While churches throughout the Chicago area were encouraged to hold anti-violence marches on Memorial Day weekend, Holy Cross-Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in the city’s Back of the Yards neighborhood had specific reason: to mourn the death of 16- year-old Angel Cano, who was gunned down May 21, 2013. The march took place May 24. Earlier, Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Parish sent a letter to pastors in the Archdiocese of Chicago encouraging them to participate in Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s “Faith In Action” effort, which called on members of churches, synagogues and mosques to be outside their houses of worship from 7 to 9 p.m. on May 23, the Friday evening of Memorial Day weekend. The weekend, the traditional start of summer, was a violent one in Chicago the last two years, Pfleger noted in his letter. At Pfleger’s parish, St. Sabina, hundreds of people gathered for an antiviolence block party. This year, there were no shootings reported in Chicago for a 42-hour stretch, from the evening of May 22 to the afternoon of May 24. But on May 24, Saturday, two people were killed and 10 more were shot in the afternoon and evening.
St. Moses the Black pantry expanding to meet increased need When the St. Columbanus Parish opened its food pantry in 2004, it served about 50 households each week. Now part of St. Moses the Black Parish, the food pantry regularly serves more than 700 households each week, distributing more than 2 million pounds of food and clothes each year.
Homeless, hungry focus of first ‘Carlo Fest’ event Students preparing for confirmation and first Communion at Blessed Carlo Acutis Parish spent the morning of March 23 imitating their parish’s patron by making bag lunches for hungry people.
Replica of beloved Michoacán image of Jesus installed in Mundelein parish In Huandacareo, Michoacán, nearly half a million devotees process with the image of “El Señor del Amparo” (“The Lord of Protection”) through the streets on Holy Thursday night, from the end of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper until about 5 a.m.