Outer details of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Chicago. / Credit: Eric Allix Rogers

CNA Staff, May 15, 2024 / 12:12 pm (CNA).

Catholics and city preservationists in Chicago are scrambling to try to preserve a historic parish on the city’s North Side, one that has survived a century of the city’s development including being fully moved to a new location after it was first built. 

Our Lady of Lourdes Parish will hold its final Mass on Sunday, May 19, before the parish merges with nearby St. Mary of the Lake. The consolidation is part of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s ongoing “Renew My Church” initiative that has closed and merged dozens of parishes in order to address shrinking budgets and priest shortages. 

The archdiocese announced the Lourdes parish merger in 2021. Katerina Garcia, the president of the Our Lady of Lourdes Church Preservation Society, told “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol this week that parishioners at the parish dispute the archdiocese’s reasons for closing the church, particularly the claim that Mass attendance had dropped steadily there. 

“We disagree with that statement because before the merge, Our Lady of Lourdes Church had the highest attendance compared to [other nearby churches],” Garcia told Sabol. 

“They decreased the Masses that we had. So of course that’s going to decrease attendance,” she argued.

Even as the parish’s final Mass looms, Garcia said efforts are underway to save the parish, possibly by purchasing it from the archdiocese. She noted the parish’s remarkable history, including its wholesale move from one side of the street to the other. 

The parish was “literally across the street on the east side of Ashland Avenue,” she told Sabol. “And Daniel Burnham, who was a prominent architect and urban developer in Chicago, wanted to widen the [city streets].” 

“In order for them to widen Ashland Avenue, they had to move the church literally across the street,” she said. “They had 150 men and horses, and they put the 10,000-ton church on top of 400 rails and 3,000 rollers and literally moved it across the street, inching it.”

Once the building was moved to its new location, builders “rotated it 90 degrees” and then “cut the church in half and added a 30-foot insert,” increasing capacity by roughly 50%.

“Back then, 1929, that’s such a very … I can’t even think of the word. It’s just an engineering feat,” Garcia said. 

‘It’s facing an uncertain future’

On its website, the Our Lady of Lourdes Preservation Society says its goal is to “preserve Our Lady of Lourdes Church as a historical landmark, reopen and revive it as a holy shrine.”

The group, formed in 2021 after the merger announcement, wrote on Facebook that it is “going full force to make sure [the property] is preserved as a historical landmark,” with group members aiming to “bring it back to its old glory with a new order in charge.”

Ward Miller, the executive director of the nonprofit Preservation Chicago, said his group has been working to get the building designated as a Chicago landmark. 

The group has highlighted the building’s historical qualities in the past. The parish was “modeled in the Spanish Renaissance-style architecture to resemble a church in Valladolid, Spain,” Preservation Chicago says. Among its many notable features includes a “faithful replica of the grotto in Lourdes, France,” which years ago was made a “perpetual adoration site” and remains ”the area’s only chapel open 24/7 for worship.”

The structure is “facing an uncertain future,” Miller told CNA on Wednesday. “We don’t know if it’s facing a demolition threat or not.”

The building is rated “orange” in the city’s Historic Resources Survey, Miller pointed out, which indicates that it “possesses potentially significant architectural or historical features.”

The Archdiocese of Chicago did not respond to a query on Wednesday regarding the status of the church building and what will become of it after the final Mass this week. 

The parish school, meanwhile — which closed in 2004 — has already been sold, with plans to turn the structure into apartments. 

Garcia told Block Club Chicago earlier this year that she attended the school and that her children were baptized in the parish.

The parish “just has a lot of memories,” she told the outlet. “I actually made the calligraphy on the sign by the grotto entrance, so there are parts of the church I was involved in. There’s so much history there for me and my family.” 

“Every part of that church is important to me,” she said. 

Pope Francis addresses the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Wednesday general audience on May 15, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, May 15, 2024 / 09:10 am (CNA).

During his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis reflected on charity — what he described as the “culmination” of the theological virtues — observing that it is the highest expression of Christian love, predicated on truth and underscored by forgiveness. 

“Love is charity. We immediately realize that it is a difficult, indeed impossible love to practice if one does not live in God. Our human nature makes us love spontaneously what is good and beautiful,” Pope Francis said to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square on a sunny morning in Rome.

Pointing to the Sermon on the Mount and repeating twice the Christian maxim “love your enemy,” the pope noted that this teaching represents the highest expression of Christian love, as it “embraces what is not lovable; it offers forgiveness.” 

“It is a love so ardent that it seems almost impossible,” the pope continued, “and yet it is the only thing that will remain of us. Love is the ‘narrow gate’ through which we will pass in order to enter the kingdom of God.” 

Looking at the various manifestations of love, the pope noted that Christians “are capable of all the forms of love in the world” such as that expressed toward friends, civic love, and “the universal love for all humanity.” 

