On a glorious summer day bathed at first in sunshine and later cooled by puffy clouds and a steady wind, about 6,000 people gathered at Slugger Field in downtown Louisville June 29 to celebrate the 200th birthday of the Archdiocese of Louisville.

It was an event, they were told, that marked the church’s first steps into its third century.

The Mass was led by Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, who was accompanied by his predecessor, Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly, along with Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, D.C., seven other bishops and the priests of the archdiocese.

It was all part of a day that honored the past and anticipated the future.

From an altar built at the ball field’s second base, Archbishop Kurtz told the gathering that they should take pride in the familial nature of the church and its history in Central Kentucky. 

An “awesome” and “spirit-filled” celebration brought together thousands of Catholics from around the Archdiocese of Louisville June 29 at Slugger Field in Louisville.

The day-long event celebrating the archdiocese’s 200th anniversary included a special liturgy, food, children’s activities and three concerts. It drew about 6,000 lay faithful, several bishops, archdiocesan priests, religious and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, D.C.

“The spirit was working,” said Kathy Hart, a member of Annunciation Church in Shelbyville, Ky. She and her husband Robert Hart, who is to be ordained a deacon in August, took part in the opening procession of the Mass and then volunteered as hospitality ministers during the afternoon festivities.

“I thought it was great,” said Robert Hart. “We all came together as a community of the archdiocese.”

“In the old days, we used to do the Corpus Christi procession” on a large-scale, he noted. “It’s nice to come together again like that.”