News

Cathedral towers offer special glow to city

By Nancy Barthel
Compass Correspondent

See for yourself By Nancy Barthel Compass Correspondent If you'd like to see the copper work on St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, the cathedral is at 140 S. Monroe Ave. Or better yet, Masses are at 8:30 a.m. weekdays, 4 p.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. Sundays. Tours of the cathedral are available by appointment. Call (920)432-8242 for more information. For more information on Whitefield Roofing Ltd., tile and copper specialists, call Terry Whitefield at (920)499-7743 or (920)621-5457.

Terry Whitefield's dream - and prayers - have come true.

For nearly two decades he's looked at the domes of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Green Bay and dreamed of seeing them covered in copper.

Whitefield is owner of Whitefield Roofing Ltd., specializing in copper and tile roofing. His work can be seen at St. Norbert College, St. John the Evangelist Church in Green Bay, new homes - and now atop the cathedral church of the Green Bay Diocese.

Coppering the domes and crosses, and repairing the brickwork is a project of the Cathedral parish through the Advancing the Mission campaign. Whitefield's part of the project, which has seen him working 15-16 hours some days since spring, is almost complete. It has been a prayerful and life-changing experience.

The most dramatic moment came when Whitefield placed the newly coppered cross back atop the first completed dome (there are two). He waited until after Mass on Sunday, July 29, so parishioners could witness the important historical moment.

Whitefield said it was one of the biggest moments in his professional life. He hired a helicopter carrying a television camera person and newspaper photographer to document the moment that he and his co-workers reattached the cross to the first dome before he knelt to pray high atop St. Francis Xavier Cathedral.

Whitefield said he prayed for families and asked God to make the world a better place with less violence.

Msgr. Roy Klister, Cathedral rector, wrote about that special Sunday in the Aug. 5th parish bulletin. "Those who saw it in the late afternoon and later evening news were moved by the simple beauty of it. The camera caught on tape one of the young men stepping back after he slid the cross in place on the pole. He looked at the cross, moved forward, gently kissed it, and went down on both knees, head bowed in prayer. Good, simple, powerful message. The man? The owner of Whitefield Roofing."

Cathedral parishioners are keenly aware of their place in diocesan and community history. The cathedral was named for St. Francis Xavier, a 16th century missionary and patron saint of the first mission established by Fr. Claude Allouez and the Jesuit missionaries who came to the Green Bay area in 1669-1670. Francis Xavier was also the baptismal name of Bp. Krautbauer, the second bishop of Green Bay under whose direction the cathedral was built.

St. Francis Xavier Cathedral was dedicated on Nov. 20, 1881, after a five-year building project and just 13 years after the diocese was established on March 2, 1868. The original cost of $35,000 was given by immigrants to the area, the Bavarian Mission Societies and friends of Bp. Krautbauer, who was born and ordained in Bavaria. He had followed in the footsteps of the diocese's first ordinary, Bp. Joseph Melcher.

Prior to the cathedral's completion in May 1878, an article in the Green Bay Advocate offers a glimpse into just how important the new cathedral was to this growing community: "As work progresses on this Roman Catholic Cathedral in this city, the fact becomes daily more evident that it will be the finest structure in northern Wisconsin."

The Romanesque style cathedral was the diocese's second cathedral. The first was a modest frame building, known as St. Mary's, which stood behind the present cathedral and somewhat to the north facing Madison Street.

St. Francis Xavier Cathedral sits at 140 S. Monroe Ave.

The identifying twin towers were added in 1904 and at the time of their dedication they reached only to the belfry sections. The sanctuary addition was completed in 1917. There are five bells in the towers. In the north tower, St. Paul hangs alone because of its great weight of 3,400 pounds. In the south tower are St. Augustine (1,800 pounds), St. Boniface (1,000 pounds), Annunciation (the original bell from the old St. Mary's Pro-cathedral) at 750 pounds and St. Mary (450 pounds).

The domes had never been covered in copper, said Whitefield, whose work is all handcrafted. "Everything is cut, hand bent," he said. "I started with photos. I literally went up and took photos and counted the slates that were up there."

"I've been trying to get this for 17 years," said Whitefield, chatting in the trailer that serves as his on-site office. Part of Monroe Avenue in front of the cathedral has been blocked to traffic while work progresses on the coppering and brickwork restoration. Dramatic scaffolding with 144 steps and three flights of ladders scale the 140-foot high cathedral. The entire roofing and coppering project cost about $750,000, Whitefield said. R.J. Jacques of Green Bay is doing brickwork restoration and tuck-pointing.

"It needed to be done. Slates were starting to fall off," said Whitefield, who is assisted by his stepson, Derek Rosik, and Tim Welch. Experienced roofers also helped. "They just wanted the challenge," he said. They were paid for their work, though they told him, "'You don't even have to pay me,'" Whitefield said.

The crosses atop the cathedral had been painted many times over the years to make them look like copper, Whitefield said. The polished copper of the crosses was covered with clear-coat, then baked at his brother Bob's business, Whitefield Industrial Coatings. That was "the only way I could guarantee a nice finish," he said.

Each cross weighed 45-50 pounds going down (they are hollow), but once they were coppered they weighed double that, Whitefield said.

Expect his work to be here for the life of the building, Whitefield said. "It only gets stronger when it patinas out," he said. Already the copper atop the cathedral is beginning to get a desirable aged look. "It turned to golden brown really quick," he said.

Tom Weyers, Cathedral maintenance director, reflected on the pride the parish is taking in the restorative work and coppering. "If you come into downtown Green Bay ... you see those domes and towers," he said.