[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 78 (Tuesday, June 16, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1135]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       100TH ANNIVERSARY OF ST. JOHN CANTIUS CHURCH, WINDBER, PA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN P. MURTHA

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 16, 1998

  Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to pay tribute before the U.S. 
House of Representatives to the St. John Cantius Parish in Windber, 
Pennsylvania, as it celebrates its 100th Anniversary today.
  The St. John Cantius was the first Catholic Church in Windber, from 
which sprang all the other Catholic Parishes serving the Windber area 
today.
  St. John Cantius, originally established in 1898 as the Immaculate 
Conception Parish, has a fascinating early history that classically 
demonstrates how immigrants from many different countries who came to 
America--and particularly to our area of western Pennsylvania--at the 
beginning of this century were united by their faith. The church was 
the central entity that helped bind these people together, overcoming 
different cultural backgrounds, language barriers, and traditions to 
create a strong, cohesive community. Even the clergy themselves came 
from different countries and spoke different languages. This strength 
and unity served these faithful people well as they struggled to make 
their way in America, overcoming the hard realities of the grueling 
daily worklife in the farming and coal mining regions that built and 
fed this country.
  The St. John Cantius Church has not only endured, but has thrived and 
multiplied, increasing the numbers of its parishioners as well as 
parishes and preserving the tradition of devotion to family and faith 
for succeeding generations. In addition, it has provided its community 
with strength and support throughout all the trials and tribulations of 
this century, from the hardscrabble days of the Industrial Revolution, 
when the area's miners and steelworkers endured long work hours, low 
pay and abysmal working conditions, even through the Great Depression. 
It supported and comforted the people of the community through many 
wars that saw many of its young men head off to distant lands to defend 
their country and its ideals of freedom, sometimes never to return. It 
has held its community together through more modern struggles--the 
decline of the steel industry that brought lasting economic hard times 
and crippling unemployment. Through it all, the St. John Cantius Church 
has been a constant in the lives of the people of Windber--a source of 
support and sustenance, spiritually and in many other ways.
  I am deeply honored to join in celebrating this wonderful occasion 
with the parishioners and clergy of St. John Cantius. May the church as 
well as the community it serves continue to grow and prosper for 
another one hundred years.

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