St. Thomas the Apostle Church is a historic site at 5472 S. Kimbark Avenue inHyde Park,Chicago, Illinois, at 55th Street.
A Roman Catholic church of theArchdiocese of Chicago, it was built in 1922 and opened in 1925 and added to theNational Register of Historic Places in 1978. It was designed byBarry Byrne, who was a student ofFrank Lloyd Wright and incorporated elements from Wright'sPrairie School of design and from themodernist movement. Byrne had previously built the convent at St. Thomas Apostle in 1919. It was built during a period of liturgical renewal that was just reaching the U.S.[2] It is often cited as anticipating the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council by some 40 years due to its projecting altar and lack of interior columns.[3]
In 1886, following renovations to the church building, aparochial school was established, staffed byDominican Sisters of Sinsinawa. By 1916, the school facilities were found to be inadequate and the parish began renting a nearby vacant public school building and in 1929, a new school was built. In 1980 the school merged with other nearby Catholic schools.[4]
St. Thomas School
In 2021, the school was involved in controversy when reporing showed that theAugustinian-owned St. John StoneFriary, less than a block away, began to house James Ray, a priest who had been accused of sexual abuse of minors multiple times, beginning in 2000.[5] Neither Augustinian norArchdiocese of Chicago officials raised the proximity of St. Thomas School as a possible concern, with church records incorrectly stating that there was no school in the immediate area of the friary.[6] This is in spite of the fact that Ray had taken students out of class at prior assignments. While Augustinians at the friary understood the priest's case and the need for compliance with restrictions on his ministry, this was communicated to school officials. The arrangement of the accused priest, James Ray, residing at the friary was approved by the provincial superior of the Augustinians, Robert Prevost, who would becomePope Leo XIV in 2025.[5]
