Aquinas' 50th Year Mark - 1973

We had hoped that Fr. Edward McKenna, mentioned in this article, would be able to join us at our September 30, 2012 reunion, but he already had vacation plans and is unable to change them.


In a Chicago Today article, dated November 9, 1973, religion editor, Myron Weigle, reports on the plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of St. Thomas Aquinas' church building.

Aquinas' 50th year marked

St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, 5112 W. Washington Blvd. a West Side landmark, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its dedication with a solemn high mass next Sunday at 2 p.m.

Auxiliary Bishop Michael R. Dempsey, vicar delegate of the West Side for Cardinal Cody, will be the principal celebrant of the mass, with the Rev. Peter Franzen the homilist.

Concelebrants will be members of the parish staff, some former assistant pastors, and priests ordained from the parish.

The first mass offered in the church was for the funeral of the founding pastor, Msgr. Daniel Luttrell.

Outstanding is the 12-story tower of the church, said to be still the highest structure in the Austin Community.

Karl Vitzthum, designer of the massive, solidly built Tudor Gothic church, lived in the parish until his death in 1967.

Vitzthum also was responsible for the mural behind the high altar, a copy of the "Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas" by the Renaissance Spanish master Zurbaran.

Altho the church was officially founded 65 years ago, work did not begin on the structure until 1923.  It was not completed until December, 1924.

Much of the artistic finery in the church was purchased by its second pastor, the Rev. Edward L. Dondanville.

The stained glass windows were made in Munich, Germany; the terra cotta main altar installed in 1929, and the Kilgen pip organ came from the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Swiss pavilion.

Twenty years ago, Msgr. William Long replaced the Gothic line of the church with paintings which turned the ceiling into an array of brightly mottled colors.

A highlight of the golden anniversary mass will be the work of the Rev. Edward McKenna, a recent master's degree graduate of the University of Chicago in music composition.

Father McKenna has composed the music especially in honor of the festival, his work dedicated to Cardinal Wright, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy.

It is a musical setting of the complete, revised Order of Mass for chorus, vocal soloists, organ and several musical instruments including brass, woodwinds, strings and percussion, and composed in such a way as to incorporate full congregation participation.

Chicago Today, November 9, 1973.