Groundbreaking held on new St. Mary's Church

A group gathered Sunday to celebrate the groundbreaking for the new Catholic church at Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation following a Mass celebrated by Bishop Michael Warfel of the Great Falls-Billings diocese.

"It's a great joy to be here," Warfel said, adding, "We just have to make sure it stays up for a while."

St. Mary Catholic Church was built in 1979 by hand of logs cut on the reservation.

Dec. 14, 2019, the church was completely consumed by fire.

Father Joseph Tran, who took over the parish in 2018, has been celebrating Mass from the porch of his residence that was behind the church.

The parish still has not raised the full funding to build the new church, but took out a loan and will continue to raise funds to pay that off, Tran said in an interview Friday.

After the groundbreaking, people said they were happy the construction was beginning.

"I'm excited, very excited," Darla Red Bear said. "It's a new chapter and starting a new day, a new journey."

During the Mass and the blessing of the cornerstone and groundbreaking, Warfel said the situation can remind people that the Christian church is more than a building and that God is always present.

"Nothing can harm the church as long as God is with them," he said, and reminded the people at the services that, even when they don't think so, God always is with them.

Father Pete Guthneck, who came to the parish in 1977 and retired in 2018 - he was honored at the ceremony for 41 years at the parish and for his Golden Jubilee, 50th anniversary of being ordained - said during the prayer section of the Mass that members of the congregation had put it in perspective. The church and its contents were not destroyed, he said, they were consumed and offered to God.

After the service, he said in an interview that he and Mike Ley, the lead contractor on the church in 1979, were at a funeral in another church when they heard St. Mary was burning. They watched it burn to the ground.

He said building the church was a community effort, with local residents logging the lumber and building the church.

"We went up in the hills and cut trees," he added. "It was hard, but lots of fun."

He said seeing the groundbreaking was a good sight.

"It's great. We look to the future," Guthneck said.

Ley said seeing the fire was disturbing.

"I stood here watching it burn," he said. "It was a tough day."

He said he would not be the lead contractor on the new church, adding that he told them if they built it of logs he would, but not the modern building, adding that some of the people who helped build the log church were there Sunday.

He said it is good to see the work start on a new church.

"It's a new generation and a new building," he said.