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Show Milford's First Catholic Church Is Dedicated by Bishop Steck A story that began here Oct, 8, 1776, when a band of explorers, explor-ers, including two Franciscan friars, paused in this valley to celebrate the mass of the feast day of St. Bridget, came to a climax here Sunday afternoon. One hundred and seventy-two years after - Silvestre Velez de Escalante sang the first Catholic mass in this valley, Most Rev. Leo J. Steck, auxiliary bishop of the Salt Lake diocese, Sunday dedicated the new St. Bridget's Catholic church here. St. Bridget's, the first Catholic Catho-lic chapel built in this area,, ends a long period of years when persons of that faith here have met in homes or other temporary tempor-ary locations to worship whenever when-ever a priest came to conduct services. During this time the Milford or as it is sometimes called, the Escalante valley had been a mission of the Christ the King parish at Cedar City. Now with regular Sunday services, it has become a parish in its own right, with its own pastor, Rev. J. H. Valine, a Dominican priest. Most Rev. Duane G. Hunt, bishop of the Salt Lake diocese, presided over high mass sung Sunday at 9:30 a.m. by Rev. Valine. Music for the mass was furnished by the 20-voice Newman New-man Choir. At the dedication starting Sunday Sun-day at 3:30 p.m., Bishop Steck j welcomed the some 100 persons j of Catholic and other faiths who had gathered for the ceremony He pointed out that the dedication dedica-tion fell on the last Sunday of October, which has been set aside as peace day by . the Catholic church. It is a time, he pointed out, when members of his church pay honor to the Prince of Peace, adding, "If the great nations of the world would now go to Christ with humility, peace would again be established throughout the world." Bishop Steck severely scored ' the representatives of the United j Nations for their action in a I meeting at Paris recently, when, I in bowing to one of their mem- bers who represented an un-Godly un-Godly nation, allowed the word "God" to be stricken from all the records of the conference and the word was not mentioned again . He congratulated Rev. Valine and Catholics of the Milford area for their efforts in building the church. The building has been under construction for six months and a number of observances observ-ances had been held in the chapel before the dedicatin. . Among the Catholic priests from nearby parishes who attended at-tended the dedication were Rev. Leo T. Halloran of St. Elizabeth's Eliza-beth's church, Richfield, and Rev. A. A. LeMay, pastor, Christ the King church, Cedar City. Rt. Rev. Msgr. Joseph P. More-ton, More-ton, Salt Lake City, also participated partici-pated in the dedication service. |
