The Saint Joseph's College Chapel

(I thought it would be interesting to use Sundays to focus on Rensselaer's churches and to see how many Sundays I can go before I run out of material. Indiana is richly endowed with religious denominations, with influences from North and South, East and West. This is part of that series of posts.)

One of the largest church buildings in and around Rensselaer is not actually a church, but a chapel. What is the difference? According to Wikipedia:

In Roman Catholic Canon Law a chapel, technically called an "oratory" is a building or part thereof dedicated to the celebration of services, particularly the Mass, which is not a parish church. This may be a private chapel, for the use of one person or a select group (a bishop's private chapel, or the chapel of a convent, for instance); a semi-public oratory, which is partially available to the general public (a seminary chapel that welcomes visitors to services, for instance); or a public oratory (for instance, a hospital or university chapel).

(If you want a longer explanation, try here.)

The Chapel was built in the Romaneque Revival style and is one of the few buildings put in the "outstanding" category by the Jasper County Interim Report. The cornerstone was laid on May 2, 1909, and the finished building was dedicated on May 17, 1910. The governor of the State of Indiana, Thomas Marshall, spoke at the dedication.

The image of the twin towers is part of the logo of SJC.

The chapel has daily and Sunday Mass services for the campus community that are open to anyone who wants to attend. The current schedule of liturgies is here.
This blog has posted about several concerts that took place in the chapel, including here, here, and here.
The chapel has impressive stain glass windows, and they may be the focus of a post in the future.