Priest who helped establish popular Michigan shrine dies at age 91

Published: 2005-07-14

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (CNS) -- Msgr. Charles D. Brophy, who was instrumental in establishing the National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods in Indian River, died July 7 at St. Ann's Home in Grand Rapids. At age 91, he was the oldest priest in the Grand Rapids Diocese. Retired Grand Rapids Bishop Robert J. Rose celebrated a funeral Mass for Msgr. Brophy July 12 at St. Jude Catholic Church, followed by his burial at St. Patrick Cemetery in Bay City in the Saginaw Diocese. As a young priest driving through the woods of northern Michigan, Msgr. Brophy thought of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the young Mohawk woman who was known to put crosses on trees in the mid-1600s. That vision led the priest to create the Cross in the Woods, a 55-foot-high crucifix that became one of Michigan's best known tourist and worship sites. Hundreds of thousands of people each year go to northern Michigan to see the crucifix, billed as the world's largest, with its seven-ton bronze Christ.

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