Park to be memorial to Berghold

Site is located near Way of the Cross, which

he planned

By KEVIN SWEENEY

Journal Editor

NEW ULM -- He was the first Catholic priest to minister to a community filled with free-thinkers and agnostics.

He was the founding force behind the first hospital in New Ulm, the Catholic school system in New Ulm, and dozens of parishes between here and the South Dakota border.

He was an influential figure in the growth and development of New Ulm.

In between his activities he wrote books and poetry, and planned the Way of the Cross as an outdoor shrine and park for residents of the senior citizens home he had built.

Now, admirers of Father Alexander Berghold are planning to restore a park near the Way of the Cross as a memorial to this pioneering priest.

Loretto Park, located along Fifth North Street just up the hill from the current New Ulm Medical Center, is the object of the Father Alexander Berghold Memorial Committee's efforts.

The park once featured flagstone walkways around a summer house where residents of the St. Alexander Home could take strolls or hold picnics. Over the years the park has been neglected, the walkways filling in with dirt and grass.

But with the centennial of the dedication of the Way of the Cross, the committee wants to restore the pathways and landscaping for the park and install a life-size bronze statue of Berghold looking down over the valley.

The statue of Berghold would look out over the institutions he established. New Ulm Medical Center stands on the site of the former Loretto Hospital he founded. Farther down the hill are the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, the church he built as the first Catholic pastor in New Ulm, and the New Ulm Area Catholic Schools campus which has grown from his educational work.

Bishop Raymond Lucker of the New Ulm Diocese is head of the committee. He explained the layout of the park on Wednesday.

The work is connected with the restoration that has already been done on the Way of the Cross.

The project will be an expensive one. The statue of Berghold will cost about $76,000 alone. Another $14,000 or so will pay for granite markers and plaques relating the history of Berghold, the contributions of the Sisters of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ who helped establish the hospital, the Way of the Cross and a pedestal for a large bell that had been hung in the St. Alexander Home. A large granite bench will eventually be placed where the summer house was located.

The project has been split into four stages, said Lucker. The first task is clearing the park and restoring the walkways. A trio of Eagle Scout candidates re taking on the work of digging out the walkways, he said, and Sentence to Serve crews will begin clearing brush along the hillside nearby.

Once people see what is going on, Lucker hopes people will be interested in contributing to the next stage, the placement of the bells and plaques in the park. The third stage will be the commissioning of the statue, and the final stage will be the installation of the large stone bench, inscribed with biblical quotes, under a large pergola.

Lucker and the committee hope that the work will be done by the 100th anniversary of the Way of the Cross, which was dedicated in 1904.