Cardinal George to visit St. Joseph the Worker

Cardinal Francis George will visit St. Joseph the Worker parish in Wheeling on Sunday afternoon to bless the recently completed new parish hall.

Parishioners are welcome to attend the liturgical blessing at 2:30 p.m. and stay for light refreshments afterward, said Pastor Michael Bonner.

The new hall is a solution to space problems for the growing parish and will be used to house religious education classes, social gatherings and events, as well as services during peak times of the year such as Christmas and Easter.

The hall will hold up to 500 people, Bonner said. The church is at 181 W. Dundee Road.

“We had so many different things going on and we couldn’t always do it all because of space,” Bonner said of the new hall which cost $1.5 million to construct.

Construction started on the new parish hall in June and after a summer of rain, was finally completed last week, he said.

Bonner said this is only the second time in memory that the sitting Cardinal has visited St. Joseph the Worker Parish. The other was in 2007 for the parish’s 50th anniversary celebration.

“It should be a very joyful and celebratory day,” Bonner said.