Heroes

There's been a lot going on in the world, but there's also been a lot going on here, so I regretfully have been unable to report on it.

The event of the most note for me was yesterday's fire at Holy Name Cathedral. Yesterday morning, at 5:30 AM, a fire started in the attic of Holy Name, and threatened to burn the entire church to the ground. By a miracle, the firefighters were able to put out the fire before it spread too far. They had to crawl along the rafters of the church to put out the fire; if they had lost their balance, they would've fallen through the decorative ceiling and down to the floor. For their bravery and protection of the Cathedral, they are heroes.

The sanctuary was flooded by the water from the sprinklers and hoses, and many things were damaged. Some of the objects that were saturated were the hats of the former bishops of Chicago. This includes the hat of one of my own heroes, George William Cardinal Mundelein.

Cardinal Mundelein lived from July 2, 1872, to October 2, 1939. He was installed as the eighth Archbishop of Chicago in 1916, and in the consistory of 1924 became the first archbishop of Chicago to be created a cardinal; every one of his successors to date has been elevated to this status. As archbishop, he became one of the most powerful men in America. In 1926 he hosted the International Eucharistic Congress, had his picture on the cover of Time magazine that same year. In the 30's, he gained fame as a friend and adviser to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a nearly impossible concept today. His advisory status was not merely an occasional invite to Washington, either. Roosevelt actually came out to Chicago, all the way out to the seminary, to seek Mundelein's opinion.

At Mundelein's residence in his seminary, courtesy of the Archdiocesan archives

Mundelein wearing the bolero that now hangs above the altar at Holy Name

The last two photos are from the blog The Far Sight 2.0.

Clearly, Mundelein held power that is unheard of for a modern American bishop. I hope that his hat is not beyond prepare from the damage, and that his memory will not soon be forgotten. With his spirit overlooking the rebuilding process, may the cathedral be repaired quickly and open its doors again to the city he led so well.