The date was nebulous when the announcement came March 2 that St. Catherine of Siena-St. Lucy Catholic church would be closing, though it would be happening sometime in June.
There is now a final mass date – 10 a.m. Sunday at the venerable church at 27 Washington Blvd. in Oak Park.
That’s going to be a tough day for the mass celebrant, the Rev. Carl Morello, pastor of St. Catherine-St. Lucy and St. Giles, who made that March 2 announcement from the pulpit.
“I do not look forward to it,” Morello said of the final mass in the original Tudor Gothic-style St. Catherine’s building that was completed in 1931.
“In the short time I’ve been here the last three years, I’ve come to love the community,” he said. “There is an intimacy there and what’s really sad to me, it’s one of the best integrated communities of these four Oak Park parishes,” which includes Ascension Catholic Church, 808 S. East Ave., and St. Edmund, 188 S. Oak Park Ave. St. Giles is located at 1045 Columbian Ave., Oak Park.
Lower mass attendance and costly upkeep resulted in the fate of St. Catherine-St. Lucy, which was not targeted for closure by the Archdiocese of Chicago. Instead, following a townhall in October 2024, the parish determined that the cost of maintaining the church wasn’t sustainable.
Parishioner memories abound
It will also be a hard day for lifetime parishioner Christine Wedekind, but in some ways a beautiful day. She said she’s aware of former parishioners from around the country, including one man from San Francisco, who will be at Sunday’s service.
Oh, the memories Wedekind has of the parish. She grew up in the Austin neighborhood and was essentially raised there. Her grandmother and parents were buried from St. Catherine. She received her sacraments there, went to school there, and got married there.
“Years ago, when Monsignor Maguire was the pastor of St. Catherine, if you were standing in the back of the church during mass, he would find a place for you to sit, if he was back there,” she said of the 1950s and pastor Right Reverend Robert C. Maguire. “You had to sit down. That’s how crowded it would be.”
She’ll also be a lector at Sunday’s final mass.
Valerie Jennings, who lives in Austin, has been a parishioner at St. Catherine-St. Lucy since the 1980s, and said some of her best memories are “just the wonderful liturgical ceremonies.
“There is something to be said about a gathering of people who are joined to each other and singing and saying prayers,” she said. “It’s still exciting.”
That’s why she said that while Sunday won’t be an easy day, it will still be a celebration. Recently, she buried her brother from the church.
“I was looking around, (and thinking), ‘I am going to miss this,’” she said. “I had a moment to take it all in and release whatever kind of heaviness I had, and I know that things will be okay.”
As far as her next spiritual home, Wedekind said she is likely to find herself at St. Edmund, though she said the praise choir sings at St. Giles, so she will be there from time to time.
As for Jennings, “We have a tri-parish, so I can float between any of them.”
Ministry to evolve
But the end is nigh, and there is work to be done to relegate the church. That will fall in large part on Morello’s shoulders. He’s already written the letter to Cardinal Blase Cupich that keeping St. Catherine-St. Lucy open was no longer sustainable. A decree was written to indicate the church will be relegated to a non-sacred space, which will occur the day after the final mass.
Then the archdiocese real estate office advises the church is available, and will attempt to find a suitable renter or buyer. Morello said that while the archdiocese could elect to sell the building, it may be more inclined to rent the space, considering that other facets of St. Catherine-St. Lucy’s ministry will continue on.
St. Catherine-St. Lucy Catholic School will remain open, while SisterHouse, which offers a temporary home to women seeking recovery from substance abuse, will remain in the church’s former convent building. The Neighborhood Bridge and the Faith and Fellowship Ministry will continue to operate out of the repurposed rectory, along with Housing Forward, an emergency overnight shelter.
Libby Foster, director of communications for Housing Forward, said that the St. Catherine-St. Lucy campus will remain a beacon of hope for many. For example, Housing Forward is partnering with The Neighborhood Bridge to convert the former rectory into a community resource hub, where both organizations will offer outreach to the surrounding communities.
“It’s not going to impact us operationally, but it’s impactful from the standpoint of the deep legacy St. Catherine-St. Lucy has in the community,” added Prentice Butler, executive director of The Neighborhood Bridge. “Basically, our organization and the legacy of this building has been community outreach.”
As far as Sunday’s final mass, Butler said, “I think it will be sad. It will be more people wrestling with the memories of everything that has gone on.”
That includes Wedekind, and many of out-of-towners who will return to pay their respects.
“It should be a packed house,” she said. “Why couldn’t it be packed every Sunday?”