Browse Items (5575 total)

"Saint Benedict Parish was established in 1857 with Father Edmund Farrell as resident pastor. He directed the building of a log church near the present Bluffton church. Later Father Clement Lowery supervised the building of a limestone church in…

"Foreseeing the need for a much larger church, Father Kortenkamp worked with his assistant, Father Joseph Brinkmann, to plan and construct the present Gothic style church with twin spires towering over 200 feet, until recent years the largest church…

“Saint Philomena Church was built in 1857 in the town of Asbury, a small community a short distance west of Dubuque. It was dedicated to a Roman martyr dear to the heart of Bishop Mathias Loras and his friend, the Cure of Ars. Over one hundred years…

“The Church of the Nativity became the ninth parish in the city of Dubuque in 1922. As the Catholic population had increased, Archbishop James J. Keane saw the need for another parish in the city. On July 4, 1923, Archbishop Keane blessed the…

"Immigrants of Slavic ancestry in the Cedar Rapids area gather at Immaculate Conception Church in Cedar Rapids for Sunday Mass. For their convenience, Father Clement J. G. Lowery frequently invited Bohemian missionaries. Prominent among them were…

St. Stephen in Cedar Falls is home to the Catholic Student Center. In 1897, The Catholic Student's Club was organized. It was noted in 1907 that, "The Association's purpose is to enable the Catholic students to more fully realize that religion is an…

"When Father Stephen J. Kucera was appointed pastor of Prairieburg in 1927, he soon recognized Central City, eight miles west, as a potential parish. Central City’s location on busy highway 13 marked it for growth. In 1932 he secured the vacant…

"In 1947 Archbishop Henry P. Rohlman founded All Saints Parish in the southeast quarter of Cedar Rapids. In 1959 Archbishop Leo Binz established Saint Pius X Parish in the northeast quadrant and chose the Saint Jude Parish site in the northwest area.…

"In the year 1900, only nine catholic families lived in or near Clear Lake, which had a population of 1,700. They had no church, but Father Garrett T. Nagle came from Garner once a month to celebrate Mass in what was known as Sprague Hall. The family…

"The parish began in 1885 with the appointment of Father Thomas F. Richardson to organize a parish on the west side of the Cedar River. The west-side Catholics had been members of Immaculate Conception Parish with its church east of the river. The…