So Long, St. Adalbert… Chicago Will Miss You
By REY FLORES
So, another Catholic parish dies in Chicago. Why?
What is it that is causing these once-thriving parishes to shut their doors forever? Is it the lack of interest by the communities around them? Declining Mass attendance? Or is it the lack of interest by the bishops and the archdiocesan bureaucracy to keep these parishes operating?
Perhaps it’s all of the money lost in the many lawsuits the archdiocese has had to settle because of the sexual abuse that went unchecked for decades.
It’s a combination of all of these things. Cities like Chicago experienced much rapid change in the last 40 to 50 years.
There were the unscrupulous real estate entities in the late 1960s and the 1970s, scaring many European-rooted ethnic community residents out of their communities, telling them that blacks and Hispanics were coming in to lower the quality of their neighborhoods. That was the “great white flight” to Chicago’s surrounding suburbs.
Once in the scattered suburbs, these white communities never recovered the unity their original parishes once offered them. As new generations came about, they did not carry on the old-world faith traditions their immigrant parents and grandparents once held so dearly.
These grand old parishes served as an anchor to the communities they once served. They not only brought the beautiful and precious sacraments of our Church to the people, they also served to educate our children and provided a welcoming center to many of the newly arrived European immigrants.
Once the original residents were gone, back in the old neighborhoods these same real estate crooks were creating rental housing that deliberately caused lack of ownership opportunities for the new area residents. When people rent, they tend to take less interest in keeping their communities clean, safe, and thriving.
This is what I call a “temporary mindset” where these new lower-income minority residents thought that this was a temporary living situation, and that there were better residential opportunities in their future. Decades later, many found themselves still living in these same old declining neighborhoods.
Yes, it’s a terrible and ugly reality that this all happened. There were greed, racism, a serious lack of foresight on the part of the archdiocesan bureaucrats, but it’s a done deal now and this trend of parishes shutting down is only going to get worse.
To me, there is nothing sadder than to hear about yet another Catholic parish in my hometown of Chicago closing its doors. Chicago was once a bastion of Catholicism where parishes and basilicas bustled with activity like a beehive.
Parishes across the city celebrated multiple Masses not just on Sundays, but on every day of the week. Eucharistic processions were also frequent, and adoration was something Catholics here did on a regular basis.
Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica in Chicago’s west side is still a complete jewel. In its basement where the church feeds the hungry and homeless through emergency food programs, there exists a wonderful little “museum” of sorts.
In this “museum,” there is an old marble altar surrounded by all sorts of historic artifacts, relics, and photographs of the parish. The altar exists in the basement because at one time there were so many parishioners that simultaneous Masses had to be celebrated both in the main sanctuary and in the basement church. There are incredible old black and white pictures documenting all of this.
Anyone in Chicago is welcome to contact me in the next couple of weeks before I move to Nebraska if you’d like to visit Our Lady of Sorrows. I’d be happy to give you a tour of the basilica.
Anyway, today, as the number of parishes decline across America, there exist more atheism, more abortion, more secularism, more sin and sorrow and depravity of all kinds. It used to be that nuns read stories to kids, and now it’s Drag Queen Story Hours in our public libraries.
Catholic marriages are no longer considered as sacred as they once were, with ever-increasing numbers of divorces, annulments, and broken families left in a trail of spiritual destruction for generations to come.
The St. Adalbert Church edifice still stands in the former Bohemian and Polish hub known as Pilsen in Chicago’s near South Side. Today it has a smattering of Mexican American Catholics and former Catholics, and an ever-increasing number of overly tattooed and trendy young white atheist hipsters.
As the Chicago Tribune reported recently, the former St. Adalbert Church sanctuary will remain a “public space” according to City Pads, the developer who is paying the Archdiocese of Chicago four million dollars for the property.
The final Holy Mass was celebrated at St. Adalbert’s on July 14 of this year.
Despite the brave efforts of many longtime parishioners of several ethnicities and ages, St. Adalbert has been declared no longer a “sacred” space. The day after the final Mass in July, the church was officially “desanctified” by the archdiocese.
According to City Pads, the former rectory, convent, and school will be rehabbed and repurposed, converting them into generic housing. A secular charter school on the property will continue to operate there.
A decree released by Blase Cardinal Cupich attributed the closure of St. Adalbert’s to a declining parish population and at least $3 million in needed renovations to the church edifice and its bell towers, much still covered in scaffolding.
While there has been no set date for when City Pads will help finish restore the historic old sanctuary, one can only imagine just what they mean by “public and accessible use.”
It’s yet another sad but expected day in Chicago’s Catholic community.
(Rey Flores writes opinion and book and movie reviews for The Wanderer. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
