Devastated Cedar Rapids church rejuvenates for Easter

[RedGecko]

Its still missing its pews and there doesn’t seem to be any money for fixing the parish center, but on Easter, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church will celebrate its first masses since the flood.

The 118-year-old church just west of downtown counted nearly 1,000 families as members before the Cedar River swelled to record levels, the Rev. Philip Thompson said. The neighborhood surrounding the limestone giant remains largely in ruins, and Thompson estimated the parish may have lost 20 percent of its members.

St. Patrick’s had $500,000 in flood insurance. The remaining $250,000 has come from the church’s savings and donations.

Goodell, a carpenter with weathered hands and a halo of gray hair, is among a group of tradesmen who have donated their time to restore St. Patrick’s.

“This parish has a lot of working-class families,” Goodell said. Plumbers, painters and electricians - many of them retired - don’t have fat checkbooks, but they have their hands.

desmoinesregister.com/article/20090409/NEWS/904090378/1001

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