Bells blessed, final beam placed at UNL's Catholic church and student center

Behind the tarps and chain-link fencing, steel beams rise like matchstick creations toward the heavens.

Every day, the skeleton of the new St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and the Newman Center seems to grow taller -- and more awe-inspiring.

When completed next spring, there is no doubt this traditional Gothic style church and student center will be a sight to behold, and an impressive entrance to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln city campus on the Q street block between 16th and 17th streets.

Which is exactly what Father Robert Matya of the campus church and Newman Center wants.

I think people are drawn to beauty, said Matya, who has been with the Newman Center since 1998. So that is the hope and the idea of the church. I think it will draw curiosity and people will want to come in and visit.

Curiosity -- and the opportunity to walk beyond the barricades brought nearly 200 people to the hot construction site Thursday, when Bishop James D. Conley of the Lincoln Diocese blessed the four cast bronze bells -- named St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John -- in a mostly Latin ceremony dating back to medieval times.

In ancient times, the ringing of the bells was the only form of mass communication, Conley said. Bells tolled with a call to worship, to notify villages of good news, bad news and death; and to warn of impending dangers.

Everyone was attuned to the sounds of the bells, Conley said. Parishes were mapped out to the sounds of the bells.

When bells could no longer be heard because of distance, a new church with its own bell was established.

The bells almost take on a personification, Conley said. Each one is named.

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Bells blessed, final beam placed at UNL's Catholic church and student center