St. Casimir Lithuanian Roman Catholic Church
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St. Casimir Lithuanian
Lithuanians
Lithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,765,600 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language...
Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
was a church in Sioux City, Iowa
Sioux City, Iowa
Sioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....
. It was built by the Lithuanian immigrant community of Sioux City in 1915, and served as a neighborhood parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
until 1998. Although it was founded as an ethnic parish, members have included Roman Catholics of diverse backgrounds, including Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
, Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, Italian, and Mexican. The location near the stockyards
Feedlot
A feedlot or feedyard is a type of animal feeding operation which is used in factory farming for finishing livestock, notably beef cattle, but also swine, horses, sheep, turkeys, chickens or ducks, prior to slaughter. Large beef feedlots are called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations . They...
and meat packing industrial area of the city attracted many of its working-class neighbors, including many new converts who came to Catholicism through St. Casimir Church. However, during the 1990s, the Diocese of Sioux City forbade St. Casimir parish from enrolling any new members, in spite of a lively and financially solvent congregation. Then, in 1998 the diocese dissolved the parish, appropriating all holdings and instructing parishioners to join other active parishes. The building, which was deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, was emptied of the fixtures, artwork, and stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
and left vacant. As of May, 2007, the diocese made public a plan to raze the structure, based on safety concerns. Private interests arranged for the unique dome to be salvaged. The demolition was completed on 17 July 2007.
The building was designed by the Prairie School
Prairie School
Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
William L. Steele
William L. Steele
William LaBarthe Steele was an important architect of the Prairie School during the early twentieth century. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Steele worked in the office of renowned architect Louis Sullivan in Chicago, Illinois 1897–1900...
, and built by Babue and Co. It incorporated a simplified neo-gothic exterior design, along with a distinctive “bell-cast” dome (cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
) atop the steeple
Steeple (architecture)
A steeple, in architecture, is a tall tower on a building, often topped by a spire. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religious structure...
. The interior was extensively decorated by the Lithuanian artist Adolfas Valeška
Adolfas Valeška
Adolfas Valeška was a Lithuanian stained glass artist, painter, stage designer, and museum director who worked in Lithuania and in Chicago, Illinois....
in the early 1950s, including woodwork, a pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
, stained glass, and several large paintings, among them Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fátima is a famous title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary as she appeared in apparitions reported by three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal. These occurred on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13...
, the Good Shepherd, and the Assumption of Mary
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
. Our Lady of Fatima and the The Good Shepherd now reside in St. Joseph
Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ ....
Center at the Trinity Heights Marian shrine in Sioux City, along with the European bisque
Bisque (pottery)
Bisque porcelain is unglazed, white ceramic ware Examples include bisque dolls.Bisque also refers to "pottery that has been fired but not yet glazed...
statue
Statue
A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...
of the patron
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
, Saint Casimir, all of which were purchased back from an antiques
Antiques
An antique is an old collectible item. It is collected or desirable because of its age , beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features...
dealer after having been salvaged from the sanctuary. Other artifacts were hand-picked by the diocese for placement in the newly renovated Cathedral of the Epiphany
Cathedral of the Epiphany (Sioux City, Iowa)
The Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City, Iowa is the cathedral parish for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux City. The Cathedral is located at 1000 Douglas Street in Sioux City.-History:...
and Mater Dei grade school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
.
These are the remains of special parish at 2524 Leech Avenue in Sioux City, Iowa. No memorial even marks the remains of what was once a proud Lithuanian parish -- that had more than 90 families when it was forced closed. Not surprising, given the disgraceful actions of then Bishop Lawrence Donald Soens (in deciding to steal the funds collected from the hard-working immigrants and other parishioners to feed the voracious appetite of his out-of-control administration. Fortunately, he is no longer leads the Diocese of Sioux City. The beautiful church, created from brick, mortar and love was summarily razed and destroyed, its files and parishioners scattered. And the dreams and hopes of several generations blown to dust. All that remains is a hole and a piece of wall. Not even a plaque to mark the blood, sweat and tears of those parishioners.
Former pastors
- Fr. Michael Cybulskis 1915-1917
- Fr. Joseph Gricius 1917
- Fr. John Aleknavicius 1918-1919
- Fr. Michael Kolvek 1919-1922
- Fr. George G. M. Cesna 1922-1951
- Msgr. Simon Morkunas 1951-1990
- Fr. Marvin J. Boes 1990-1995
- Fr. Paul-Louis Arts 1995-1998