But Francis stressed that it is the theological virtue of charity that enables Christians to love “those who are not lovable” and “those who do not care for us and are not grateful.” 

“This comes from God, it is the work of the Holy Spirit in us,” he added. 

Pope Francis also centered his catechesis on St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, noting that the apostle was speaking to a community divided and “anything but perfect in fraternal love.” 

Francis observed that Paul is urging the Corinthians to embrace “not the love that rises but the one that descends.” 

“Paul,” the pope added, “is concerned that in Corinth — as among us today too — there is confusion and that there is actually no trace of the theological virtue of love.” 

The pope contrasted the theological notions of love and charity with contemporary notions such as the one “on the lips of many ‘influencers’” or heard “in the refrains of many songs.”

At the end of the general audience, the pope stressed the importance of the Holy Spirit in light of the solemnity of Pentecost, which will be celebrated on Sunday.

The pope implored the faithful to “be docile to the action of the Holy Spirit,” which he described as “a source of relief for everyone in their trials.” 

The pope also prayed for those affected by recent flash flooding in northern Afghanistan, which has left over 300 people dead and injured more than 1,600. 

“I pray for the victims, in particular for the children and their families, and I appeal to the international community to immediately provide the aid and support necessary to protect the most vulnerable,” the pope said. 

Gloria Purvis, Cardinal Robert McElroy, Bishop Daniel Flores, and Bishop Robert Barron discuss polarization in the Catholic Church during a panel discussion hosted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities USA, Glenmary Home Missioners, and the Jesuit Conference on May 14, 2024. / Credit: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Live Stream YouTube channel

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 15, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Three Catholic bishops warned of a growing ideological polarization within the Church and the need for civil dialogue among those with disagreements during a livestreamed panel discussion on Tuesday afternoon.

“Politics is almost a religion and sometimes it’s a sport, [but] it’s not supposed to be either,” Bishop Daniel Flores of the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, said during the discussion. 

“It’s supposed to be a civil conversation … to seek what is good and make the priority how to achieve it and how to avoid what is evil,” Flores said. “And I think if we could stay focused on that, we can kind of tone down the caricature and the rhetoric that seeks to dehumanize people.”

The panel discussion included Flores, Cardinal Robert McElroy of the Diocese of San Diego, and Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota. It was moderated by Gloria Purvis, the host of “The Gloria Purvis Podcast” at America Magazine, and co-sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Catholic Charities USA, Glenmary Home Missioners, and the Jesuit Conference.

The panel discussion was part of the USCCB’s “Civilize It” initiative, which is meant to foster civility in important ideological debates. As part of the initiative, the bishops ask Catholics to sign a pledge to affirm the dignity of every human person — including those with different ideological beliefs — and to work with others in pursuit of the common good.

According to the panelists, American society and the Church have grown more polarized when it comes to ideological differences — and debates about those differences have become less civil.

Barron, who founded the Catholic media organization Word on Fire, said disagreements within the Church are nothing new, but the way people approach those disagreements has changed: “What’s broken down is the love that makes real dialogue possible.”

“It’s a tribalism that’s lost the sense of love in dialogue,” Barron said.

The bishop warned that people are more focused on winning arguments and being loyal to an ideological identity than on love. He said these problems are very noticeable in discussions on the internet and encouraged people to ask whether “this comment [is] an act of love” before saying anything. 

“Is it born of love?” Barron said people should ask themselves. “Is it born of a desire to will the good of the other? If it’s not, there’s like a thousand better things to be doing than sending that statement.”

McElroy said too much dialogue today “is meant to be confrontational” to the point at which people “can’t enter into a genuine dialogue.” 

“People are coming toward each other in the life of the Church looking first at that label: What are you? Where do you stand in the war-like culture politics of our country?” the cardinal said.

People focus on this “rather than [on] what unites us: where do we stand in terms of our identity as Catholics and with a Christological outlook,” he added. 

McElroy also built on the concerns Barron highlighted regarding dialogue on the internet.

“When you’re writing the Tweet, imagine Jesus is there with you and when you think through that question ‘should I do this?’” McElroy said. 

Similarly, Flores emphasized the need to remember what Christ would do. 

“He would not be unkind, especially to the poor and especially to those who had no standing in the world,” Flores said. “And also he would never commit an injustice in order to promote justice.”

Easter Vigil at the Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz (Holy Cross) in Austria. / Credit: Stift Heiligenkreuz

ACI Prensa Staff, May 15, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz (Holy Cross) in Austria is the oldest in the world, dating back almost 1,000 years, and currently has more than 100 monks living there. It has never had “interruptions” in its history and is now an oasis of the Catholic Church in Europe, with love for God and others at the center of its work and with the beloved Pope Benedict XVI as an “ally.”

