[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 104 (Monday, June 23, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5955-S5956]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TRIBUTE TO BARDSTOWN/LOUISVILLE ARCHDIOCESE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this year marks the celebration of 
the 200th anniversary of the Diocese of Bardstown, which was 
established in Kentucky as one of the oldest dioceses in the country. 
Pope Pius VII carved it from one of the oldest dioceses in the New 
World.
  The territory of the Bardstown Diocese once covered a giant swath of 
land, including what are now the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, and half of 
Arkansas.
  The Bardstown Diocese was established alongside the dioceses of 
Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Its seat was eventually moved to 
Louisville, Kentucky, and made an archdiocese. But its place in the 
history of American Catholicism continues to be a point of pride across 
Kentucky.
  Kentuckians celebrate this bicentennial throughout the year at the 
St. Thomas Church, considered the ``Cradle of Catholicism'' in the 
Bluegrass State and still located in Bardstown. A two-story log house 
that stands on St. Thomas property is the oldest structure related to 
the Catholic faith in our region of the United States.
  Built in 1795 by Thomas and Ann Howard, the property was willed to 
the church by Mr. Howard in 1810, and it became the first home of the 
St. Thomas Seminary, the first seminary west of the Alleghenies. It 
later served as the residence of Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget, first 
bishop of the Bardstown Diocese.
  Bishop Flaget and others who worked to establish the Bardstown 
Diocese were pioneers of the land as well as of the spirit. Kentucky 
was the western frontier of the young United States at that time, and 
frontier life posed many hardships.
  But the diocese survived and thrived, and the visit of Pope Benedict 
XVI to the United States earlier this year was timed to coincide with 
its anniversary.
  Madam President, Kentucky is proud to include one of the oldest 
outposts of faith and freedom in America. I ask unanimous consent that 
a story from the Louisville Courier-Journal about the celebration of 
the Bardstown Diocese's anniversary be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

          [From the Louisville Courier-Journal, Apr. 9, 2008]

 Catholics Celebrate Kentucky Bicentennial, Bardstown Events Mark 200 
                                 Years

                            (By Peter Smith)

       Bardstown, Ky.--Dorothy Ballard and her sister Martha 
     Willett have been coming to St. Thomas Church, considered the 
     ``cradle of Catholicism'' in Kentucky, all their lives.
       Their parents were married there in 1920, and ``all of the 
     children have been baptized here, made the first Communion 
     here, confirmed here,'' and several of them have been buried 
     from the parish, Ballard said.
       So they weren't missing yesterday morning's Mass that began 
     a daylong celebration of the bicentennial of the Archdiocese 
     of Louisville, where about 150 people filled the historic 
     brick church.
       ``I feel real special that I'm part of this celebration,'' 
     Ballard said.
       Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz presided at the Mass.
       ``We pause and give thanks to the Lord for these 200 years 
     of blessed presence of the church within our Central 
     Kentucky, and we ask the Lord to continue to bless us as we 
     move forward,'' he said.
       The archdiocese also marked the bicentennial yesterday with 
     services at the Cathedral of the Assumption in downtown 
     Louisville and at the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral 
     in Bardstown.
       St. Thomas was chosen to lead off the celebration because 
     the log house that still stands on its property once was the 
     modest capital of frontier Catholicism.
       Pope Pius VII created the Diocese of Bardstown on April 8, 
     1808, along with those in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. 
     Previously, the diocese of Baltimore had covered the entire 
     new American republic.
       The Bardstown diocese originally spanned the entire 
     frontier area between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi 
     River, and between the Great Lakes and Tennessee.
       The seat of the Bardstown diocese eventually was moved to 
     Louisville, which later became an archdiocese. Its original 
     territory is now divided into more than 40 dioceses across 10 
     states.
       The Rev. Steve Pohl, pastor of St. Thomas, said he and many 
     parishioners trace their roots to those pioneer days, when 
     Catholic families of English descent migrated from Maryland 
     to Kentucky in search of better land. They were served by 
     priests fleeing persecution that followed the French 
     Revolution.
       Their settlements in Nelson, Washington and Marion counties 
     gave the region the nickname ``the Holy Land,'' as attested 
     to by such enduring biblical place names as Holy Cross, 
     Gethsemani and Nazareth.
       St. Thomas is home to a recently restored log home, owned 
     by Catholic farmers Thomas and Ann Howard and given to the 
     church as a base for the growing diocese.
       The diocese's first bishop, Benedict Joseph Flaget, lived 
     there for several years, and the

[[Page S5956]]

     house also was host for Kentucky's first Catholic seminary 
     and the first nuns in the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.
       ``I'm really in joy about today,'' said John Cissell, who 
     traces his roots to early Catholic settlers here. His father 
     was long active in the church and is buried in the cemetery 
     on the church grounds.
       ``I just feel like I'm carrying on a tradition,'' he said.
       Pohl, whose ancestors also include an early settler, said 
     the parish is holding a reunion this summer of descendents of 
     Maryland Catholics who settled in Kentucky in the early 
     years.
       Pope Benedict XVI will recognize the bicentennials of 
     Louisville's and other historic dioceses at a Mass at Yankee 
     Stadium in New York on April 20.
       The archdiocese also plans a large celebration at Slugger 
     Field in Louisville this summer.

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