Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore had never gone to the Minnesota State Fair. That changed on Aug. 28, when he made his first visit. He liked it so much he came again two days later to concelebrate Mass with a seasoned fair-goer, Father Robert Fitzpatrick, who has been celebrating State Fair Masses since 2014.
The archbishop was persuaded to attend the Great Minnesota Get-Together by Jenny Kraska, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, which represents the Archdiocese of Baltimore and two other neighboring dioceses. Kraska grew up in Prior Lake, attending St. Michael Catholic School in Prior Lake. She has State Fair experience and also came to Minnesota for this year’s Fair, attending Mass there on Aug. 30.
“She told me that I had to come to the Minnesota State Fair or otherwise my life would not be complete,” Archbishop Lori said, jokingly. “I believed her, so here I am. I spent the whole day Friday (Aug. 28) at the Fair and enjoyed myself tremendously.” Attendance on Aug. 28 was 204,065, an all-time record for a single day, according to the State Fair website.
Naturally, Archbishop Lori sampled the food at the State Fair, choosing a corn dog, foot-long hot dog and “lots of ice cream,” he said.
“I didn’t get anything with pickles; I’m sorry,” he said. “That kind of tells you I’m a foreigner.”
Archbishop Lori said he has a connection to Minnesota: Archbishop Harry Flynn, who served as leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 1995 to 2008, and died in 2019. Earlier, Archbishop Flynn had served as rector of Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., which is where he met Archbishop Lori, who once was a seminarian there. Archbishop Lori came to the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul for Archbishop Flynn’s funeral Mass and was the homilist.
That connection made it easy for Archbishop Lori to accept Kraska’s invitation to come to Minnesota and attend the State Fair. He stayed at The St. Paul Seminary while he was in town, and lingered at the Fair after Mass Aug. 30 to enjoy more food before flying back to Baltimore that evening.
“It’s so big and vibrant and it’s such a huge, long tradition,” Archbishop Lori said of an annual 12-day event that is also known as The Great Minnesota Get-Together. “It has a life of its own. I love that.”
One of his favorite Fair features was farm animals, a popular attraction. He especially liked the Miracle of Birth Center, which offers visitors the chance to see newborn animals like calves, lambs, goats and piglets. An additional treat was seeing Clydesdale horses.
Archbishop Lori said his State Fair experience “brought me out of my regular world into a very wonderful world and I enjoyed it.”
The State Fair runs through Labor Day, Sept. 7. Father Fitzpatrick will celebrate another Mass at the Fair Sept. 6.