Heiligenkreuz is located about 18 miles from Vienna, the capital of Austria. The monks, explained the Italian newspaper Avvenire, have an average age of 49, which means they are “young” in current Church terms, especially in Europe where there has been a precipitous decline in vocations.

Four or five men each year join the historic abbey, founded in 1135, almost a thousand years ago, making it the oldest Cistercian abbey in the world.

Among the abbey’s current 103 monks, there are 11 with temporary vows and six novices, all led by Abbot Maximilian Heim.

“The most important thing is love for God and others. In a Benedictine monastery [the Cistercians follow the rule of St. Benedict]; this is fulfilled with the triad ‘ora, lege et labora,’ that is, pray, read, and work,” the abbot explained.

For the superior of the abbey, it’s also important to “honor the commandment of Jesus ‘that they may all be one’: unity within the community without egalitarianism and with the necessary freedom for each individual, as well as unity with the Church in practice, which means unity within the order, as well as with the pope and the diocesan bishop.”

Rescuing other monasteries in Europe

On Nov. 21, 2021, the last two Benedictine nuns at the Sabiona monastery in the town of Chiusa in the Italian province of Bolzano left after 335 years of the order’s presence there.

The bishop of Bolzano-Bressanone, Ivo Muser, and Abbess Maria Ancilla Hohenegger lamented what had happened and expressed their wish that the monastery located in the Italian region would continue to be a place of pilgrimage and a center of contemplative life. However, that was only possible some time later, thanks to the Heiligenkreuz Abbey.

After numerous consultations, the conventual chapter of Heiligenkreuz Abbey decided on March 14 to take over the Sabiona monastery with the aim of creating a “spiritual center” on the so-called “holy mountain,” as the place where it is located is known, explained Father Johannes Paul Chavanne to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

The monks who will go to the Sabiona monastery will do their pastoral work there but will continue to belong to the Heiligenkreuz Abbey.

Another monastery that received help from Heiligenkreuz Abbey was a Cistercian monastery located in the German Diocese of Görlitzer on the border with Poland.

In 2018, the bishop of Görlitz, Wolfgang Ipolt, asked for help for the Cistercian monastery of Neuzelle and succeeded in getting the Heiligenkreuz Abbey to send six of its monks there in September of that year.

With their presence it was possible to bring back contemplative life to the region after 200 years, as CNA Deutsch reported at the time.

Pope Benedict XVI and Heiligenkreuz Abbey

Next to Heiligenkreuz Abbey is the Benedict XVI School of Theology, which was recognized as a pontifical institution in 2007. Renowned academics such as Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz, one of the greatest experts on the work of the theologian Romano Guardini and of St. Edith Stein, and the canonist Alfred Hierold, former rector of the University of Bamberg, teach there.

The school currently has 342 students from 39 countries such as Germany, Austria, India, Italy, Nigeria, the United States, and Vietnam.

Heim, the abbot of Heiligenkreuz and a member of Pope Benedict XVI’s circle of former students, received the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation Prize in 2011.

“In addition to being a monk and theologian, he treats topics concerning faith and theology through conferences and the publication of a series of books: Both initiatives are called ‘Auditorium,’” Cardinal Camillo Ruini explained at the time.

On Sept. 9, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the monks of Heiligenkreuz, reminding them that they lived in “the oldest Cistercian monastery in the world that has continued to be active without interruption. I wanted to come to this place rich in history, to draw attention to the fundamental directive of St. Benedict, according to whose rule the Cistercians also live.”

Benedict XVI’s secretary and Cardinal Koch

In April, a conference titled “Beauty, Demands, and the Crisis of the Priesthood” was held at the abbey, in which Archbishop Georg Gänswein, former secretary of Pope Benedict XVI, participated as well as Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

According to CNA Deutsch, the cardinal spoke about the importance of the Eucharist for the Church, also for the first Christians, while Gänswein highlighted the need to promote “a solid theology of the priesthood that can withstand the misunderstandings of the modern world.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Our Lady of Medianeira is among 31 flooded churches in the Archdiocese of Porto Alegre, Brazil. / Credit: Courtesy photo

ACI Digital, May 14, 2024 / 18:31 pm (CNA).

The heavy rains that have pounded the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul since the end of April have flooded 31 churches in the four vicariates of the Archdiocese of Porto Alegre.

“Due to the height of the water, we lost all the items for Mass, equipment, liturgical books, everything,” Father Fabiano Glaser, pastor of Our Lady Mediatrix Parish in the town of Eldorado do Sul, told ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese-language news partner.

The largest flood in the history of Rio Grande do Sul has already affected 450 of the state’s 497 municipalities, nearly 90% of its territory, according to the daily Civil Defense bulletin issued May 14 at 9 a.m. local time. So far there are 147 dead, 125 missing, 806 injured, and more than 538,000 homeless.

