1938

News coverage for 1938 was not the best, although January brought publicity for the then famous Servite priest, Father Thomas Calkins who, with a fervor that challenged the Carmelites' well organized devotion to the Little Flower, established the Sorrowful Mother Novena as a national expression of the Catholic way of life. Henceforth, "Goodnight, Sweet Jesus" would be the song of every waking hour.

Hot on the heels of the Novena came the Major Seminary fund raising campaign, the diocesan organization for which had been perfected by Father Corr more than twelve years previously. Jim Gepson was appointed Parish Chairman. During the ensuing weeks the children of the school received prizes for their Seminary exhibits.

Toward the end of the year, St. Elizabeth lost a great benefactress and Father Corr his very dear friend in the death, after a prolonged illness, of Mrs. Mary Young. Quietly, through the years, she had aided the pastor in every one of his many projects to develop the parish. Nor did death still her generous hand. Nevertheless, with her passing, the final scene of a certain era in the history of St. Elizabeth commenced, a scene which, in light and shadow, would continue for two more years. Certainly, some time before the end, on November 2, she must have discussed with Father Corr the idea of a Lourdes shrine in the upper playground. Reference to a project of this nature, already appearing in a local newspaper, would indicate a long period of thoughtful planning. St. Bernadette, canonized in 1934, focused universal attention on the little French town. Possibly the very illness from which he was suffering, added to his lifelong love of the Blessed Virgin, prompted Father to exalt in a special manner the great patroness of the sick. Whatever the background, by August of 1939 newspapers were reporting the near completion of the grotto. As a monument such as Lourdes of the West is not designed in an afternoon, 1938 must be looked upon as the planning period.

For several years, Mr. Ryozo Fuso (Louis) Kado, the fifth generation of a family of rock artists, had been acquiring a wide reputation in the diocese for his construction of shrines made from volcanic rock. St. Elizabeth's was to be his thirty first and most ambitious undertaking. In the construction of its twenty five foot high cave, one hundred thirty tons of lava rock from the Mono Lake area, as well as ninety tons of concrete and heavy steel re-enforcing were used. Carefully selected, rough cut, striated rock served as colorful veins against a background of deep red and brown. As one ledge gradually projected over the other a seemingly unsupported cave was formed, whose natural fissures provided places for the statues, while below, a basin hidden among green and flowering plants caught the stream of water that bubbled from the rocks at the feet of Our Lady. To the right of the large grotto, a smaller recess in the "mountain" housed an altar of the same volcanic stone. In many of the newspaper articles written at the time of the shrine's opening, insistence was laid on the exactness of the reproduction made at Altadena from the Lourdes original. Nothing could have been farther from the mind of Mr. Kado. As a creative Japanese landscape artist, he was telling the story of the historical event in his own terms and with the materials he loved best, just as painters have ever portrayed Biblical stories and lives of the saints. His freedom of approach has resulted in a shine that is as authentic a work of art as it is unauthentic a copy.