Cathedral offering tours for Jubilee

Bishop Howard J. Hubbard has designated the Cathedral as one of the places where Jubilee indulgences will be granted, and parishioners have been planning the tours in recent months to welcome visitors.

A self-guided tour brochure will also be available this summer.

Beginnings

After Pope Pius IX created the Albany Diocese in 1847 in response to the great influx of Irish immigrants, its first bishop, Bishop (later Cardinal) John McCloskey, decided to build a cathedral. His purpose was two-fold: so that the Diocese would have a fitting and worthy mother church, and so Irish Catholics would gain stature in civil society, Father Pape pointed out.

John Patrick Keely was hired as the architect; he also built St. Joseph's, St. John's and St. Patrick's churches in Albany. The cornerstone of the Cathedral was placed July 2, 1848, and the church was dedicated in 1852. It was both the first neo-Gothic cathedral and the first dedicated to the Immaculate Conception in the United States.

Inside out

More than 1,100 gas lights were used in the Cathedral, and the pillars still show where they once hung.

Father Pape explained the design of the pulpit, built in 1902 and measuring 22 feet high. It contains the images of Moses, David, Isaiah and Ezekiel; the four evangelists and Christ; and Mary the Immaculate Conception.

Special windows

Across the church from the Lady Window is the Last Judgment Window, which shows only those who will be saved on Judgment Day. Placed there in 1897, it was a gift from Bishop Thomas M.A. Burke.

A walk around the Cathedral reveals other stained glass windows, including the Parable of the Harvest Master, Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the parable of the virgins who ran out of oil for the wedding.

Saintly reminders

A statue of St. Martin de Porres was placed in the Cathedral during the 1960s as a sign of the parish's outreach to the African-American community.

Carvings of saints above the congregation include Augustine of Canterbury, Nicholas, Columba, Sebastian, Dorothy and Teresa of Avila. The Stations of the Cross were a 1900 gift from Bishop Burke and won first prize at the Paris Exhibition of 1897-98.

The side altars in the Cathedral meant that four or five Masses could be celebrated simultaneously, which was convenient when there were 3,000 families in the parish. Membership dwindled while the Empire State Plaza was built, and the Cathedral now includes 750 families.

Bishops

"His chair is a symbol of his teaching authority as a successor to the Apostles," the rector explained.

The tour finished with a look at the Bishop's sacristy and fireplace, which includes Psalm 148 on the mantle, and the crypt where six bishops are buried: Bishops McNeirny, Burke, Gibbons, John J. Conroy, Thomas F. Cusack and William A. Scully.

Educational tour

"I think it was great and, like Father Pape said, it gives you a better appreciation of what you have here," he said. "With the tour, you get a little extra."

Deirdre Pangle, a Cathedral parishioner who soon will be leading groups, has toured the Cathedral three or four times and learns more about the church with each visit. She hopes people from other parishes will tour because "we want to give people a sense that this their Cathedral," she said.

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