PRESS RELEASE: St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish Named a Minor Basilica by Vatican
Through the faculties granted by the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has declared that Saint Stanislaus Kostka Parish, Winona, Minn., has assumed the status of “Minor Basilica,” emphasizing the special bond that the parish has with the Pope and with the whole Catholic Church. This Decree was made on November 10, 2011 and announced to the congregation this past weekend. Read the FULL PRESS RELEASE attached to this email or online at www.dow.org
Get updates in your inbox
About this blog…
“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
Recent Comments
- on GUEST POST: “Father Bob’s First Day on the Job”: “I dread the day this happens. I pray the day doesn’t come. How will this be Catholic with Fr. Bob…”
- on From “The Private Diary of Bishop F. Atticus McButterpants” – 26-09-13 – Closing St. Casimir: “Painful, so very painful. Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.”
- on From “The Private Diary of Bishop F. Atticus McButterpants” – 26-09-13 – Closing St. Casimir: “*also, I remember a chalice from my parish church when I was younger as an altar server. It was a…”
- on From “The Private Diary of Bishop F. Atticus McButterpants” – 26-09-13 – Closing St. Casimir: “For once, that’s not a funny +Atticus story. That hit me like the last episode of Blackadder. Serious humour is…”
- on From “The Private Diary of Bishop F. Atticus McButterpants” – 26-09-13 – Closing St. Casimir: “Very sad, & very unlike previous McBP posts. Ten years ago our good Bishop here in NH invited the FSSP…”
- on NEW BOOK about how the Novus Ordo Lectionary came to be with its cycles and edits of Scripture: “Duuuuude! The Susanna reading is the BEST! I go to church on a weekday especially for the boy detective reading!…”
- on From “The Private Diary of Bishop F. Atticus McButterpants” – 26-09-13 – Closing St. Casimir: “Crying. I hate to see a church close. It is terrible, even when nothing else can be done. Pray for…”
CLICK and say your daily offerings!
A Daily Prayer for Priests
Federated Computer… your safe and private alternative to big biz corporations that hate us while taking our money and mining our data. Have an online presence large or small? Catholic DIOCESE? Cottage industry? See what Federated has to offer. Save money and gain peace of mind.
ABORTION PILL RESCUE NETWORK
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
Donate using VENMO
GREAT BEER from Traditional Benedictine Monks in Italy
Good coffee and tea. Help monks.
I use this when I travel both in these USA and abroad. Very useful. Fast enough for Zoom. I connect my DMR (ham radio) through it. If you use my link, they give me more data. A GREAT back up.
Help support Fr. Z’s Gospel of Life work at no cost to you. Do you need a Real Estate Agent? Calling these people is the FIRST thing you should do!
They find you a pro-life agent in your area who commits to giving a portion of the fee to a pro-life group!
This blog has to earn its keep!
PLEASE subscribe via PayPal if it is useful. Zelle and Wise are better, but PayPal is convenient.
A monthly subscription donation means I have steady income I can plan on. I put you my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I often say Holy Mass.
In view of the rapidly changing challenges I now face, I would like to add more $10/month subscribers. Will you please help?
For a one time donation...
To donate monthly I prefer Zelle because it doesn't extract fees. Use
frz AT wdtprs DOT com
Winona! Dun-dun-dun!
Never mind. Moving right along…I often wonder what sorts of ecclesiastical politics are involved in getting a church named a basilica. In my own diocese we have a few of them, one which unquestionably deserves the distinction and one which couldn’t possibly have merited such an honor on its own merit. There’s at least one more, but I’ve never seen it (and I think the diocese just closed it down, in any case).
The church that really deserves the style is actually basilican in form. It is a magnificent baroque edifice, glorious inside and out, and crowned with an enormous dome that looms over the south of the city the way the Capitol dome looms over SE Washington DC. This church was built by a renowned and saintly priest whose cause for canonization is under way at Rome (he is currently venerable). The place looks like something the Pope would have as his home away from Rome. It is all marble and gilt and cherubs and columns and frescoed ceilings to such an extent as to utterly overwhelm. It is wholly worthy of the style “basilica” and was so named by Pope Pius XI in 192?.
There is another church in this diocese, however, that was named a basilica by Pope Paul VI. This particular church is small, circular, and absurd looking. If anyone is old enough to remember those Nescafe mugs from the 70s: those glass coffee cups with latitude and longitude lines etched on them like half a globe? If you remember those, turn one upside down and imagine it the size of a larger Thruway/Interstate rest stop. That’s exactly what this church looks like: a glass coffee cup turned upside down. The interior…ugh…don’t even get me started. If you can imagine the ugliest 60s era theatre-in-the-round church you’ve ever seen and then imagine that somebody had vandalized it, you’ll have an idea of what this place looks like. And it’s small! There is nothing grand or noble or distinctive about this building. Nothing! And yet it has the nerve to call itself a basilica.
There is no way a Pope, not even Paul VI, would examine photos of such an utterly unworthy little structure and honor it by calling it what it so obviously and manifestly could never authentically be. So I’m guessing there have to be politics involved when a church is presented with that ennobling red and yellow umbrella.
How many minor basilicas does Minnesota have? Does any particular state lead the way? I know we have one in NJ in Newark.
Darren,
I am not sure which state leads the way, but New York City has the most basilicas in the United States. I am also not sure on completeness or accuracy, but wikpedia seems to have a fairly reasonable list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_basilicas
This is the second basilica in Minnesota. St. Mary’s Basilica in St. Paul is the other.
jmvm: Wikipedia is usually pretty accurate with most things. I was afraid it was going to list the current St. Patrick’s as a Basilica in error, but glad it does not. Having seen the list I do recall reading of one of the ones in Brooklyn. I have been to Old St. Patrick’s earlier this year, very nice (except for the big plain glass windows between the vestibule and the church – the one thing I did not like.
In general, one must remember that the title of basilica is not just given to architecturally beautiful large churches. The significance to the local area in relation to the Holy Father is also taken into consideration. I have been to many parish churches more beautiful that some minor basilicas. However, I must say I am disappointed when I visit a basilica and it looks like nothing more than a pretty nice church.
I do leave you with this link to photos of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in Newark, NJ. It is one of my favorite places, with the largest rose window of any Catholic church in the United States and definitely one of the largest pipe organs in the US as well (the place really shakes when that organ is being played all out!)
http://www.catholicphotographer.com/Cross-Country-Pilgrimage-1/Cathedral-Basilica-Newark/10313378_vtFGMv/1/712776294_jhQU3#712775169_mruHL