Today we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the dedication of Christ the King Church. On August 20th, 1961, Archbishop Emeritus Gerald T. Bergan lead the celebration of Mass for dedicating Christ the King's newly-built church.
In our archives, we found some items worth sharing to the entire parish community, including some newspaper clippings, and the full text of Archbishop Emeritus Bergan's homily. The full text can be read below.
Right Reverend and Very Reverend Monsignori, Father Hupp, Very Reverend Fathers, Esteemed Sisters, Sir Knights, and dearly beloved of Christ the King.
"I have loved, Oh Lord, the beauty of Thy house and the place where Thy glory dwelleth." Thus said the Psalmist in days gone by as he strummed upon his harp and in all exalted ecstacy and the praises of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem and thus, do I think, with greater love and with far more enthusiasm, we the children of Omaha and especially of Christ the King. offer up our songs of praise and gratitude and thanksgiving - those of power and majesty and so on - to Him who is indeed Christ the King of the world and in a very, very special manner Our King here in this part of our vineyard of the Lord. For if, after all, the song of David was really one of a dead templed - of a tomb - which had as it's center of so-called attraction the two tablets of the Ten Commandments of Moses of years gone by, and the bread of proposition, with how much more joy and happiness, and with fervor and dignity, we gather here this afternoon to call down the blessings of Almighty God upon the walls of this living, magnificent, beautiful temple erected to the living God Who in a very short time will come down fran Heaven for the first tise to dwell forever, not only in the minds and hearts and souls of His beloved children who have made so many sacrifices for hi.m that He might have a counterpart here in Omaha of the glories and the beauties of His celestial home in Heaven, but that He might be your neighbor and your friend and your greatest benefac - tor. And therefore it is the occasion for celebration of clergy and laity to gather and to offer up their prayers for the first time in this wondrous home of Christ the King.
And we've built no barriers, we have no secrets hidden in the basement of buttons which would be pushed for the destruction of our neighbor made to the image and likeness of Almighty God; there is no barbed wire separating neighbor from neighbor around this dynamic threshold of the King of Kings, but here welcome to all who come in the name of the Lord. And there is a very, very special delight for your Archbishop to come this afternoon and to have the privilege of Blessing this magnificent edifice. I suppose you earthly fathers love -- I'm sure you do -- all your children with equal affection, but there must be a special spot in your heart for him who is your firstborn; and I can remember so well as the years pass by -- ten or twelve years ago -- buying this cornfield where the crops were waving and so on, in obedience to the winds from heaven, and how with sacrifices and tears and hardship and devotion and untiring, magnificent leadership from your pastor - dynamic: - in the spiritual sense for the cause of Christ, in the very short space of eight years look at the glories which have been accomplished here.
I can remember, too, so well, that perhaps some of the laity feared we were building beyond our capacity and that a school for 200 children would be more than sufficient and be very prudent and very careful as regards the failures of the future. And now there are over 800 children - think of it - in this school and 300 more begging for admission to sit at the feet of these devoted dauthers of our Blessed Lady, the Servants of Mary, in order that they might have the extraordinary advantage of learning from them the ways to Heaven and those things which are to their youthful peace.
It hasn't been an easy task, I realize that, but so much has been accomplished in such a short time that we do rejoice, I think, vi.th special enthusiasm on this, the dedication of our first child. My, how he has grown and devloped in the short space of eight years. And following him there have been five or six others who have been in his example and who, too, now house the Eucharistic Christ, bringing down the blessings of Almighty God upon this portion of Omaha. And therefore, in a few minutes, we shall welcome into our midst here in this wondrous temple, for the first time, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Universal Ruler of the entire world. We who are specially His subjects should not simply extol the glory and the accomplishments of one of the outstanding churches in our beloved land, but also there is a great challenge ths.t just as He has honored us by coming here to dwell among us and to start in a very special way His Kingdom, and just as on that glorious bell tower along side of the church He, clad in his regal vestments with His arms extended unto all mankind, will come in really and truly Eucharistic form here to dwell amongst us and here in His house there be no strife, no harshness, no bitterness, no inequality of race, of accidental coloration of skin, of rich or poor, or learned or ignorant, of political affiliation, of national origin, but here we will find the beginnings of that One World for which we hope. So therefore, you my dear people, have a special task before you, having the special nomenclature of being the children of Christ the King, to set forth by your example the leadership which your Archbishop and which your pastor expects to receive from this portion of the Diocese of Omaha. The vast majority of this population there is young, youthfull, starting out at the very beginning of adult livlihood. It's upon you, perhaps more than any other parish in the diocese, to which we look with fond expectations for real lay action, for missionary endeavor, in a world which will perish unless you, my dearly belove of Christ the King, with the beauty and glory and the magnificence of your new church, with the privileges which have been extended to you and the special favors which Almighty God has bestowed upon you, that you should carry forth each day and at least each Sunday from this temple of God, where Our Lord surely will love to dwell, His message, not simply and solely in abstract theological disputation but most of all in the practical form that you will show your neighbors who need it so badly the practical Christ Who came down upon this earth and lived the life of poverty and hardship, Who preached the gospel of peace unto all mankind and Who died as a sacrifice that we might have the blessings of Heaven here upon earth. So not simply and solely should we rest content in the glories of this day but most of all answer the challenge that they to whom much has been given and who have given much to Our Blessed Lord in sacrifice in order to make this dream come truce, that they will go forth as soldiers - leaders in the peaceful realm of Christ Our King.
