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Faith Grand
Rapids
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July/August 2007 Issue
A Glimpse at our Past
| In
announcing the establishment of the new St. Luke's University
Parish in Allendale, Bishop Walter A. Hurley alluded
to the fact that he chose the name to honor the distinguished
and growing medical profession in the Grand Rapids area.
Some interesting threads – or perhaps
we should say, timbers – may tie these two parishes
to the very foundations of Catholic life in Western
Michigan. |
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St. Luke the Evangelist, traditionally reputed
to be a doctor himself, has for centuries been known as the
patron saint of physicians. The Allendale parish will not be
the fi rst institution in the Diocese of Grand Rapids with the
author of the Third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles as its
patron. Many familiar with the northern part of the "old" diocese,
now part of the Diocese of Gaylord, will immediately think of
St. Luke's Church in Bellaire. However, for nearly 50 years,
a building dedicated to St. Luke has stood right in the center
of our city of Grand Rapids. We have to turn to the pages of
The Western Michigan Catholic, predecessor twice removed of
this present publication, to fi nd that a "White Mass" for physicians
and medical personnel on the feast of St. Luke seems to have
been fi rst celebrated in this area on Oct. 18, 1956. Bishop
Allen J. Babcock was the celebrant of that Mass. It was sponsored
by the Catholic Physicians Guild, of which the late Dr. Arthur
J. Tesseine was president for some years. Msgr. Raymond J. Sweeney
of St. Thomas served the group as its chaplain. The service
was termed a "White Mass" not because of the liturgical color
(which must be red for the feast of St. Luke), but because medical
personnel in those days typically wore white, instead of the
greens and blues now common in hospital settings. The 1956 news
story indicated that the observance of the feast, consisting
of the morning Mass and breakfast and an evening dinner and
conference at the Pantlind Hotel, was being held "in conjunction
with programs by similar guilds throughout the United States."
A St. Luke's Mass has been more than an occasional feature of
the diocesan calendar ever since, with the ceremony often taking
place at the Cathedral of Saint Andrew. With such spiritual
energy being generated by the Catholic Physicians Guild and
its program, it was no surprise that a new facility at the local
Catholic hospital would bear the name of St. Luke. It was announced
in April 1959, that construction of a new 12- unit rental residence
for married interns at St. Mary's Hospital would begin within
the month. St. Luke's Interns' Residence was completed that
September, at a cost of $167,000, toward which the hospital's
medical staff contributed the considerable sum of $60,000! The
building, located at 210 Lafayette S.E., just south of Cherry
Street, is in use to this day (see photo on this page). The
date "1959" is easily noted on the cornerstone. Grand Rapids
continues to grow in prominence in the medical fi eld - regionally,
nationally, and even internationally - with the steady addition
of new health-care facilities, availability of treatments and
therapy and increasingly prestigious institutions of research
and study. Bishop Hurley's choice of St. Luke as the patron
of the fi rst parish established under his direction honors
that prominence. In a very "holistic" way, it also serves to
remind all in the healthcare profession that body and soul are
inextricably interwoven in the human person; and that Christ
Jesus, the Good Shepherd and Divine Physician, is the one who
fi rst and foremost can bring healing and strength to both.
– Fr. Dennis W. Morrow, diocesan
archivist
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