Bell ministry helps restore Cathedral clock

Watching an episode of James Herriott’s “All creatures Great and Small,” 12-year-old Tobias Hendrics was taken with the idea of church bell ringing. 

Tobias and his father John soon discussed the idea of providing their parish, the Corpus Christi Cathedral, with bell ringing services before Sunday and Holy Day Masses with the Cathedral rector, Msgr. (now Bishop) Daniel E. Flores. 

“Soon thereafter Parochial Vicar Father Pete (Elizardo) gave us the grand tour—right through the middle of the pipe organ—up into the tower belfry,” the elder Hendrics said.

The incident took place in 2006. Tobias is now 17 and a senior at Blessed John Paul II High School; Father Elizardo now serves as the Cathedral Rector. The idea born out of a television program is now the Tower Bell Ringer Ministry, an integral part of the Cathedral Parish.

The Cathedral towers include more than bells, and the Tower Bell Ringer team recently partnered with Raymond and Raul Lopez of Electric Motor Rewind to repair the clock in the southern tower, which had stopped telling time several years ago.

“We were approached by people from the church with the frozen clock motor, we gave them an estimate but they didn’t have the money it would take to fix it.  So we told them we will do it at no charge,” Raymond Lopez, president of EMR, said. 

Lopez, though not a member of Cathedral parish, often attends Mass and other services there.

The Cathedral Tower clock, manufactured by E. Howard Co. of Boston, was installed in 1946. It has a clock in each of the four faces.

The I. T. Verdin Machine Co. of Cincinnati made the seven-foot dials and the gold leafed hands, besides the necessary arms or sleeves that manipulate the hour and minute hands.  The president of the company, Robert Verdin was on hand to supervise the assembly of the parts of the clock and the general installation. 

The Lopez brothers completely remanufactured the iron and copper. The clock is telling time again.

“Everything belongs to the Lord, we did it for Him,” Raymond Lopez said.  “It isn’t about how much money we can make, it is for the Lord.” 

The purpose of the church bells is to call the people to prayer and the clock helps them get there in time. Bells that are blessed and used for Liturgical purposes are considered sacramental in the Church.

It is an ancient and noble thing to respond to the pealing or tolling of the church bells with prayer. John Hendrics and his wife, along with Tobias and daughters Isabel and Theresia, as active member of Cathedral Parish, are committed to helping fellow parishioners uphold this tradition. 

“Claudia is from Germany where church tower bells peal joyously and vigorously at the moment the Eucharist is consecrated.  Being familiar with this ancient custom we therefore, at the very least, wanted to imitate that practice,” John Hendrics said. 

“It reminds those both inside and outside of the church that something momentous is taking place, and it also helps give a solemn tribute to our Lord in the Holy Eucharist,” he said.

The Cathedral bells are often referred to as the “service bells” to distinguish them from the Dougherty Memorial Carillion. They are actually known as a “ring or peal of bells” as they are hung English Style for change ringing, which refers to the style of ringing.

First rung on Christmas Eve 1881, their 130th anniversary was marked as they rang on Christmas Eve this year. They hung originally in the first diocesan cathedral St. Patrick and can be seen in old photographs of that church.

The three bells, manufactured by Meneely & Co., West Troy, New York, are stamped with the following Latin phrases, starting with largest bell to the smallest: Jesu Domine, Miserere Nobis (Lord Jesus, Have Mercy on Us); Sancta Maria, Ora Pro Nobis (Virgin Mary, Pray for Us); Sancte Joseph, Ora Pro Nobis, (St. Joeseph, Pray for Us). Below the inscription each bell it is stamped with: Domina Petra Kennedy Donavit (Donated by Mrs. Petra Kenedy). 

It was customary to inscribe such information on this type of bell.  The smallest “Sancte Joseph would be the treble and the largest Jesu Donmine the tenor. 

Parish sources indicate they were moved into the north Cathedral bell tower May 8, 1940 in what must have been an engineering feat: the bells weigh 481, 800 and 2,000 pounds and the bell tower is 97 feet high. 

The bells must still be rung by hand. Ringing church bells occurs in three basic ways: normal (peal) ringing, chiming and tolling. Normal ringing refers to the ringing of a bell or bells at a rate of about one ring per second or more, often in pairs reflecting the traditional “ding-dong” sound of a bell, which is rotated back and forth, ringing once in each direction. “Chiming” a bell refers to a single ring, used to mark the naming of a person when they are baptized, confirmed or at other times. Tolling the bell is when the bell is rung once every four to eight seconds to announce a person’s death.

“Early on we secured walkie-talkies to communicate with the ringer up in the belfry and the ropes for the three bells,” John Hendrics said, in explaining the bell ringers’ work experiences.  This “two man” system eventually gave way to a small hidden security camera, and multiple pulleys to guide the ropes. 

With the security camera, one person can manage the duty, though for particularly joyous pealing—Christmas and Easter Vigil especially—it is always best to have two people ringing, John Hendrics said. 

The Tower Bell Ringer team has grown over the past five years and now consists of father and son John and Tobias Hendrics, Russell Brown, Peter Merkle and Doug Norman. Isabel and Theresia Hendrics often serve as alternates. 

They would like to expand further into helping other churches in the diocese revive their silent bell towers and be commissioned to ring the bells at weddings to help finance further maintenance.