Hundreds of Catholics March Through The Snow — Consecrate Post Falls, Kootenai County, and Idaho to Christ The King
On Thursday December 8th, over 500 Catholics, accompanied by a dozen priests and a bishop, braved the snow and ice to consecrate Post Falls, Kootenai County and the great state of Idaho to Jesus Christ.
The procession was hosted by Immaculate Conception Church in Post Falls, which is also celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Speaking with Tribune reporters, the Prior of Immaculate Conception Church, Fr. Vicente Griego, confirmed that this was the first time the procession and consecration had been attended by a bishop.
His Excellency, Bishop Bernard Fellay of the Society of Saint Pius X, marched with parishioners through the snow to Post Falls City Hall.
Immaculate Conception Church is home to the Northwest's largest community of traditional Catholics with an average of 1,750 people attending Mass each Sunday, and that number is growing.
Speaking about the Church’s 50 year jubilee, Fr. Griego said:
We wish to celebrate the fifty-year history of Immaculate Conception Church, which has been a center of Catholic Tradition in the Pacific Northwest from which priests and religious have gone out to serve individuals, families and communities in the single desire to live faithfully the life Jesus Christ preached and exemplified, by teaching perennial Catholic doctrine and morals, while sustaining this divine work by the Sacraments given us by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
We wish to give thanks to God for His abundant blessings and to strengthen the fraternal and supernatural ties between the many souls who are spiritually nourished at Immaculate Conception Church, whereby we share our joys, sorrows, accomplishments and even failures in mutual support to persevere and advance in the love of God
Immaculate Conception Church also led a massive procession in October, to pray for persecuted Christians all around the world.
The 50th Jubilee events honoring the dedication of Immaculate Conception Church feature an all-day symposium on Saturday, December 10. Bishop Bernard Fellay will be the keynote speaker at the symposium, which is titled Catholic Tradition in the Northwest United States. The all-day symposium in Post Falls is sold out but can be watched online at no cost by clicking here.
Priests at Immaculate Conception priory serve the needs of the faithful in three Northwest states: Idaho, Washington and Montana. Missions are located in the cities of Post Falls, St. Maries, Ferdinand, and New Plymouth, Spokane, Edmunds, Kalispell, and Victor.
At a time when many modern Catholic churches are facing decline in Mass attendance or even closures, the number of traditional Catholics in the Northwest continues to grow rapidly, from which come many young vocations to the Catholic Priesthood and the Religious life.
Approximately 600 families are affiliated with the Post Falls church, where priests of the Society of St. Pius X celebrate seven Sunday Masses in the immediate Post Falls area, including at nearby St. Dominic School and the Carmel of the Most Holy Trinity in Spokane. Those are attended by about 1,750 people on Sundays.
A Brief History:
The community of faithful that formed around Immaculate Conception Church started humbly: in the basement of a retired priest in Spokane, Washington. A handful of Catholics who hoped to preserve the Tridentine Rite of Mass (in Latin) in 1969 had persuaded Fr. Edward DeBusschere to turn his basement into a makeshift chapel, which the congregation soon outgrew.
Providentially, the construction of Interstate 90 in Post Falls required the removal of a small Catholic church. On September 6, 1972, John O'Neill purchased the church and paid to move the church to its new home in Post Falls soon after. Three months later, Fr. DeBusschere dedicated it as Immaculate Conception Church.
In 1975 the parish established a co-ed school, Immaculate Conception Academy, with an initial enrollment of only 17 children. By 1988 the school had grown to 62 students.
The prominence of North Idaho as a fast-growing traditional Catholic center attracted the Dominican Sisters of Fanjeaux (France). They chose Post Falls as the home for their first U.S. K-12 girls' school in 1991. That allowed the parish academy to become an all-boys school, and later a high school. A new building was completed on St. Patrick's Day in 1998 to allow for more students. Today there are 176 boys enrolled in the Academy, with about the same number of girls at St. Dominic Girls School.
