1115 W. Riverside Ave., opened on Thanksgiving Day, 1908, is the oldest existing Roman Catholic church in the Inland Empire. It is built of granite and brick in Romanesque style, with two square towers at the corners, 164 feet in height, dominating the main façade. The altars, communion rail, pulpit, and episcopal throne are of Italian marble and Mexican onyx. The woodwork throughout is of quarter-sawed oak, and the windows of Munich stained glass. The firm of Julian and Williams, architects, designed the cathedral.
Once again, for what seems to be the umpteenth time, the cathedral has fallen victim to senseless vandalism, the last incident that has come to our knowledge occurring on June 27, 2016. The Spokane Spokesman-Review article on the incident, published the next day, can be read in part below.
Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral rethinking
open-door policy after vandalism
TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2016, 7 P.M.
The Rev. Darrin Connall would hate to close the doors of his church, even on weekends.
But a dramatic incident at Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral has parishioners wondering how to protect the church’s members and property.
Police responded to the downtown Spokane church Saturday morning to find a 27-year-old man standing on the front steps, shouting and swinging a 6-foot metal cross with a large knife taped to one end. Security footage showed he had been inside the church for about an hour, causing untold damage while tens of thousands of people took part in Hoopfest nearby.
“He came close to being shot,” Connall said. “Thank God he saw fit to put the cross down.”
It wasn’t the first time the church has fallen victim to property crime. On May 3, someone broke into the cathedral office to steal a set of brass consecration bells.
On May 11, a young man climbed through Connall’s bedroom window to steal cash from the wallet on his night stand. The man apparently jumped from a fire escape to reach the window on the third floor of the rectory. Connall was in another room, recovering from recent cancer surgery, and shouted at the man just before he slipped back out the window.
“I thought it was a worker or something,” the priest said. “I didn’t immediately realize I was being robbed.”
He added, “We’re collecting police reports like baseball cards.”
The church now is rethinking its open-door policy. Some members have suggested locking the doors on weekends when Mass isn’t being held. Another option is to hire a part-time security guard, which would be an unexpected and unwelcome expense.
Connall wants to keep the doors open...
From the Spokane Spokesman-Review