• On March 31, 1935, Charlie and Caroline Beach's dream and gift became reality for the small community of Vail. The dedication ceremony was celebrated with Tucson's first American-born bishop, Bishop Daniel J. Gercke, officiating before six hundred visitors on that Sunday afternoon.
  
  In the early 1930s, Charlie and Caroline Beach planned and executed the construction of a Catholic church in Vail for the benefit of the poor Mexican families who worked on the ranches and for the Southern Pacific Railroad, but who did not have a priest to administer the sacraments and serve their other spiritual needs. The chapel would be erected as a memorial to the Takamine family, especially Carbine's first husband, Jokichi Takamine. The Beach family lived at the foot of the Santa Rita Mountains and the house still stands today. Living in the shadow of the Santa Rita Mountains gave the family inspiration to name the church after St Rita of Cascia.
  
  Charlie Beach engineered the landscaping of the church grounds to present the image that the Shrine grew up out of the surrounding desert. The illusion served a partly aesthetic and partly utilitarian purpose. The simple lines of the buildings do blend into the desert beautifully, but until 1967, the church grounds only received water from cisterns which collected the sparse rain water and occasional water tanks on the trains.
  
  The architect the Beaches engaged to build the church was H. D. R. Figge, who "planned the mission so it would carry some of the feeling of a rural Mexican church" D. Burr DuBois modified Figge's plans and incorporated lighting fixtures and the interior features of the chapel. John D. Steffens was the actual construction manager. Painting was finished by Walter Ross, and W. L. Jones did the iron work. The small interior seats about 115 worshipers and has a central nave which is only 36 feet long and 27 feet wide.
  
  The stained glass windows which grace St. Rita's were ones Caroline salvaged from the First Methodist Church in Tucson which was moving to more commodious accommodations near the University of Arizona in the early 1930s, and so would no longer need the beautiful windows. In essence St. Rita's was built around the rescued windows, and the stained glass does serve as a focal point for the church. Three round rose windows are placed at the back entry and in the two side rooms off the altar, and each side wall contains three long, slender, and colorful windows. The large altar window diffuses the sunlight as time slowly moves across the chapel.
  
  The depiction of the Ten Commandments in the window directly behind the altar is a Protestant interpretation of the Old Testament dividing the commandments into the first four rules and the final six, instead of the Catholic reading emphasizing the connection between the first three statutes as distinct from the other seven, does not detract from the beauty of the image. Herself an adult convert to Catholicism, Caroline may not have realized this insignificant discrepancy; however, her past life in which she experienced and celebrated tolerance and acceptance toward difference also suggests that she may have known the window presented a differing perspective, and decided that the diversity it represented could stand as a reminder to all that despite our religious and philosophical differences, we serve one and the same God. In 1967 during a major repair project of the stained glass windows of the church took place. Viewing the altar from the church, the right-hand window behind the altar originally displayed an open Bible, but was replaced with a window depicting the image of a cross and crown which in now in the church.
  
  Regardless, the tiny church in the middle of the desert was to have its beauty and the stained glass windows were only the beginning. Caroline insured that the finest gifts were donated to the Church, if not directly from herself, through her many wealthy and influential friends in the United States, Japan, and Europe.
  
  The hand-carved crucifix from Oberammergau, Bavaria, was donated to St. Rita's by Elizabeth King of Chicago. It is a replica of a crucifix that was the site of a miraculous viewing by a young boy who claims he saw the original crucifix cry real tears and bleed drops of blood as the child prayed. The original Latin missal was printed in Belgium. The missal stand was the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nishio of New York.
  
  The prominent green marble baptismal font was designed in Italy and was the gift of New York financial analyst John Moody, a friend Mrs. Beach knew from her days in Merriewold, New York, at Sho-Fu-Den. The small statues of St. Mary and of St. Rita located in niches at the front of the church were also both formed in Italy, and were donated to St. Rita's by Mrs. Cleaveland Putnam.
  
  In keeping with the natural and native aspect of the chapel, the altar and tabernacle are made from stone hewn from the nearby Santa Rita Mountain Range; the altar weighs five tons. This important part of the church was donated by Mrs. Eben Takamine and her two children, Caroline's youngest son's family. Recently the church community decided to cover the rough stone surface with a marble facade, but the natural beauty of the original altar can still be seen from the rear-view. The Stations of the Cross are made from California tile. The chapel bell was a gift from Caroline's son, Eben Takamine, and was cast especially for St. Rita's.
  
  The first priest who served St. Rita’s was the Reverend Arnold Oscar, a Franciscan Father at San Xavier del Bac. He was the missionary priest at St. Rita’s from 1935-1937. Since that time approximately 20 priests have served the parish of St. Rita’s as pastor. Our current Pastor is Fr. Alonzo Garcia.