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By Eric Connolly
St. Joseph Parish in Harlowton was
“never a stranger to hardship, but it never
lost its sense of hope,” Bishop George Leo
Thomas said in a homily as he helped the
parish on the eastern end of the diocese
celebrate its 100th anniversary.
The bishop celebrated Mass in
Harlowton on Aug. 22. Later in the day, he
blessed a monument given the parish as a
gift, and parishioners gathered for a picnic
in a park.
During his homily, Bishop Thomas
spoke about the rich history of St. Joseph
Parish.
“In 1908 and 1909, the Catholics in
this valley longed for the day when they
would have their own resident pastor, and
they began to petition the bishop, Bishop
Carroll, that he might consider sending a
resident priest in this community,” Bishop
Thomas said. Soon after the initial request,
he said, “Harlowton was facing considerable
growth, and the temporary sense of
the town, one of tents and canvas buildings,
was changing rapidly into permanent
structures of brick and sandstone.”
It wasn’t long before Bishop Carroll
assigned a priest to the Harlowton area.
Speaking of the ups and downs that any
parish sees over time, Bishop Thomas
described St. Joseph as “this hallowed
place where children were baptized, where
little ones received first Communion and
first confession.” It is where burdens and
debts of sin have been confessed and
washed away, he said.
“Here you have buried your beloved
dead,” the bishop said. “Marriages have
been celebrated and you have heard the
word of God in season and out of season.
And always and in every decade, the
Eucharist has been the source and the summit
of the life of this church. Christ the
same, yesterday, today and forever.”
In closing his homily, Bishop Thomas
recalled the 1996 song “If These Walls
Could Speak,” by Jimmy Webb.
“If these old walls could speak, they
would tell us stories of happiness and
hope, of hardship, of good times and bad,”
the bishop said. “And the constant and
undying theme we hear is the deep abiding
love this community has for the Lord, for
one another and for the faith that is one
holy Catholic and apostolic Church.”
After the Mass, Bishop Thomas
blessed the marble monument inscribed
with the Ten Commandments on one side
and the Beatitudes on the other. Father
Jeff Benusa, the parish pastor, said St.
Joseph acquired the monument after a
company mistakenly sent two to a parish
and then advised giving away the extra
because returning it would be too costly.
The spare monument was offered to
Wyoming’s Carmelite monks, who
declined it because they were without a
permanent home at the time.
“So they offered it to us,” Father
Benusa said. “All we had to do was go
down and get a 900-pound block of granite
and place it.”
Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 9, September 17, 2010.
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