Cardinal Gibbons blessed the foundation stone of the Shrine on September 23, 1920 with over 10,000 people gathered to watch. The crypt church opened in 1924 (completed in 1926), and remained that way for 3 decades, due to funding difficulties that prevented the building of the rest of the basilica. The Great Depression and then the Second World War delayed construction until 1953 when the U.S. bishops renewed the effort to build the great upper church of the Shrine. The dedication mass for the upper church took place on November 20, 1959.
Today, the Shrine is the largest Catholic Church building in the U.S. and North America, and one of the ten largest churches in the world.
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