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Immaculata
With his College for Men,
School of Law, and seminary com–
pleted, Bishop Buddy turned his
attention to building a chapel. Its
blue mosaic-tile dome is sur–
mounted by a statue of Our Lady
of Grace, which was created by
artist Chris Mueller. The cast–
stone statue towers almost eleven
feet above the dome and weighs
an estimated four and one-half
tons. Built on land located directly
across Marian Way from the
Chancery, between the seminary
building and the College of Wom–
en, The Immaculata became the
largest Catholic church building
in the San Diego Diocese. Oblong
in plan and cruciform in shape,
the structure rises 140 feet above
The beautiful
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the ground; it can seat 1,600
peo–
ple. When it was completed in
1969, The Immaculata, built by
the L.J. Ninteman Construction
Company, became a visual anchor
for the Alcala Park campus. Its
blue dome is visible from many
points around San Diego.
One special mass that took
place in the beginning of the year
was the Mass of the Holy Spirit,
which welcomed new and return–
ing students to U.S.D.
Rhiza Er–
rasquin,
a freshman at U.S.D.,
was very impressed with the
mass, "It made me feel a part of a
community, and the first week of
school you need that." This
seemed to be the feeling of most
who went to the mass.