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For more than a thousand years, church bells have spoken to the faithful in tuneful reverberations. They have shouted in alarm, wept in mourning, and laughed in rejoicing; they have told time and called the faithful to worship; they have brought beauty and a sense of community to all within earshot. Sadly, the advent of electronic bells has made the sound of “real” bells mostly a thing of the past. But in the near future, when Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel is completed, the air around Thomas Aquinas College will be filled with the mystical tones that only the old-fashioned kind can produce. The Chicago parish of St. Boniface, where these bronze bells originated, was founded during the waning days of the American Civil War. For more than a century, they presided over the joys and sorrows of generations of parishioners-—their First Communions, weddings, holy days, and funerals. But in 1989, faced with dwindling attendance, the once-proud parish church suffered the ignoble fate of having to close its doors forever. As one chapter of the book closed in Chicago, however, another was destined to open almost two thousand miles to the west, at Thomas Aquinas College. Due to the intercession of the Honorable William P. Clark—friend of the College and friend to abandoned churches—the bells of St. Boniface were saved from the scrap metal dealer. As Judge Clark explains, “I purchased these bells about fifteen years ago from the Archdiocese of Chicago. They were declared “surplus” and removed from St. Boniface Church...They were to be melted down for the price of $4.00 a pound.” Though valued by some only for the copper and tin that could be extracted from them, they were a treasure to Judge Clark who imagined them in their future home—the bell tower of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel. Before long, these same bells will be fastened in a new home, nestled safely within the confines of the bell tower of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel. From there they will ring out, beckoning those looking for a place to worship the Lord to come to the Chapel and find a home, just as these bells from Chicago have. Judge William P. Clark is a man of high distinction, who has forged a life’s worth of remarkable public service. He has distinguished himself in the Reagan Administration as the Secretary of the Interior, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and Deputy Secretary of State, and for that service, Thomas Aquinas College commends him. The College thanks this great friend not only for the gift of these bells, but for his service as Co-Chair of its $75 milllion Comprehensive Campaign and for his constant good will.
You too can be a part of the story of Our Lady of the
Most Holy Trinity Chapel by contributing to the Chapel Fund
at Thomas Aquinas College. Please help build the crown jewel
of the campus, a treasure of beauty, grandeur, permanence,
and tradition.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Winter 2006 |
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