Restoration Celebration commemorates the official end of the cathedral project on the church’s feast day
Maura Baker
Staff Writer
The sun shone over the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington, as parishioners, guests and donors came together to celebrate two-fold the cathedral’s feast day and the end of the cathedral restoration project, Restored in Christ, Aug. 15 — the Feast of the Assumption.
Mass began the evening with Bishop John Iffert as the celebrant. Bishop Iffert greeted a full congregation that evening, explaining that he had allowed the feast day to be celebrated at the evening Mass preceding the celebration to follow.
In his homily, Bishop Iffert began by thanking the congregation. “Thank you again for coming out in such good numbers today to celebrate the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and also to celebrate the successful conclusion of the Restored in Christ project here at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption,” he said.
Bishop Iffert shared a story of his arrival as the bishop of Covington, where “there was a report sitting on (his) desk detailing all of what was happening at the Cathedral Basilica,” Bishop Iffert said, “how pieces were falling off and stones were pitted and broken.”
Surprised by this, as the building seemed beautiful — Bishop Iffert noticed the need after being pointed to the damage in the cathedral’s stonework. And thus, the diocese took on the project of restoring the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption.
“Whenever you take up a project of restoring a monument like this, there is a huge learning curve to be tackled,” he said. Bishop Iffert said that one of the very first things he learned were the differences between grotesques, chimera and gargoyles.
“We began to learn these kinds of things,” said Bishop Iffert, “to study the issues that we would face, to talk about what kind of expertise we need in a contractor that might work with us on a project like this … and so, with the help of some of you who are here today, we set out on that journey.”
After a successful campaign, raising over $7 million dollars towards the cathedral’s restoration, Bishop Iffert said that the diocese undertook the project for a simple reason: “To be able to guard the legacy left to us by Bishop Maes and the predecessors who came before us, who wanted this place to be a testimony to the merciful love of God for Covington in Northern Kentucky.”
“We undertake projects like this because here, in this place, just behind me and to my left, dwells the tabernacle of the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said. “And so, we build and we rebuild and we restore and we protect these monuments built of stone and wood and brick and glass and plaster. We do this because it is a place of dwelling for Jesus Christ, our Lord, and his holy people.”
“If you and I, with all our evil thoughts,” Bishop Iffert continued, “take such care in preparing and protecting a place for the sacramental presence of the Lord — how much more power, goodness, care, love, devotion, attention to detail, generosity does God the Father pour out to prepare a tabernacle for the incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, the one who comes to lay himself down for love of us?”
Bishop Iffert used this bridge to connect the restoration project to the Blessed Virgin and the Feast of the Assumption, saying that throughout all of the Scripture’s labors, “the Lord was working to prepare and protect a woman … who would be prepared to say yes and to become the tabernacle of the incarnate Lord of Heaven and Earth.”
That same Lord “is now dwelling in this heavenly temple,” Bishop Iffert said, referring to the cathedral he spoke in. “All of that becomes a sign for us that God’s grace is still at work in us, still at work in humanity, still at work in the Church, still at work in those who love and respect the Lord … our buildings are a sign to us of God’s mercy working in Northern Kentucky and in the world.”
“They remind us,” he said, “of the woman the Lord gave to us as a mother, to include and embody and foreshadow the salvation of all God’s holy people. This mystery secures the promise that, as the Lord has done for the first to say yes to him, so his grace is at work, building us as living stones into a temple where he dwells.”
After the Mass’s conclusion, guests were invited to join Bishop Iffert and the rest of the diocese in celebrating both the restoration project’s completion and this mystery in an event that spanned much of Cathedral Square.
Donors and parishioners came together for dinner in the adjacent Covington Latin School and ice cream in St. Mary’s Park, and were welcome to walk the Cathedral’s grounds — which included participation in a scavenger hunt, and the ability to contribute their thoughts to a time capsule that will be stored in a statue within the cathedral’s Marian garden.