I do offer my congratulations to your beloved pastor who had the courage and the foresight to attempt this grand endeavor and I am sure that with all the worries and anxieties of these past few years -- with all the cares and nervousness connected with building from nothing -- after all, it's a tremendous task to lay upon any young priest - to start a new parish from nothing except an acerage; nothing in the bank, nothing but the good will and the cooperation and prayers of his self-sacrificing people. Surely it must be, as I hope it is, a sense of relief to your beloved pastor as he sings the first Mass here in this new church, too, to offer up his gratitude to Almighty God for the blessings of having people just like you. His brother priests salute him and call his work well done and we hope that Almighty God will continue to bless him with good healty and with renewed youthful energy for the battles ahead.
And to you my dear people, your Archbishop extends his profound gratitude. We realize full well that you are starting out in life; that you are raising your families - many children - and you are perhaps, most of you paying for your homes. You didn't have enough money to pay cash for your new residence; the taxes are high, the living costs are plenty these days, and therefore I know the respcnse that you have made to the invitation of our Blessed Lord to build Him a home worthy of the homes which you my dear people possess and worthy of this new locality here in the western environs of the great American City of Omaha. And please be assured that I am most grateful to you for your sacrifices and for all you have done in the short space of eight years. And some of you have built - most of you - have helped build other parishes in days gone by and one of the great mysteries to me is this: perhaps I have been a little bit hard upon my priests and my people, but after all it has been a progress necessary for the promulgation of the gospel and for the furtherance of the Kingdom of Christ. Perhaps I've been a little bit hard upon you, but after all when the results are shown and when we look back over the past twelve or thirteen years of how Almighty God has blessed our efforts and how the mystery remains unto your Archbishop now uncomplainingly - and really without much conversation or without much criticism, those things which you are asked to do for our beloved Lord and for His dear children both in the grade school and high school; for the aged at St. Vincen's home; and for our orphanage; for the other institutions here in our beloved Archdiocese. Your Archbishop sends thanks to Almighty God that in His providence, through no of person of my own, that He gave me the privilege of being your Shepherd over these years in order that I might be the good father to so many loyal priests, so many far-seeing priests, and such wondrous people as we have here in Omaha and this afternoon especially in the parish of Christ the King.
I extend my congratulations to the architect of this church, a son of this parish, for his taste and good judgment and for the beauty and glory of this little different house of God. After all we should not build in one common, ordinary tupe - variety is the spice of life - and there are many, many styles. After all, this may seem new, but St. Paul's (those of you who have been in Rome) St. Paul's outside the Walls is rather typical. This is typical of St. Paul's Outside the Walls and others; in fact, there's nothing new in the church of our Blessed Lord, but this has an added attraction. I used to worry a great deal about - really I did - about the effect of the glass, so much of it in the church, and I thank God the sun is shining this afternoon and the wonders and glory should after all take our minds and hearts from this church unto the vecythrone of Heaven. So we congratulate him on an excellent piece of work. We hope that Almighty God will bless him and his family unto length of days.
And to the Shelton Brothers and all the contractors whose names I could not remember and cannot therefore mention - to everyone from the lowest laborer, so called, in the hierarchy of the building construction, who suffered the heats and burdens of the day and the pains of cold over the last year or more, we offer them our thanks and our deepappreciation. And as the old man years ago - the story in Europe - someone came along to him; he was chipping stone - and said "What are you doing there? How long have you been doing that?" and he said "For thirty-five years." "All you are doing" he said "is chipping off a piece of stone from the rock?". "No" he said, "I am building a Cathedral." And I'm sure that everyone who had any part will take great pride in this wondrous edifice.
So may our Blessed Lord reign in our hearts and in our souls. May His Kingdom come here in this parish. May He rule over us and over the world which needs Him so badly. May our nervous fears disappear as we come here for Mass on Sunday and as we lift up our prayers to Him. After all, with all the divided rulers of the world and all the various methos of so-called bringing peace unto a disturbed mankind, the Peace of Christ will only come through Him, our Blessed Lord and Saviour. May He watch over us and take care of us. I'm sure, my dear people, He will be very, very near and dear to you. He who is never outdone in generosity surely will appreciate the sacririce which you have made to make His home a little bit of Heaven.
And therefore in expectancy now and in hushed prayer we await His coming. And He'll come really and truly as He did in days gone by in the little stable at Bethlehem where He didn't receive much of a welcome; not comparable to the earmth of the welcome which the people of Christ the King in Omaha have prepared for Him. And in the humble home at Nazareth - poverty stricken - where He lived with His Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, his foster father, who are also here because where Christ is there also is His mother and His protector, the wondrous, humble St. Joseph the Workman. And He who dwelt in poverty throughout His days surely with the joy and majesty of His new, most comforable, beautiful home - He will pour forth His grace and abundance upon the pastor and the good assistant here, and the others who will come in years in the future; to the good Sisters, who at my request a few years ago, though they were short of help, so graciously and generously toQk upon themselves the task, joyful I hope, of conducting the school for Christ Our King; unto the fathers and mothers who are raising their little families these days with so much care and worry and anxiety; and to the little children; to all who dwell therein and who will welcome Christ. May He dwell in this parish, His home, and in your hearts forever.