The Cathedral Parish of St. Raymond Nonnatus 1917-1992
Written by Robert R. Morris

Part 9: Father Scanlan's Prediction Comes True
The entire Chicago area had been growing for decades, but in the heady years of progress following the war, the migration of hundreds of thousands to the suburbs caused an unheralded explosion in the need for housing, services, and ultimately for places of worship and schools for the children of the families of the Post War "Baby Boom." The sleepy and rural farming towns surrounding Joliet were beginning to blossom into housing tracts. The Archdiocese of Chicago became such a hugh monolith that a decision was made to create a new diocese of faithful Catholics.

Joliet was the choice. St. Raymond would become the home.

In December, 1948, Pope Pius XII established the Diocese of Joliet, which was created out of seven Illinois counties, including DuPage, Ford, Grundy, Iroquois, Kankakee, Kendall and Will Counties. The faithful in these areas had been part of either the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Diocese of Peoria, or the Diocese of Rockford.

The Pope appointed 51-year-old Father Martin D. McNamara as the first Bishop of the Joliet Diocese. Rev. McNamara had been pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Wilmette, and now had the task of finding a residence, beginning a diocese and choosing a cathedral for the seat of his new realm.

"The Castle," the former Sehring Mansion, a private residence, became Bishop McNamara's new home, located at 310 Bridge Street. He chose Father Romeo Blanchette as his chancellor, a priest with hometown connections, descended from a pioneer French Canadian family who had settled in the Kankakee area.

And the search for an appropriate Cathedral Church was on. Most of the faithful though centrally located St. Patrick's -- the oldest parish in Joliet -- was the natural choice.

But Bishop McNamara quietly chose the proud and dynamic St. Raymond Parish for the seat of his diocese in 1949.

St. Raymond's had plenty of land and a great location, but one significant and serious drawback. The 1918-vintage church building -- the one that Father Scanlan so desperately wanted to replace during the Depression because it was too small -- was certainly too small for a Cathedral. Only 540 people could sit in the original St. Raymond Church.

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