Bishop's Dinner to honor memory of Bernice Maher Mooney and her family

Friday, Sep. 05, 2014

SALT LAKE CITY — When James and Julia Maher made the Cathedral of the Madeleine their home parish in the early years of the last century, they could have no way of knowing that one of their daughters would grow up to write a definitive book on the building, that their granddaughter would be married there, and their great-granddaughters would receive their First Holy Communion there.

It is these sorts of connections that the 2014 Bishop’s Dinner plans to recognize with its theme, Generations of Faith. The dinner will be dedicated to Bernice Maher Mooney, author of The Story of the Cathedral of the Madeleine and two books on the Diocese of Salt Lake City. She also served as president of the Cathedral Altar Society, and in later years was named the diocese’s archivist emeritus for her work in that area. She will be honored not only for her services but for the four generations of her family’s contributions to the cathedral and what they continue to give, said Patricia Wesson, the cathedral’s director of development.

Bernice Maher was baptized and celebrated her First Communion and the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Cathedral of the Madeleine, which later was the venue for her marriage to her husband, John (Jay) Mooney.

The couple’s daughter Anne Mooney grew up in California, but frequently visited family in Salt Lake City “and the cathedral was definitely part of those visits,” she said.

Although she doesn’t recall the first time she entered the Cathedral of the Madeleine, Anne Mooney remembers the physcial  space being very different from her church in Los Angeles. “You just knew that you were walking into something really special, and it took you out of the ordinary that you had every week.”

Anne Mooney moved to the Salt Lake area while she was in high school, and later returned to Los Angeles. While there, she and her fiancé, John Sparano, decided to marry in the Cathedral of the Madeleine “because of the link to my family,” she said. 

Now, Anne Mooney and her husband live Utah; they have watched their own daughters receive their First Communion at the cathedral. The girls also sing there frequently as members of the Madeleine Choir School.

Bernice Mooney’s funeral Mass was celebrated in the Cathedral of the Madeleine last December; emotion can overtake Anne Mooney when she speaks of the cathedral, she said, because “it’s so wrapped up in my mother.”

Although the cathedral at its foundation has a spiritual role, it has a social component, such as the Girl Scout troop that her children are involved with; a social outreach aspect, such as its Good Samaritan program; and a wider cultural role in the community with offerings such as the annual Madeleine Festival of the Arts and Humanities and the Organ Festival, she said.

As her children grow older, she hopes they, too, will be inspired by the cathedral and connect it not only with God but with their family members, both the living and the dead, Anne Mooney said. 

An architect, Anne Mooney says she has come to appreciate the cathedral even more over the years, particularly as she has visited different cathedrals and other sacred spaces throughout the world. The Cathedral of the Madeleine “has an incredible place here in Utah and also sits within a larger context of sacred architecture,” she said. “Now I understand that it’s a significant piece of architecture also that we’re blessed with here in Utah.”

However, the cathedral isn’t just a place where people go to pray or celebrate Mass, “it’s something that links all of our families together – our collective Catholic family,” she said, adding that when she visits she thinks of her uncle who did volunteer work there, and of her grandmother who was a parishioner, and of her grandfather, whom she never met. “It links us to all of those … and to our larger Catholic family,” she said. 

WHAT: The Bishop’s Dinner

WHEN: Thursday, Sept. 18, social hour 6 p.m.; dinner 7 p.m.

WHERE: Grand America Hotel

Cost: $150 per person

RSVP to debiallred@utcotm.org