With a copper spire that soars nearly 300 feet skyward, this French Gothic cathedral is an architectural wonder. The impressive 45,000 square-foot-edifice – featuring 23 altars, elaborate hand-carved wooden decorations and German-imported stained-glass windows – could be one of the great churches of Europe.
It’s not. It’s the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.
The New Jersey showpiece is one of hundreds of intriguing holy sites around the country featured in the recently published, “Monuments, Marvels and Miracles: A Traveler’s Guide to Catholic America,” (Our Sunday Visitor, 2021).
Americans who want to explore the monuments of Catholicism need not travel overseas to embark on a pilgrimage; they can just grab the car keys, says author Marion Amberg.
“The purpose of this book was to get people on the road to holy sites right here at home. You don’t have to go to Rome,” she said.
Amberg, a Santa Fe, New Mexico-based travel writer who grew up Catholic, hopes to offer believers a new way to explore America’s Catholic gems – more than 500 of them – which she collected and organized according to region.
Among her personal favorites, she said, is Assumption Chapel in Cold Spring,…
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