Historical items to be used for the ordination

Reminders of the rich and authentic Catholic history of Central and Northeastern Missouri will be incorporated into the ordination and installation Mass for Bishop-elect W. Shawn McKnight.

Among them will be the chalices for the consecration of the Most Precious Blood:

•A chalice that belonged to Father Charles Nerinckx — a 19th-century Belgian Jesuit missionary to the Midwestern United States and contemporary of Jesuit Fathers Ferdinand Helias and Jean Pierre DeSmet;

•The chalice used by Bishop Joseph M. Marling C.PP.S., founding bishop of the Jefferson City diocese, at his priestly ordination in 1934 and in numerous Masses thereafter;

•The chalice at the Mass for the founding of the diocese in 1956 and at the diocese’s Golden Jubilee Mass in 2006; and

•The chalice from the episcopal ordination of Bishop Michael F. McAuliffe, second bishop of Jefferson City, in 1969.

The Cathedral of St. Joseph, completed in 1968, itself has been the venue for numerous diocesan Liturgies, including the ordination and installation of two bishops and the Funeral Masses for Bishop Marling and Bishop McAuliffe.

As part of the Ordination Rite, Bishop-elect McKnight will lay prostrate before the altar, in the same place where Bishop McAuliffe and Bishop John R. Gaydos did in 1968 and 1997 and where Bishop Marling’s and Bishop McAuliffe’s earthly remains lay in state before their funerals in 1979 and 2006, respectively.