Dialog editor
Spiritual center of the diocese beginning its third century
For the 200 years the Cathedral of St. Peter has existed at Sixth and West Streets in Wilmington, the church has “moved” at least twice.
First, in 1868 when the first Catholic church in Wilmington, built in 1816 as part of the Diocese of Philadelphia, was “moved” by Rome into the newly created Diocese of Wilmington.
The second time the cathedral was moved was in 1991, when contractors carefully lifted the 20-ton building to add a steel support structure to reinforce the church’s pillars and choir loft. That event added a hydraulic meaning to the “On Eagle’s Wings” lyric “I will raise you up.”
But mostly, St. Peter’s has been a sign of the stability of Catholicism in the city and it stands, since its 19th-century renovations into a cathedral church, as the home of the bishops of Wilmington and the spiritual center of the faith in Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Bishop Malooly will begin the 200th anniversary celebrations of the cathedral with an April 10 Mass there at 11 a.m. A reception in the parish school down the street from the church will follow.
Father Leonard R. Klein, the cathedral’s administrator, has invited parishioners, former parishioners and the diocesan community to “come home to the cathedral” both for the Mass next Sunday and for a gala dinner scheduled for Oct. 6 at the Hotel du Pont.
Anyone interested in attending the gala “should call the office and get on the list,” Father Klein said.
During his four years leading the parish, Father Klein has found its strength is its “very close-knit and deeply committed membership. People here keep an eye out for each other.”
That sense of community, reflected in parishioners’ generous participation in the Annual Catholic Appeal, is very evident, Father Klein said, in how the community bands together to do projects.
Cathedral of St. Peter currently has about 130 families on its rolls, Father Klein said. “Even though it’s a small parish, there are always ample volunteers.”
Music ministry and liturgy at St. Peter’s are another major trait of the parish. Father Klein credits music director Michael Davidson’s “high quality work” establishing the quality and reputation of the choir and liturgies.
Sister Mary George Barlow, a Daughter of Charity, runs the cathedral parish’s Seton Center Outreach program that aids homeless and unemployed with the help of parishioner donations and grants from other groups.
Sister Mary George’s work, and that of the parish St. Vincent de Paul Society, is “well-known in the neighborhood,” Father Klein said.
The Daughters of Charity also founded and run Cathedral of St. Peter School. (See related article on page 15.)
The cathedral, on the edge of West Center City Wilmington, has been situated in a challenged neighborhood for years.
Father Klein said he appreciates the diocese’s commitment to keep its bishops’ “home parish” in the same place for 200 years.
“There have been thoughts of moving that come up repeatedly throughout the years” but the priest, who is also in charge of St. Patrick’s and St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception parishes in Wilmington, foresees possible renewal of the Quaker Hill area in the future.
“There are two old and important places of worship on West Street,” Father Klein noted. (The historic Wilmington Friends Meeting is on the next block from St. Peter’s.) And Father Klein can envision the two religious anchors in the neighborhood merging into the growing Arts District in the city that’s “coming up the hill toward us.”
55 years at St. Peter’s
While the immediate neighborhood isn’t as Catholic as it once was, one stalwart parishioner of more than 55 years — that’s more than 25 percent of the Cathedral’s history — is Margaret Consiglio.
“I was introduced to the cathedral when I joined the choir through Catholic Social Services in 1961.”
The choir director then and for 47 years in total, was Carmen Consiglio, whose family ties to the cathedral began in the 19th century. He soon extended his own family by marrying Margaret.
Carmen Consiglio died in 2003, but Margaret is still singing in the church’s choir. In addition to once working as development director for Catholic Charities, she has taught at Cathedral of St. Peter School.
Consiglio said that on Sundays in the early 1960s, the church was “pretty full but you could always find a seat.” And “always, people knew one another. If someone was missing (on Sundays) someone would find out what was wrong. There was a sense of community, even though few parishioners were living in the neighborhood even then.”
When the late Msgr. Paul Taggart, an iconic priest of the diocese, was rector of St. Peter’s, Consiglio said, “he was a key part of the cathedral. The St. Patrick’s Day party when he was there was the best party,” Consiglio said, recalling a Daughter of Charity dancing an Irish jig.
In addition to Father Klein’s leadership now, Consiglio said she admires Father John C. McVoy’s work as assistant priest.
There have been converts from the neighborhood every year since he started at the parish and “he’s started the RCIA again and the book club.”
31 and a lifelong member
Gwen Cantarera is a lifelong parishioner.
“I was baptized at the cathedral,” Gwen said recently.
“Every major event of my life has been at the cathedral from getting married there to baptizing my own children there.”
She now lives in north Wilmington but Cantarera lived “right across the street on Washington until second grade.”
Then Gwen Menton, she attended Cathedral School through eighth grade and she remembers being one of the first girls to be an altar server at the church.
“The community is so small, a lot of the parishioners know me since I was born. You’re associated with the parish that long, it becomes a part of who you are.”
Cantarera said that on some weekends when her husband is working, she goes to Mass with her two children — James Robert and Evelyn Blanche.
“When I go by myself, the other parishioners come sit next to us. ‘We can help you (with the children),’ they say.”
Cantarera, at 31 one of the younger faces at church on Sundays, said she finds the time at the cathedral “very centering. It’s a time you won’t be on your phone or distracted in any way other than having a 2-year old or 5-year-old. Going to Mass is being reminded there is so much more to life.”
It started with music
Kathy Blackwelder started attending St. Peter’s about 45 years ago.
“Our first impression was with the music,” she said. “It was the era of folk Masses.”
The music and the cross-section of worshippers — prominent professionals, young adult families and the marginalized — were impressive, she said.
Attending St. Peter’s became of highlight of her husband Bud’s spiritual journey when one Sunday he told his wife, “I’m becoming Catholic today.”
“I had no idea he was turning Catholic,” Kathy Blackwelder recalled.
Bud had taken lessons to join the church from the rector then, Father James Richardson.
Both Kathy and Bud have been active parishioners, serving as lectors, eucharistic ministers and parish council members over the years.
Kathy is pleased the cathedral’s 200th anniversary is during the Year of Mercy.
“It’s a momentous time for everyone to come and get that cathedral experience,” she said.
‘Where I belong’
Sean Reilly, who lives at Fourth and West Streets, can look at St. Peter’s from his house.
His great grandparents were married at the Cathedral in 1884. Reilly has an old pew from the church in his house that he says “heard” Peter and Mary Agnes Canavan Reilly exchange their wedding vows.
“I’ve been here since I was 26,” Reilly said. “There is no place in the world that cries out to me more. This is where I belong.”
The loyal parishioner is pleased to say the “self-sustaining” parish was the first home for Irish workers at DuPont Mills back in the day.
“All my history is here,” Reilly said. “It’s where my family was. I work for myself; I’m a recruiter. I can go to the 12:10 Mass and be home by 20 of 1. Why would I want to be anywhere else?”
In addition to his day job, Reilly often performs as Frank Sinatra in the area. He’s booked to do his Sinatra show medley during the cathedral’s 200th anniversary gala in October.
For now, Reilly invites all the Cathedral of St. Peter’s friends and family to “come home” for the April 10 Mass.
