5 YEARS AGO: The time capsule that had been placed behind the cornerstone of the Cathedral of the Madeleine in 1909 was removed Feb. 19, 2008 in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the original dedication of the Cathedral. When opened, the box included not only memorabilia from the turn of the last century, but also from the 1970s, when the box was opened during the Cathedral’s renovation.
10 YEARS AGO: The Most Rev. George Niederauer, eighth Bishop of Salt Lake City, designated Feb 15-16, 2003 as a diocesan weekend of prayer for peace. In a letter to pastors and parish administrators, Bishop Niederauer wrote: "As each day passes many Americans feel that the likelihood increases of war with Iraq. People around the world share this concern.... I urge pastors, deacons, religious and lay leaders in all Catholic parishes and missions in Utah to pray and work actively for peace; to become informed about Catholic teaching on the morality, and on the particulars of the present conflict; to support with encouragement and prayer the men and women in our country’s armed forces."
25 YEARS AGO: Two nationally-known speakers addressed Catholic audiences in Utah in February 1988: Father Ralph DiOrio, an evangelist with a healing ministry, preached at the Jon M. Huntsman Center at the University of Utah, sponsored by Saint Vincent de Paul Parish on Feb. 21; and School Sister of Notre Dame Clare Fitzgerald, a professor of educational leadership at Boston College, spoke to Utah Catholic Schools teachers on Feb. 19 and directors of religion education on Feb. 20.
50 YEARS AGO: The front page of the Feb . 8, 1963 Intermountain Catholic Register recognized four local Catholics: William J. Dermody received a cross from Bishop Joseph Lennox Federal in honor of his 99th birthday; the cross had been blessed by Pope John XXIII. Dermody’s service to the Church earned him one of the highest honors bestowed upon a layman, the knighthood of the Order of St. Gregory, which was conferred on him by Pope Pius XII in 1941. Also recognized was Susan Neely, a senior at St. Mary-of-the-Wasatch, who won the Betty Crocker American Homemaker of Tomorrow contest at the school; Barry Michael Hayden, recipient of the Ad Altare Dei award, the highest in Boy Scouting; and Susan E. Granieri, who was selected to attend an All-States Girl Scout Camp.
75 YEARS AGO: Two missionaries from the Congregation of St. Paul the Apostle "will shortly begin work in the Uintah Basin, Utah," the Feb. 13 Intermountain Catholic Register reported. Their headquarters would be in Vernal, "and the territory entrusted to them will exceed 7,000 square miles, the entire northeast corner of the state. The total Catholic population of the area is probably less than 100 souls.... The Paulists will endeavor to serve the handful of the faithful, but at the same time to extend their efforts to the non-Catholic population," according to the article, which added that the area at that time was part of the Price-Helper parish and it "is attended several times each year by the parish clergy, who travel over the mountainous country separating the basin from Carbon county, visit the scattered Catholics, say Mass and administer the sacraments."
100 YEARS AGO: "Hundreds of friends gathered Monday morning around the bier of Sister Superior Mary Lidwina to pay a last, loving tribute to the memory of the good Sister whose life of loving devotion was at an end. The beautiful little chapel of the hospital of the Holy Cross, in which she was so often to be found at prayer, was filled to the doors with sorrowing friends," the Feb. 22, 1913 Intermountain Catholic reported. Sr. Lidwina was educated in Rathfarnum, Ireland, and made her final profession with the Sisters of the Holy Cross at St. Mary’s, Notre Dame, Ind. on Aug. 15, 1879. In 1888 she was appointed superior of the community of the Sisters of the Holy Cross at St. Lawrence Hospital in Ogden, which closed in 1898; in 1895 she was appointed Superior of Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City.
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