Basilica of the Sacred Heart to close for organ installation

Author: Michael O. Garvey

Pipe organ in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, 2012

The University of Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart will be closed Aug. 1 (Monday) through Aug. 14 (Sunday) while the new Murdy Family Organ is being installed.

Completing a project begun by the craftsmen of Paul Fritts & Company Organ Builders of Tacoma, Washington, in 2012, the installation will involve moving into the Basilica a massive musical instrument whose features include four keyboards, 70 organ stops and 5,164 pipes.

During the closure, the regularly scheduled 11:30 a.m. daily Mass will be celebrated Monday through Friday in the Crypt Church of the Basilica’s lower level. Confessions will be heard there Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

The Murdy Family Organ will be formally blessed and dedicated next year at a Mass on Jan. 20, the Feast of Blessed Basil Moreau, the founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the religious order that established Notre Dame in 1842.