Catholics celebrate 50 years in Post Falls

The Northwest's largest community of traditional Catholics is celebrating 50 years of growth with a series of events in North Idaho.

A symposium, "The Beacon of Faith: A Symposium on Catholic Tradition in the Northwest United States," will be held all day today in Post Falls to honor the Immaculate Conception Church 50th Jubilee Celebration and dedication. Bishop Bernard Fellay will be the keynote speaker. The symposium in Post Falls is sold out, but can be watched online at no cost.

The church’s 50th anniversary was celebrated Thursday with a candlelit procession after Mass. Other anniversary events included an Advent concert Friday evening performed by the students of the Immaculate Conception Academy and a sold-out banquet will be held Sunday at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds.

"We wish to celebrate the 50-year history of Immaculate Conception Church, which has been a center of Catholic Tradition in the Pacific Northwest from which priests and the 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," the Rev. Vicente Griego, the Prior of Immaculate Conception Church, which is served by the Society of Saint Pius X, said of the Jubilee.

"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," he said.

Priests at the Immaculate Conception priory serve the needs of the faithful in Idaho, Washington and Montana. Missions can be found in Post Falls, St. Maries, Ferdinand, New Plymouth, Spokane, Edmunds, Kalispell and Victor.

At a time when many modern Catholic churches are facing closures and decline in Mass attendance, the number of traditional Catholics in the Northwest continues to rapidly grow, from which come many young vocations to the Catholic priesthood and the religious life.

About 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 St. Dominic's 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 the Immaculate Conception Church began in the basement of a retired Spokane priest. A handful of Catholics who hoped to preserve the Tridentine Rite of Mass (in Latin) in 1969 persuaded the Rev. Edward DeBusschere to turn his basement into a makeshift chapel, which the congregation soon outgrew.

The construction of Interstate 90 in Post Falls required the removal of a small Catholic church. On Sept. 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, DeBusschere dedicated it as the Immaculate Conception Church.

The parish in 1975 established a co-ed school, the Immaculate Conception Academy, with an initial enrollment of 17 students. 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, 176 boys are enrolled in the academy, with about the same number of girls at St. Dominic's Girls School.

Visit icc.id.sspx.org/en/icc-jubilee for details on how to watch today's live-streamed symposium.