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 … Read more
Several years after Cardinal Blase Cupich began cracking down on religious orders to report their sexually abusive clergy members who preyed on minors, the Archdiocese of Chicago has added dozens of order priests to its online posting of predatory clergy. But Cupich is still keeping secrets on clergy sex abuse of minors, a Chicago Sun-Times … Read more
The Archdiocese of Chicago has reached an $800,000 settlement over claims of sexual abuse by the late Rev. George Clements, the famed Holy Angels pastor, and four other Chicago-area religious figures, according to lawyers representing the alleged abuse victims. An attorney for Clements’ now 54-year-old alleged victim called Tuesday for Cardinal Blase Cupich to place … Read more
In May 2020, Mayor Lori Lightfoot was drawing considerable flak over her stance against churches and other places of worship reopening for services amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But she found a behind-the-scenes ally to help her face the backlash from faith communities: Cardinal Blase Cupich, the top Catholic cleric in the Chicago region. Newly obtained … Read more
A principal at a south suburban Catholic school was ousted this week after he refused to comply with the Archdiocese of Chicago’s mask mandate. M. Jacob “Doc” Mathius, principal at Queen of Martyrs Catholic School in Evergreen Park, met with the parish’s pastor, Rev. Martin T. Marren, on Tuesday to discuss his choice to lift … Read more
Among Catholic religious orders in the United States that, like the U.S. church itself, are facing a national reckoning over clergy sexual abuse of children, the Claretians stand out. The Claretians operate Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 3200 E. 91st St. on the Southeast Side, which was the first Mexican American Catholic congregation in Chicago, … Read more
Even before he was ordained a Catholic priest, the Rev. Ronald Lange went to Ghana in 1968 to do missionary work. In a profile by a community newspaper years later, Lange spoke of his commitment to learning about Ghana while teaching at schools there and leading a parish with more than a dozen worship sites. … Read more
It was the same every night. A list of names was posted on the bedroom door of the Rev. Richard Daschbach, a revered Catholic priest in Asia who’d trained and been ordained decades earlier by his religious order, the Society of the Divine Word, at its Techny grounds near Northbrook. The child at the top … Read more
For years, the Catholic Church in Chicago has said it enlists two revenue sources to pay for settlements and other costs related to priest sex abuse cases: loans and the sale of property. But a Chicago Sun-Times examination found the church has been using money from its cemetery system to help pay down nagging debt … Read more
After Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich caught heat in August for making remarks regarded as insensitive about the clergy sex abuse crisis, he took the unusual step of ordering Chicago-area Catholic priests to read a prepared statement during weekend masses defending him and insisting his comments had been twisted by the media. With church officials again under fire … Read more