Among the subtly lit arches of the undercroft of the historic downtown Baltimore basilica, about three dozen people gathered Oct. 24 for a votive Mass of Mary, the Mother of the Church, to celebrate new “Custodians of America’s First Catholic Cathedral.”
The new designation was created by the board of trustees of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary to help maintain the church and preserve it for decades to come.
Stephanie Clancy, president of the historic trust and one of those honored as a custodian, said the basilica is a “national jewel that needs to be maintained as it was and is America’s first cathedral.”
She quoted Bishop Robert Barron of Rochester, Minn., who spoke in 2021 at a Mass to mark the church’s 200th anniversary and said the basilica is an example of all that is “good, true and beautiful” in the Catholic faith.
She said the reorganization of the historic trust and the decision to create levels of support for custodians of the basilica were part of an effort to raise its national profile “so all of America can appreciate it and learn from it.”
The basilica benefitted from a two-year major restoration project completed in 2006, spearheaded by Cardinal William H. Keeler, archbishop of Baltimore at the time. It underwent another round of repairs in 2012-13 after a 2011 earthquake shook Maryland.
Clancy said the costs to maintain a structure such as this, as well as ensure its future upkeep are significant. “In a time when the secular world tears down beautiful things, we want to maintain and preserve it, as others did before.
“It’s a magnificent place to come and worship, and a beacon of hope in the City of Baltimore,” she said.
During the Mass in the basilica undercroft, revealed and made available as a worship space as part of the restoration of the church in the mid-2000s, Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori noted that the votive Mass of Mary, the Mother of the Church, was appropriate for the occasion. “All of us experience Mary’s eternal love for us. … She is walking with us, and praying with us and for us.”
He said the votive Mass connects to the basilica as “a church with a maternal heart.” As it was the first cathedral in the United States, “one could say it is the mother church of all the cathedrals in the rest of the country.
“It is from this cathedral that every diocese is connected to Baltimore,” the archbishop said. “It is the source of the church’s maternal love that has spread through the U.S.”
The basilica is significant – architecturally and in church history. It was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who was also architect of the U.S. capitol. Plenary sessions of the U.S. bishops were held in the basilica and its adjacent rectory in the early decades of the church in the United States and remains a site for the nations bishops to gather in prayer each year at the start of their fall meeting.
Archbishop Lori noted that the basilica is also a thriving parish with unique ministries in the city of Baltimore. A chapel in the undercroft hosts eucharistic adoration 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And the basilica has several urban missionaries who go out in the downtown area to serve those experiencing homelessness as part of the Source of All Hope ministry.
“That maternal love attracts young people,” he said, adding that it is another reason for the need for financial support to maintain and expand the beautiful basilica.
After the Mass, Gerald Laporte, a corporate attorney from Arlington, Va., who is one of the new custodians of the basilica trust, agreed that the basilica is notable both in architecture and church history because Archbishop John Carroll, the first bishop in the U.S., was trying to form an American vision of the church in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
“America was a new country, so the cathedral had to be different from something in the Old World,” he said.
It is important to support the basilica now because “if we don’t, it won’t be recognized for the great symbol of American history and Catholic history that it should be. People won’t visit it if it’s not maintained,” Laporte said.
Archbishop Carroll “believed in freedom and the American experiment. This is a symbol of John Carroll’s vision of what America should be.”
The Custodians of America’s First Cathedral is a donor-giving society to acknowledge those who support the Basilica of the Assumption Historic Trust at specific giving levels: Legacy Custodians are those who donate $250,000; Gold Custodians, $100,000; Silver Custodians, $50,000; and Bronze Custodians, $25,000. The trust board can also designate individuals or couples who have generously supported the work of the basilica trust as Honorary Custodians.
At the event, Theresa Ayd Knott was recognized as the first Honorary Custodian. She was on the basilica trust board during the restoration project with Cardinal Keeler and was involved in planning the visit of Pope St. John Paul II to Baltimore, including a stop at the basilica, in 1995.
It is essential to keep the basilica “alive and well,” she said. And the parish cannot do that without the help of others, which is one reason the board created the custodians program to encourage involvement from across the country.
The basilica was intentionally built on a hill in Baltimore to be a beacon for the city, she said, “and Latrobe in his brilliance knew that.” She said the revelation of the reverse arches in the undercroft that support the basilica’s great dome are now echoed in those who support the basilica financially. The basilica trust is made up of people who are dedicated to the church and its historic preservation. “We’re the new arches,” Knott said.
The new Custodians of America’s First Cathedral, announced at the event, are:
Deacon Sean Keller (who serves at the basilica, assisted at the Mass and is also a trustee of the board) and his wife, Sheri, who was not present; Gerald Laporte; Stephanie Clancy (also a trustee) and her husband Michael; and Californians Sandy Murphy (trustee) and her husband Michael, who were unable to be present for the Mass and celebration.
Email Gunty at editor@catholicreview.org
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