As we look now to our second century, we take our thoughts From His Excellency, Bishop Reilly, who spoke to our diocesan family at the Mass of Chrism, in March,1979, on "Reflections On Our Diocesan Jubilee."

"We look to the future with hope, deep filled Christian hope ... Not optimism which sees no problems, and not pessimism which sees no possibilities ... hope which sees challenges.

"We are conscious of the heritage left to us by the pioneers of faith who built this church, planted the seeds of faith and sustained that faith for one hundred years. We rightly admire the courage, the generosity, the willingness to take risks, the hard work, the inventiveness of men and women who lived out the life of the Church before us in this parish.

"Essentially, our parish is a community of believers who serve one another, who pray together, who celebrate the Eucharistic mysteries of the Lord; where our people are baptized and confirmed, grow up and are married, where they live and where they die. It is a community of believers who reach out to other communities: first, to our diocesan community because we have such a unique role as the cathedral parish; to all our brothers and sisters in the Christian world; to all believers and to those who have no faith. Our task is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person, baptized or unbaptized, to the many who need encouragement, to those simply in need.

"The problems of the past one hundred years were solved not by looking away nor pretending they were not there, nor by hoping they would go away. They were solved by ingenuity and hard work, by a willingness to seek new answers to new questions, by holding to tradition and at the same time changing whatever needed changing to keep that tradition alive. With that conviction, conscious of the presence of the Lord Jesus in our midst, we begin our second century."