By Jay Sorgi
for the Register
St. Joseph Parish in Beatrice celebrated a rededication Sept. 26 with Bishop James Conley, after extended renovations that repaired extensive storm damage to the roof of the Romanesque church.
The renovations, many designed by Lincoln-based Clark Architects Collaborative, which has deep experience in church renovation, have led to what parishioners believe is a greater sense of beauty that will bring deeper worship into such a tradition-filled space.
“It’s night and day to me,” said Brenda Davis, an artist who joined fellow parish members in advising and helping to plan the renovations alongside Father Leo Kosch, the church’s pastor. “It lifts your mind to God in a certain way.”
“To bring it back to that sort of traditional look that the Romanesque architecture sort of calls for has been just a beautiful process,” Father Kosch said.
He added that during the renovations, the parish exhibited great patience, as Masses were celebrated in the parish center, with people sitting on folding chairs.
He said parish members had talked for many years before 2026 about renovating the church to prepare for its centennial, but they didn’t take any steps until after the COVID-19 pandemic, when repair became the initial focus.
Click here for photos from the Sept. 26 Mass.
At first, the job involved tuck pointing to repair mortar on the church, but a major storm in 2022 exacerbated the church’s repair needs.
“A week before I arrived as pastor, there was a gigantic hail storm that totaled all the roofs. They weren’t leaking, but they all had to be replaced,” Father Kosch said. “A whole series of things to take care of and prioritize; fix the outside before you do anything on the inside.”
He said only two companies in Nebraska had the skill to work on the tile roof, but insurance was able to take care of the two-year repair process.
After fixing those pressing needs, the parish decided to renovate the internal space to not only address other needs like replacing the floors, but meet desires for a space that more greatly empowers worship and love of God.
“We have to do these things, but what else would we like to do?” Father Kosch said of the committee’s process. He received input from assistant pastor Father Joseph Faulkner, the seven members of the renovation committee, and the parish council.
“We just were kicking ideas around, and I was checking with a friend of mine from college who happens to be an accomplished church architect who lives in Lincoln, Kevin Clark, [and] we started to see more of what we wanted to do, what was possible.”
Clark Architects Collaborative, which has worked on projects from parish renovations to Newman centers at the University of Nebraska, Ohio State University and the University of Arkansas, took on the project of re-beautifying the inside of St. Joseph Church, which was changed in the 1970s.
“Trying to add more beauty, add more detail back, build upon what had been done prior and what had originally been there, even sometimes what was originally dreamt to be there but not able to be afforded,” Clark said.
Fundraising efforts helped raise more than $750,000 for what Clark’s team planned for the project, recognizing that floor repair and pew replacement by Ratigan-Schottler in Beatrice gave them a chance to repaint up high as well as replace plaster.
Their work extended to building a Communion rail, new altars, a reconfiguration of the sanctuary, and much more, including a repainting of the church’s dome in the style of the 900-year-old Basilica of San Clemente in Rome.
“We have this big dome and it’s kind of a blessing and a challenge,” Father Kosch said. “Kevin often said, ‘Do you know how many people would die to have a dome like that? But it’s also tall, and it’s a dome. What do you do with it? In the past, they had just painted it, [and] we kept saying, what do we do with this?”
Clark brought in experts from EverGreene Architectural Arts from New York City, and they suggested a similar design to that of the historic basilica. Artists from the New York company drew a gold-themed mockup of their plans for the dome that, according to Father Kosch, captured the imagination of the parish’s committee.
“It ended up with a symbol of the Holy Spirit at the top with these gold vines coming down,” Father Kosch said, “and it really turned out well.”
Those moves, along with a return of statues of Mary and St. Joseph to their original locales before a 1973 renovation, stand among a plethora of moves that have turned the space into one Davis said is worthy of an orchestra, and more importantly, of Christ’s presence in such a historic locale.
“This is the gateway to Heaven, it is the sacrifice of the Mass, it’s the Holy Eucharist, and it’s doing it in a beautiful way,” Father Kosch added. “The church architecture lent itself to that. Kevin, with his experience, was able to help bring that out.”
“Winston Churchill, one of my favorites, said ‘We shape our buildings, then they shape us,’” Clark said in describing the new impact the 100-year-old landmark church will have.
“If we endeavor to make these spaces more beautiful, we will be more beautiful. We will learn more. We’ll pray better.”
And as Clark put it, “This will change faith in that community.”
