St. Patrick Cathedral and its high school celebrate 100 years of history
St. Patrick Cathedral and its boys’ high school have been a central part of El Paso for a century.
To mark the church’s 100th anniversary the EL Paso museum of Art dedicated the eight Wall of Giants exhibit to showcase the institution’s history.
From historic vestments and even original school desks, the new Cathedral history exhibit has a lot to teach about these important El Paso institutions.
St. Patrick Cathedral stands as an El Paso landmark, and its history is now enshrined at the El Paso Museum of History. The exhibit starts the story before the cathedral was even built.
“People from El Paso, for instance, were required to go to Juarez to hear Mass there at the mission,” explained Cathedral High School graduate Jorge Angulo, who helped put the exhibit together.
The exhibit goes on to show how the border community built the church, and how the cathedral then helped build up the community through Cathedral High School.
“The diocese of El Paso was established in 1914, 1915. And it was from that point on, once the diocese was established, they needed a seat for the bishop,” David Carrejo, another alumnus, explained.
The pope who appointed the bishop was then Pope Benedict XV. Years after being established, just as the Americans had once been helped, the diocese of El Paso and its Cathedral would help Catholics in Mexico when the Mexican government persecuted Catholics in the late 1920s
“During the Cristero revolt priests would go up to the border and administer the communion to Mexicans,” Angulo said.
One of the most interesting pieces, a third alumnus said, was the plaque remembering 14 Cathedral graduates who served and died in the Second World War.
“Lionel V SMith. He volunteered in WWII before the US entered the war. He volunteered with the Canadian Royal Air Force, then assigned to the Royal Air Force, and then the Indian Air Force,” said Rene Valenzuela/
Their stories, and those of the school and church founders, now immortalized for the entire city to see.
The exhibit officially opens Sunday at noon. Entrance to the Museum of History is free and the exhibit is scheduled to last until February 2018.
