OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Our Lady of Perpetual Help is the heartbeat of the Catholic Church in Oklahoma City, a community that has overcome great obstacles in a century of faith.
100 years after its construction, the church that was the center of people’s lives remembers Very Reverend Rick Stansberry, the Rector at the Cathedral.
“In a sense, all Catholics of the Archdiocese belong here,” said Archdiosesan Archivist, George Rigazzi. “This is their church. It’s the bishop’s church.”
In the 1920s, Our Lady’s was a vision for a new 20th century church to meet the needs of a growing Catholic population on the north side of Oklahoma City.
Construction began in 1923.
To be clear, it was a bold move to invest $122,000 ($2.1M today) to construct a towering house of worship at a time when the Catholic population in Oklahoma City was a mere three percent.
Post-war hostility against Catholics was surging and discrimination was on the rise.
“One hundred years ago, there was a lot of prejudice,” said Father Stansberry. “Catholics were not well accepted. They were looked down upon. They couldn’t join civic clubs and things. The Klan burned a cross once, I think, in front of this church and others.”