A DREAM COME TRUE

New St. Isidore’s Church at Kansas State offers more room for students to worship

By Diane Gasper-O’Brien The Register, Diocese of Salina

SALINA — The bells in the tower of a beautiful new church in Manhattan began ringing at straight-up noon on Jan. 28, signaling the start of a day of grand celebration.

About an hour later, some 600 people marched across the street from the Alumni Center at Kansas State University into the newest church in the Diocese of Salina — St. Isidore’s on the K-State campus.

Bishop Gerald Vincke accepted the keys to the church from the contractor, knocked on the door and walked inside. And the celebration began for the 14,000-square-foot limestone church and student center at the corner of Anderson and Denison streets.

Numerous clergy were in attendance, including Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann from the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.

The dedication ceremony during the Mass included blessing the church and congregation with holy water, anointing the walls and the altar with chrism, incensing the altar, and lighting candles on the altar and all around the church.

During the anointing of the altar, the bishop poured oil onto it, then rubbed the oil into the marble top with his own hands.

Bishop Vincke likened the ceremony to the baptism of a baby.

“[Parents] bring a baby to the waters of baptism and are asked, ‘What do you ask of God?’ One could say that we are baptizing the church today,” he said.

Father Gale Hammerschmidt, pastor at St. Isidore’s, could only shake his head after Mass while thanking everyone. Overcome with emotion, he once even paused for several seconds before continuing on.

“I am humbled by the hundreds and hundreds of people who have so appreciated this mission that we have been on,” he said. “I’m so grateful to God that he put the right people in the right place during this journey.”

One of those “right people” was Father Hammerschmidt himself.

A Kansas State alum, Father Hammerschmidt knew of the ongoing discussions about a new church. When he was assigned to serve as pastor at St. Isidore’s in 2017, he heard about it immediately. By the next year, he and the board had begun an ardent fundraising campaign that raised $11 million toward the $18 million project.

Less than five years later, the dream became reality.

After a new student center was built, the old church was demolished. During construction of the new chapel, Mass was held at the Alumni Center and/or at the student center.

Now, visitors to St. Isidore’s are greeted by a large, ornate baptismal font as they enter the church. Eyes are drawn to the wooden overhead arches. A stunning golden mosaic on the front of the marble altar from Italy draws

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