is just one of many thriving ministries. There are also several prayer groups, a book club and an adult faith formation classes, which meet regularly. Active chapters of the Knights of Columbus, Legion of Mary and St. Vincent de Paul Society serve in many capacities of welcoming, service and hospitality and outreach to the poor. A parish nurses ministry offers regular health screenings. There is outreach to the homebound, weekly Masses for Pioneer Home residents and an Earth Angels ministry that maintains the cathedral grounds.

The church’s unique downtown location allows it to minister to a wide variety of people. Two-thirds of parishioners live outside its traditional boundaries, and daily encounters with street people, homeless teens and adults, as well as a number of tourists especially in the summer months, make Holy Family Cathedral a beacon of hope in the city. Archbishop Roger Schwietz, said in a previous Anchor article, “It is important for the cathedral to have a presence and to welcome those who are drawn to the church.” Its long held role as the archbishop’s parish will soon be shared with Our Lady of Guadalupe parish, which will formally be recognized as a co-cathedral on December 12.

To mark Holy Family Cathedral’s first century, the parish is embarking on a year-long celebration to include lectures by invited speakers, service projects, concerts and other events. The festivities will begin this December 28, when the cathedral celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family and hands out customized holy cards to all parishioners.

The 2015 year of celebration will draw to a close late next year with the planned installation of new stained glass windows to replace the “temporary” ones which have served the church for more than 50 years. They are being obtained from a church built in Philadelphia in 1890, and will be funded through donations.

For more information about upcoming anniversary celebrations at Holy Family Cathedral, call Bernardette Frost at (907) 646-3070.