Parishioners were upset when the archdiocese decreed in 2022 that Our Lady of Victory would be deconsecrated and ‘relegated to profane use,’ but the Vatican took their side.
Renata Gryzik graduated from Our Lady of Victory Church’s grammar school in 1973. She was a member of the Northwest Side parish when the church closed in 2021.
Now 63, Gryzik attends St. Edward Catholic Church. But following the revocation of a decree from the Archdiocese of Chicago, she said she hopes she can again worship in the church where she attended third through eighth grade.
The initial decree, which was issued in July 2022, stated that Our Lady of Victory would be deconsecrated and “relegated to profane use,” which means sacred services could no longer be held at the Portage Park church.
This decree came about a year and a half after the archdiocese announced Our Lady of Victory, located at 5212 W. Agatite Ave., would be closed and its parish merged with other nearby churches.
To parishioners like Gryzik, the news was devastating.
“It’s so hard to even imagine how hard it was for all of us,” Gryzik said. “In Chicago, if you’re Catholic, instead of what neighborhood you’re from, you say what parish you’re from.”
Under the Renew My Church program, the archdiocese has closed, merged and consolidated Catholic churches across Chicago.
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