More than 76,000 people and 11,000 animals have been rescued. The level of the Guaíba River, which had dropped to 15.5 feet last Friday, May 10, rose again today to 17 feet. According to forecasts from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, the water could reach close to 18 feet throughout the day Tuesday.

Catholic churches flooded

Glaser said the parish is located in an urban area that was 100% affected by the heavy rains. The parish includes six churches and only one was not inundated by the waters because it is located in a “neighborhood called Eldorado Park that did not have flooding,” so it was able to accommodate some “homeless people.”

According to the priest, “people are very discouraged because it is the third flood in nine months” and “many people” have said they will leave the city. “Even parish leaders,” the priest added.

“So it’s going to be a long, hard job of rebuilding. I am trying to stay in touch with the parishioners by WhatsApp, by video, and I am trying to stay close [to them] with messages of perseverance,” the priest said.

Since the water invaded the rectory, Glaser said he is taking refuge in the Our Lady of Fátima Parish in Guaíba, a neighboring city. “I am in the rectory with a family of parishioners and there are around 140 people sheltering in the parish hall,” he said.

“Here in the parish I am saying Mass,” the priest said. “So every time there is Mass, I tell the people and those who are nearby to come and participate.”

A parish rescues 1,200 people

Immaculate Conception Parish, which has been in the Rio Branco neighborhood for 72 years, was “the first church devastated by the rains” in the town of Canoas, according to the parochial vicar, Father Rodrigo Barroso. “The water went through the pews and entered the sacristy and the parish office. We lost a lot of material goods,” Barroso told ACI Digital.

According to the priest, the parish “was the rescue point for about 1,200 people who began arriving at the church looking to be rescued” by boat.

Barasso reported that Immaculate Conception School, run by the Franciscan Sisters of Penance and Christian Charity, which is next to the church, “was also badly damaged.” The nuns had to close the church because some people were “looting places and the church was at great risk,” he said.

“With the force of the water, we couldn’t even close the doors of the church. Today I was there and we managed to close the parish,” he added.

The vicar said he doesn’t know how long it will take to “return to normal” in the neighborhood, so Masses are being celebrated in St. Louis Gonzaga Parish in midtown Canoas.

‘Worse than a hurricane’

Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the Harmonia neighborhood of Canoas and its 13 communities were also under water.

“Everything was lost, nothing was saved,” the pastor, Friar Juan Miguel Gutiérrez Mendéz, told ACI Digital.

“All the houses” in the neighborhood “are under water” and this “is a very sad, very distressing, and very desperate reality,” he added.

A native of the Dominican Republic, the Capuchin friar said that the situation in Harmonia is “like a horror movie.”

“In my life, I have never experienced a situation like this; it’s the first time. In the Dominican Republic, which is a land where there are hurricanes every year, I had never experienced a situation like this,” the friar noted. “It’s a very difficult time we are going through.”

According to Gutiérrez, the flooding in Harmonia began on the night of Friday, May 3. “It was exasperating,” he continued. He and another friar managed to save more than 40 people.

“We went up to the third floor of the parish, to the catechism room, and we were able to stay there until almost Saturday night, when we were rescued by the firefighters,” he said.

According to Gutiérrez, “the reality the faithful are experiencing is very sad,” because “many people are falling into depression, with enormous sadness.”

Faith and liturgy

“People are worried about the material things they have lost, but this is the time to encourage all members of the parish by telling them: We’ve lost everything, we have lost material things, but we have to ask God to increase our faith. With a strong, fortified faith, we can believe that better days will come, that we hope to rebuild, to start again,” the priest declared.

St. Pius X Parish in the Mathias Velho neighborhood of Canoas is also run by the Capuchin Friars Minor. According to Gutiérrez, the 10 friars who are there are in Porto Alegre parishes and three friars are still there in Canoas as volunteers because of the flood.

Two friars from Mathias Velho neighborhood who are at the La Salle School in Porto Alegre are celebrating Masses and broadcasting them on the internet. As for the faithful who are in the shelters, the friar reported that “they are being helped with food, but also in their spiritual life with Masses.”

According to the friar, “of the 350,000 people who live in Canoas, I think 150,000 were affected by the floods. There are many people, families who are in shelters.”

Gutiérrez highlighted something important to him: “the solidarity of the people. How many people have called me: ‘Friar, we are praying for you there in Canoas.’ How many people are contributing financially so that the people in the shelters can eat and be well,” he noted.

Gutiérrez also said that on May 12 he received news from a friar from the parish in the town of Amaral informing him that the leaders of this parish “are ready to go to Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish” and to the St. Pius X Parish in Mathias Velho.

“These people are going to go there when the water goes down to clean the chapels and then make an evaluation of what is missing in each chapel, so that later we can carry out a recovery campaign for all the communities,” he stated.

This story was first published by ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by ACI Prensa and CNA.