St. Mary dedicates new house of worship
By T.J. Aulds
The Daily News
Published July 28, 2010

TEXAS CITY — For 30 years, Elaine Schmitz has called St. Mary of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church her worship home. She, like hundreds of other St. Mary parishioners, had dreamed for years of a new home for Texas City’s 100-year-old congregation.

That dream — and then some — came true Tuesday.

“It’s so beautiful,” Schmitz said. “Every little thing isn’t just there because it’s pretty. It’s there because it means something.”

Indeed, the new home of St. Mary is full of symbolism designed to educate the faithful and lift spirits on high.

“We Catholics are big on symbolism,” Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, head of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese, said. The cardinal presided over the new church’s dedication ceremony.

The 2-1/2-hour ceremony was rich in symbolism — from sprinkling holy water on the structure and on congregation members to anointing of altar and walls of the church with oil to calling on the saints to help bless the church.

Even filling the church with incense signified the prayers and sacrifice ascending to God. It also set off the church’s new fire alarm system, drawing a chuckle from the hundreds who packed the pews.

The dedication was a long time in coming.

The Rev. Tom Ponzini, the church’s priest, noted that when he arrived at St. Mary of the Miraculous Medal in 2001, the first question he was asked by most parishioners was, “When are we building a new church?”

As he outlined the church’s construction timeline, he noted its parallels to the advancing career of DiNardo, who is considered a new breed of leader within the Catholic Church and has quickly ascended to the post of cardinal.

“Thanks be to God we didn’t have to wait for you to become Pope (to build the new church),” Ponzini joked.

“This was a beautiful experience for our whole parish and this community,” Ponzini said after the dedication. “A lot of people played a lot of roles making it so beautiful, and we were blessed that many of them were able to come and experience this day.”

Among those experiencing the day was Pat Lamp, 76, who for 30 years was the choir director for the church. She moved to Sealy four years ago but said she still considers St. Mary her home church.

“I really feel this is a community that really feel for each other,” Lamp said.

Ponzini said dozens of church volunteers helped make the new church a reality, including Perry O’Brien, who headed the church’s master plan committee, and former Texas City Mayor Chuck Doyle, who was the force behind the fundraising effort. Doyle also played a major role in overseeing construction and personally commissioned most of the statues and stained-glass windows that adorn the church.

O’Brien was seen beaming in the foyer at the back of the church with its 48-foot high vaulted ceilings held up by massive wooden beams. Doyle called the new church “the crown jewel” of the projects he has worked on in the city.

Work crews were even putting the final touches on a fountain near the entrance. Doyle gained a reputation while mayor as prolific in having fountains and statues placed throughout the city.

Non-Catholics helped make St. Mary a reality, as well. Wanda Dinklage, a veteran interior designer and owner of House of Interiors in La Marque, volunteered her services to help create the look and feel of the church.

“These folks have been my customers and very loyal,” she said of many members of the congregation. “Sometimes you have to give back to those who have been so good to you.”

The new church impressed the cardinal, who has been busy dedicating new churches. St. Mary of the Miraculous Medal was the seventh church he’s dedicated in the last 3-1/2 years.

“It is spacious, yet intimate,” DiNardo said. “That’s what we want.”