September 23: A Shrine for Mary

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is September 23rd, and our story is A Shrine for Mary. Bishop Thomas J. Shahan, the Catholic University's fourth rector, wanted to build a Marian shrine. But before he could do that, he needed Pope Pius X's approval. He also needed to convince Catholic University's Board of Trustees to donate the entire southwest corner of its campus to the project. Shahan secured his first objective in August 1913. That month, he traveled to Rome and met with Mattuoli's father, who enthusiastically signed off on the idea.

The Pope then pulled the Italian equivalent of $400 out of his desk and handed it to Shahan. Once Shahan returned to the States, the university's trustees proved equally accommodating, and the bishop turned his focus to fundraising. Within seven years, he raised enough money to begin construction, and on September 23, 1920, Baltimore's Archbishop James Cardinal Gibbons laid the cornerstone for the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

10,000 people attended the ceremony, including much of President Calvin Coolidge's cabinet. After that, building began in earnest. The first phase of the project focused on the crypt church. By Easter 1924, the shrine's first public mass took place in the nearly completed crypt. But five years later, the U.S. stock market crashed, and the Great Depression began.

With no funds to move forward, all major construction on the shrine halted. The outbreak of World War II delayed the project even further. Finally, in 1953, Our Sunday Visitor's founder, Archbishop John Knoll, made it his personal mission to raise enough money to complete the shrine. One year later, building resumed. It took five years more, but in November 1959, the upper church opened.

Minor construction, including on the shrine's 70 chapels honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary, has continued ever since. Designated as a basilica in 1990, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is the largest church in North America and the eighth largest church in the world. Only one person, however, is entombed within its walls, Bishop Thomas Shahan, who died in 1932 without seeing his shrine complete. Shahan's patience and perseverance remind us that great endeavors often require enduring vision, dedication, and collaboration.

Consider a long-term goal in your life or parish. Identify one step you can take this week to keep moving toward it, no matter how small. Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, September 24th, for another story of faith and courage in America.