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PAGE 6 — The Southern Cross, October 10, 1985
"Extension" Celebrates 80 Years
Railroad Chapel Car Resurrected For Celebration
The spirit of missionaries in the Old
West returned to the last remaining
railroad chapel car in America as the
Catholic Church Extension Society
celebrated its 80th anniversary September
29 with a frontier Mass in southwestern
Montana.
Three of the Pull man-style
“chapels-on-wheels” were commissioned
by the Extension Society to bring
sacraments to priest-less towns from 1907
to the 1930s. Extension, which collects
donations to support Catholic missions in
poor and rural areas across the United
States, is celebrating its founding October
18, 1905.
Except for video cameras, Polaroid
sunglasses and modern cars, the Mass at
the old chapel car looked almost exactly as
it had 70 years ago. Local residents dress
ed in frontier costumes, arrived by
horseback, wagon and four-wheel drive at
the restored Old West town of Nevada City,
Montana, about 30 miles west of
Yellowstone Park, where the old chapel
car has rested since its retirement 20 years
ago.
During Mass, a bright Montana sun
gleamed through the green-and-white
stained glass windows of the 84-foot chapel
car which is dedicated to the missionary
St. Paul. Almost 65 persons, some of whom
remembered the chapel car when it served
as a travelling chapel for the Catholic
Church Extension Society, filled the nar
row pews. Others sat on the grass outside,
listening to the Mass through the 70-year-
old chapel’s open windows.
“We all want a Lord we can embrace,
one whose voice we can hear,” said Exten
sion President Very Reverend Edward J.
Slattery, who celebrated the Mass.
“That’s why the Extension Society sent
these chapel cars out to the frontier com
munities which had no priest, no church,
no sacraments. And that’s the reason
we’re in the chapel car today, to
remember the thousands of people who
were strengthened in their faith because
this train passed by.”
The day’s service began as it had many
times 70 years ago with a baptism. On the
train car’s entrance platform, Father John
Kirsch brought a month-old infant,
Michelle Rose Cerino, into the Catholic
Faith. Father John Kirsch, pastor of two
Extension-sponsored churches in rural En
nis and West Yellowstone, organized the
day’s events, including a parade and
potluck supper in a nearby community
hall.
During his homily, Father Slattery
reflected on the impact Extension’s chapel
cars had on the Catholic Church in
America. “Some of the beautiful
byproducts of the chapel car were the little
communities that sprang up.
The people were baptized, confirmed,
married and anointed. They became more
aware of their Catholicity which, in many
cases, had dried up because the Church
was not present to them.”
The first railroad chapel car in the world
was used by Pope Pius IX in Italy for his
travels around the Vatican States in the
late 1800s. Extension’s founder Father
Francis Clement Kelley borrowed the idea
from a Baptist mission car on display at
the St. Louis World Fair. He put an appeal
in EXTENSION Magazine for a railroad
car which would serve as a “mobile chapel
and priest’s quarters to serve the
neglected regions of our Church in the
western and southern missions which have
no permanent religious presence.”
The first Extension chapel car, the St.
Anthony, went out in 1907 to serve dioceses
in the Northwest, South and Central
some of whom had tears when the chapel
car had to leave after its one-day or one-
week stop.
Literally hundreds of churches were
raised because of the chapel car. Many not
only were inspired by the chapel car visit,
but also received Extension grants or
loans tp build the new churches. Even
more important, the chapel cars brought
thousands of converts into the Church and
restored the Faith of many more baptized
Catholics who had grown discouraged by
lack of access to a priest and sacraments.
Non-Catholics with questions about
Church dogma and practices were
enlightened, and whole new Catholic com
munities were organized by the chapel
car’s visits.
All three chapel cars were personally
financed by individuals, as are all of Ex
tension’s mission projects. The St. Paul
and St. Peter cars both were donated by
Mr. Peter Kuntz of Dayton, Ohio, at a cost
of $25,000 apiece.
The St. Paul Car was the last to be built,
dedicated in 1915 and originally sent to the
U.S. South. It served Extension as a chapel
car tor more than 20 years, stopping only
briefly during World War I when the
federal government confiscated the
railroads.
The St. Peter Car actually served the
Pacific Northwest, mostly in Idaho,
Oregon and Washington. When the chapel
cars were retired from Extension’s ser
vice in the mid-1930s, however, the travel
orders were confused and the St. Peter
was sent south to North Carolina where it
served as a chapel until it was dismantled
in 1953. The St. Paul car was given to the
Diocese of Great Falls and served as a
temporary chapel in towns around
Yellowstone Park.
In 1967, the St. Paul was given to Mr.
Charles Bovey, an Old West archivist and
restorationist, for his railroad collection in
Nevada City. Although weddings are occa
sionally still held in the car, the anniver
sary Mass was the first in 20 years. It is
one of the most frequented attractions of
the area, according to a Bovey caretaker.
For more information about Extension’s
projects, write to The Catholic Church Ex
tension Society, 35 East Wacker Drive,
Chicago, Illinois 60601.
EXTENSION CELEBRATION
— Very Reverend Edward J. Slat
tery, president of the Catholic
Church Extension Society,
celebrates Extension’s 80th an
niversary with Mass in the Socie
ty’s retired railroad chapel car.
Now stationed in a museum near
Virginia City, Montana, the
mobile chapel brought the
sacraments to the nation’s most
remote communities from
1915-1966 before making its last
stop in Montana. Father John
Kirsch (right), pastor of St. Pa
trick’s Parish in Ennis, Montana,
and his parishioners join in the
celebration on horseback.
Plains, and also for exhibition stops in
Midwest and East Coast cities which drew
tens of thousands of visitors.
The chapel car’s usual routine included
Mass and religious instruction in the morn
ing, lectures in the evening. The evening
program was punctuated by answers to in
quiries deposited in the Question Box. In
addition, the chaplain administered
sacraments and distributed Catholic
literature to Catholics and non-Catholics,