Fr. Orr was succeeded as pastor by his longtime assistant, the prudent Rev. John J. Ryan. A native of Roxbury, Ryan had been editor of the Stylus, head of the student sodality, and prominent in debating, dramatics, and athletics at Boston College. Later in life, he continued to write frequently (for the Pilot and religious magazines) and developed some reputation as a lecturer. He studied for the priesthood in Boston and was ordained by Archbishop Williams at the Cathedral in 1889. The following week he was assigned to St. Paul's, where he spent his entire priestly life, first as Assistant and then as Rector when he succeeded Fr. Orr in March, 1907.
Since the church had established herself in Harvard Square rather late, her choice of suitable property was constrained. Accordingly, Ryan inherited a scattered collection of buildings: a church on Mt. Auburn and Holyoke, two school buildings and a convent several blocks east, a rectory two blocks south (where Lowell House B-C-D entries now stand) in which baptisms and marriages were performed, and within another year there would also be the Newman House at 34 Mt. Auburn Street, given by the Archbishop to the Harvard Catholic Club. Most pressing, however, was the new property further east on Massachusetts Avenue with its heavy mortgage--the site for the proposed church.
After much reflection Ryan returned to Orr's original plan--to build the new church where it stands today, on the former McKay estate. In July, 1915, the convent was torn down and the priests each dug a shovel of earth to break ground for the new church. When the cornerstone of this Italian Romanesque monument to Catholic faith, arts, and education was laid on November 12, 1916, the church was already partly under roof. Before the afternoon Mass and dedication, the Cardinal was met on Putnam Avenue by an escort of the Knights of Columbus, the Holy Name Society, and the Harvard Catholic Club. The pastor's sermon that day spoke of the dangers of the time, and Cardinal O'Connell made the reference explicit, "There is very grave danger, not far distant from this sacred edifice. It is the growing tendency to separate science from faith and spiritual from material forces. Prominent educators are striving to undermine the foundation of all truth, the source of all knowledge, of all life--Christian faith."
