Petersburg’s St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church caught fire and burned to the ground in July 2023. It was a devastating blow to Petersburg’s Catholic community, which spent three years without their own church.
Father Thomas Jose was in his first year in Petersburg when the church burned down. He said other faith communities propped the church up in its darkest days — like Petersburg’s First Presbyterian Church, where St. Catherine of Siena held mass as they sorted out the construction of a new building.
“It was heartbreaking, but the community held us together,” he said. “They offered us their space for our worship and mass, and they were sharing their church for us, and that shows it is a community.”
This year, on July 19, the pews of the new St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church were completely filled for its dedication mass.
The nave of the church has large windows and curved wooden trusses that reach up into a high ceiling. Juneau-based architect Rich Conneen said it was important for the design to match the community.
“It’ll almost resemble, if you think about it, an inverted boat,” he said. “This is the Norwegian community of Petersburg, and I think all those things are present. They’re woodworkers and they’re great boat workers, and this is the church that they would build.”
As part of the ceremony, Conneen presented the church designs to Archbishop Andrew Bellisario, who is based out of Anchorage and Juneau.
The archbishop sprinkled the church with blessed water and anointed the walls and altar with sacred oil.
“Why do we build churches?” Bellasario asked the crowd. “We build churches to present to God a reverent place for God to dwell among us, created from our own hands, from God’s greatest creation: human beings.”
Bellisario said in the nine years he’s been a bishop, this was his first church dedication. It’s not often that new churches are built, and he said that made the day’s events very special.
“This church is built upon the ashes of the old church, the foundation of the old church,” he said. “But with having so many people coming together to create it, we have this beautiful edifice now. It’s just wonderful.”
The congregation took communion, and those who were not Catholic — of which there were many — could receive prayers instead.
Butch Young, a Baptist, said he had many friends who attend St. Catherine of Siena.
“They had a big push to put all the last of the furniture together, and I thought, ‘Oh praise God! I hope they make it!’ And they did make it,” he said. “It’s just — just a beautiful service and beautiful dedication, and just great to be a part of it.”
Everyone moved to a nearby reception after the two-hour ceremony.
Ed Tagaban has attended the church for 59 years and was on the planning committee for the new building. He said the entire day was a “big relief.”
“It’s one of these moments — special moment — that we can just take in,” he said.
