- The churches of Chicago – a different world for the connoisseur of Catholic church architecture in the US! All is on a grander scale than in New York – there was so much more room to spread out on the plains of the Midwest. If in Manhattan only certain parishes, mainly connected with religious orders, are monumental in size – St Jean Baptiste, St Vincent Ferrer, St Paul the Apostle – in Chicago outsize dimensions are fairly routine. The parish populations tended to be bigger too – we read of Polish parishes in the era of 1900-1940 having 25,000 or more parishioners. Of course in Chicago Poles and other Central and Eastern European peoples played a much more prominent role in the Catholic Church than in New York City.
Let’s start with one of the more subdued examples – St Thomas the Apostle of Hyde Park. Built in the 1920’s, its exterior resembles the architecture of medieval Sicily or Portugal. Inside, we encounter an incipient modernism – the ceiling does resemble so much that of Holy Family, New York, Cardinal Spellman’s 1960’s timid foray into the “moderne.”
- Once upon a time this parish obviously disposed of considerable income – the fine details reflect a unified decorative program contemporary withe construction of the church. Later, those financial resources seem to have dwindled away – with the fortunate consequence that many of the original features, such as the beautiful communion rail, remain intact.
St John Cantius, dear to Traditionalists, is one of a series of “Polish Cathedrals” – the most spectacular churches of Chicago. Erected in a style reminiscent of the Roman renaissance and baroque, they are extravagantly decorated with statues, paintings and stained glass. St. John Cantius was begun in 1893 and completed in 1898 – the decoration went on for a few decades more. By the 1970’s St. John Cantius was threatened with closure. A revival began in the 1980’s as St. John Cantius became a center of renewed Catholic liturgical life. Since 1999 the parish has been directed by the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius.
St Mary of the Angels with is dome and rooftop statues of angels is visible from afar as one approaches Chicago from O’Hare airport. When I first encountered this monumental church in 1988 it was a near ruin – the upper church was closed and the then pastor grudgingly allowed that “some people” thought the church was beautiful. Shortly thereafter this church was taken over by Opus Dei. In the last three decades St. Mary of the Angels has been magnificently restored. At this moment the facade and towers are being returned to their original glory.
St. Mary of the Angles church was built between 1911 and 1920. Work on the decoration continued into the 1940’s. The dominant color here is white – as opposed to the gold of St. John Cantius or St. Hedwig.
And the struggle between potential destruction and restoration of the great churches of Chicago continues to this very day. The church of St. Clare had been completed in 1923. In the 1970’s it had been devastated by a fire; later it was threatened with demolition. But in 2004 it was leased to the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. After years of restoration work the church was destroyed again by fire in 2016. Once more the Archdiocese determined to tear the structurer down. But the Institute organized another restoration campaign and the Archdiocese decided to deed the church over to them. So now a new shrine, where the Traditional liturgy is celebrated, is rising from the ashes.
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