Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Hundreds gathered to dedicate the sparkling new St. Aloysius Church on the Gonzaga College campus.

Bishop Edward J. O’Dea of the Diocese of Washington presided over the ceremony. And there was indeed plenty of ceremony.

“A solemn procession, in which over 150 people participated, formed at Gonzaga College and, leaving by the front entrance, moved with slow step to the front of the new building,” said the Spokane Daily Chronicle. “While the priests and altar boys chanted the Miserere, Bishop O’Dea sprinkled the front steps with holy water. The bishop held in his hand a golden crozier resembling in form the shepherd’s crook. … The bishop was vested in purple cassock, golden vestments and golden cape.”

The Gonzaga orchestra and choir filled the church with music by Mozart, Gounod, Rossini and Handel.

“What conclusions do you form from all this ceremony?” O’Dea asked the congregation. “It is vain and worthless if it does not impress upon you the duty of loving this great church, and make you glory in being a member of this great faith.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1933: Bank robber John Dillinger escaped from a jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, who killed the sheriff, Jess Sarber.