| U.S. News

The renovation will be completed in time for the scheduled reopening of the basilica Nov. 4. Special events are scheduled through Nov. 12.

This year marks the bicentennial of the start of construction on the basilica in 1806 on top of a hill overlooking Baltimore. The basilica was designed by Benjamin Latrobe, chief architect of the original U.S. Capitol in Washington.

When ground was broken for the cathedral, Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore was the only Catholic bishop for the entire country.

Michael Ruck, chairman of the board of the Basilica Historic Trust, announced plans for the reopening of the historic church at a press conference March 15 inside the basilica. With the work already completed during the privately funded restoration, the church is flooded with natural light that reveals its freshly painted colors.

He cited Bishop Carroll and Latrobe's vision for the nation's first Catholic cathedral and called it a masterpiece.

Ruck, a member of the basilica parish and president and CEO of the Ruck Family Corps., said the announcement of the November celebration marked the 200th anniversary of the week John Eager Howard, a colonel in the American Revolution, agreed to sell the site on which the basilica sits for $20,000 "to the trustees of what would become the first great metropolitan cathedral in America."

Using the prominent 19th-century site for the building represented a break from the past, Ruck said. "Catholicism had been illegal and was repressed when the British were in charge."

Construction of the basilica would "secure not only the right of Catholics, but also the right of all Americans to worship as they pleased," he added. "Thus, religious freedom began to emerge from a constitutional concept to concrete reality, right here, 200 years ago this week."

The privately funded restoration is expected to cost $32 million, said Ruck. Mark Potter, executive director of the basilica trust, said $25 million has already been raised from individuals, organizations and foundations across the country, adding that $21 million is already in hand, "which is phenomenal."

Ruck also noted that the building's historic significance is particularly important today when sacred mosques and basilicas in distant lands are being attacked.

"This cathedral deserves to be preserved, protected and ... showcased for Americans of today and Americans of tomorrow," he said, "as a symbol of our right to worship without fear or persecution or attack."

Dr. Marie-Alberte Boursiquot, a member of the basilica parish who is also a member of the board of the trust, announced the basilica will officially reopen Nov. 4. The following day the altar will be rededicated and an archdiocesan Mass will be celebrated.

Boursiquot said a highlight of the week will be Nov. 12, "when all the Catholic bishops of America will converge on Baltimore for a procession into the basilica, a moment that will echo a similar procession when the church was first opened."

Potter thanked the trust's board members, the contractor, Henry Lewis and architect, John G. Waite Associates. In thanking all the carpenters, electricians, roofers and painters who are working to restore the basilica, Potter mentioned the signature of a mid-19th-century craftsman in the undercroft of the basilica.

Francis Gildea, who signed his name in wet cement soon after the Civil War battle of Gettysburg, Pa., in 1863, is a tangible link "to all the many expert craftsmen whose beautiful work on this restoration will inspire and be admired for centuries to come," Potter said.

"Now that the scaffolding is down," Potter added, "it's easy to imagine how wonderful the basilica will be when the new marble floor is in place and our pews, pulpit, altar and bishop's chair are gloriously restored."