What's Brewing in Milwaukee

Q: Did you hear about the winner of the Polish beauty contest?
A: Me neither.

It’s time to throw that joke out, because there is a Polish beauty contest winner and she resides in Milwaukee, and has for the last 114 years. Yet after all these years, people still call her sumptuous, opulent, and grandiose. Indeed, she has all the right numbers in all the right places, like her 23k gold leaf baldacchino, her 46 rank organ, the 61 relics she houses, and the $18 million put in to restore her. This beauty is the Basilica of St. Josephat, and whether you’re pious or not, she will take your breath away. When this edifice was being constructed, so the story goes, Polish women sold their wedding rings to help finance the project. What modern-day girl would be willing to do that?? Gems sold long ago give us a gem of a different sort today.

St. Josephat was constructed of rescued materials from a Post Office in Chicago that was being dismantled at the time -- 500 railroad cars' worth of carved stone, granite pillars, wooden doors and the like. The doorknobs in the church today still bear the insignia of the Post Office. Modeled after St. Peter's in Rome, this destination really does provide a Rome-at-home experience. No visit is complete without hearing the resounding organ and choir, so come for Sunday Mass at 10:00 and stay for the full tour afterwards. This place is a concert-worthy venue, and when concerts are hosted here, the house lights are left on so people can take in all the majesty -- the stained-glass windows, the expansive domed spaces, the apt inscription in Old Polish: "My eyes and my heart will be here for all times."

Impressive as the main level is, the real riches for me are to be found in an overlooked alcove on the Lower Level. Here are displayed 61 relics (bones and such) of Catholic "Rock Stars" like John the Baptist, St. Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and a relic of the True Cross. The tug is the same as the one that brings people to visit Elvis’ tomb at Graceland or to desire an autographed copy of a book. Here, after all, is something tangible that calls up those who have inspired us and shaped us. After losing Dad a year ago, this visit has become a pilgrimage for me, and here in this crypt is where the invisible becomes visible. It’s not JFK memorabilia, but is just as precious. That’s the real beauty this church offers beyond its numbers -- that connection to the sacred that you can't get just anywhere.