A Letter From Our Cathedral Rector: The Year Was 1946 — A Wonderful Church

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Seventy-five years ago in 1946, the UK men’s basketball team, coached by Adolph Rupp and featuring Wah Wah Jones and Ralph Beard went 28-2, won the SEC championship, and were the champions of the National Invitational Tournament. This was his first national championship. Seventy-five years later, we can only imagine the joy that championship brought to our state.

The World War had ended. In 1946, the League of Nations met for the first time and it eventually developed into the United Nations and began its important work for international justice and peace. We can only imagine the variety of feelings beleaguered world leaders had as they worked for the good of their country and the good of the world at the same time.

In 1942, the actor James Stewart had enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a private and within three years had risen to the rank of Colonel, guiding many bombing missions during the war. In 1946, that veteran soldier, having returned from the horrors of war, was once again a movie actor and James Stewart brought an impassioned intensity to the role of George Bailey, full of ambiguity regarding the meaning of his life, in the 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life.

In 1946, the people of Christ the King Parish and their Pastor, Fr. Richard O’Neill, realized that it would be years before they would be able to have the magnificent church of which they were dreaming. So, as a priest of the Diocese of Covington and as a priest who had once served in that area, Fr. O’Neill drew from his contacts and was able to obtain the pre-fabricated church which had once housed the nascent congregation of St. Agnes Church in Park Hills, just outside Covington.

It was a time when many buildings were prefabricated and could be ordered through companies such as Sears and Roebuck. Fr. O’Neill affectionately referred to the small church as “St. Sears and Roebuck.” So far, no records can be found which tell how it was transported to Lexington in those preInterstate days — but we can be sure that when it arrived at Colony and Providence in the spring of 1946, there was some assemblage needed.

We can assume that there was a 1946 equivalent of Joe Sandfort who organized a group of volunteers to either rebuild the church and/or put the parts together. There would be a group working inside the church to put the pews or chairs in place and to make sure everything was clean and stable. A group of parishioners was involved with the environment, placing statues and stations and other inspirational art, in addition to flowers. A 1946 version of Robert Whitaker had a keyboard of some kind, began practicing with the choir, and made sure that the acoustics and electrical power could work. Good Church ladies led by a Katie Sheppard-type dynamo offered helpful tips which added extra touches. An early Tina Troiano or Karen Rood was making sure that the server boys had vestments and that they knew their prayers. It was not yet a wonderful church building, but it was a wonderful Church.

A document stating when the pre-fab church arrived has not yet been found. We know that there were two subsequent additions to the church and that it served the parish for 22 years. And we can trust that the parishioners’ stewardship of time and talent prepared the church for the first wonder-filled Mass in a church on the grounds of Christ the King on May 12, 1946!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. Paul Prabell, Rector