Archdiocese of Chicago Archidiœcesis Chicagiensis | |
|---|---|
 Holy Name Cathedral | |
 Coat of arms | |
 Flag | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| Territory | Counties ofCook andLake |
| Ecclesiastical province | Chicago |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 1,411 sq mi (3,650 km2) |
Population
|
|
| Parishes | 216[1] (As of 1/2024) |
| Schools | 154 archdiocesan-run[1] 34 non-archdiocesan-run[1] |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | November 28, 1843; 181 years ago (1843-11-28) |
| Cathedral | Holy Name Cathedral |
| Patron saint | Immaculate Conception[citation needed] |
| Secular priests | 672[1] |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Leo XIV |
| Archbishop | Blase Joseph Cupich |
| Auxiliary Bishops | |
| Vicar General | Lawrence J. Sullivan |
| Bishops emeritus | |
| Map | |
 | |
| Website | |
| archchicago.org | |
TheArchdiocese of Chicago (Latin:Archidiœcesis Chicagiensis) is aLatin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, anarchdiocese of theCatholic Church located inNortheastern Illinois, in the United States. The Vatican erected it as adiocese in 1843 and elevated it to an archdiocese in 1880. Chicago is thesee city for the archdiocese and the province.On September 20, 2014, CardinalBlase Joseph Cupich was appointed Archbishop of Chicago. Thecathedral parish for the archdiocese,Holy Name Cathedral, is in theNear North Side area of Chicago.
The archdiocese serves over 2 million Catholics inCook andLake counties, an area of 1,411 square miles (3,650 km2). The archdiocese is divided into six vicariates and 31 deaneries. An episcopal vicar administers each vicariate. The archdiocese is themetropolitan see of the province of Chicago. Itssuffragan dioceses are the other Catholic dioceses inIllinois: Belleville, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford, and Springfield.
CardinalJoseph Bernardin, archbishop of Chicago from 1982 to 1996, was arguably one of the most prominent figures in the American Catholic church in the post–Vatican II era, rallying progressives with his "seamless garment ethic" and his ecumenical initiatives.[2]
During the 17th century, theIllinois Country was part of the French colony ofNew France, which was under the jurisdiction of theDiocese of Quebec.[3]
The first Catholic presence in present-day Illinois was that of a FrenchJesuitmissionary, ReverendJacques Marquette, who landed at the mouth of theChicago River on December 4, 1674. A cabin he built for the winter became the first European settlement in the area. Marquette published his survey of the new territories and soon more French missionaries and settlers arrived.[4]
In 1696, a French Jesuit, ReverendJacques Gravier, founded the Illinois mission among the Illinois,Miami,Kaskaskia and others of theIlliniwek confederacy in theMississippi River andIllinois River valleys.[5] During this period, the French-Canadian and Native American Catholics in the region were under the jurisdiction of the bishop of theDiocese of Quebec in New France.
With the end of theFrench and Indian War in 1763, the British took control of Illinois. Their rule ended after theAmerican Revolution in 1783 when the British ceded Illinois and other Midwestern territories to the new United States.[6] In 1795, thePotawatomi nation signed theTreaty of Greenville that ended theNorthwest Indian War, ceding to the United States its land at the mouth of the Chicago River.[7]
In 1789,Pope Pius VI erected theDiocese of Baltimore, covering the entire United States. In 1822, Alexander Beaubien became the first person to be baptized as a Catholic in Chicago.[8] By 1826, the Vatican had created theDiocese of St. Louis, covering Illinois and other areas of theAmerican Midwest.[9]
In 1833, Jesuit missionaries in Chicago wrote to BishopJoseph Rosati of St. Louis, pleading for a priest to serve the 100 Catholics in the city. In response, Rosati appointed Reverend John Saint Cyr. a French priest, as the first resident priest in Chicago. Saint Cyr celebrated his first mass in a log cabin on Lake Street in 1833.[8] At a cost of $400, Saint Cyr constructed St. Mary, a small wooden church nearLake andState Streets. The first Catholic church in the city, it was dedicated in 1833.[10] The next year, BishopSimon Bruté of the newDiocese of Vincennes in Indiana, visited Chicago. He found only one priest serving over 400 Catholics. Brulé asked permission from Rosati to send several priests from Vincennes to Chicago.
In 1837, Saint Cyr retired as pastor of St. Mary and was replaced by Reverend James O'Meara. He moved St. Mary to another wooden structure at Wabash Avenue andMadison Street. When O'Meara left Chicago, Saint Palais demolished the wooden church and replaced it with a brick structure.[11]
Pope Gregory XVI erected the Diocese of Chicago on November 28, 1843. It included all of the State of Illinois, taking territory from the Dioceses of St. Louis and Vincennes.[12] In 1844, Gregory XVI named ReverendWilliam Quarter of Ireland as the first bishop of Chicago.[8] On his arrival in Chicago, Quarter summoned asynod of the 32 priests to begin the organization of the diocese.[8]
Quarter secured the passage of a state law in 1845 that declared the bishop of Chicago an incorporated entity, giving him the power to hold real estate and other property in trust for religious purposes.[13] This law would allow Quarter and future prelates to construct churches, colleges, and universities in the archdiocese.
Quarter invited the Sisters of Mercy to come to Chicago in 1846. Over the next six years, the sisters founded schools, two orphanages and an academy. One of their projects was the St. Xavier Female Seminary, a secondary school that attracted students from wealthy Catholic and Protestant families.[14] St. Mary of the Lake University, the first university or college in Chicago, opened in 1846.[15] Quarter died on April 10, 1848.[16]
On October 3, 1848,Pope Pius IX appointed ReverendJames Van de Velde of the Society of Jesus as the second bishop of Chicago.[17] During his brief tenure in Chicago, Van de Velde built two elementary schools, a night school for adults, an employment office, and a boarding house for working women.[14] After the 1849cholera outbreak in Chicago, he established residences for the many children orphaned by the epidemic.[14]
Van De Velde opened theIllinois Hospital of the Lakes in 1851, the first hospital in Chicago.[14] Suffering from severerheumatism during the harsh Chicago winters, Van De Velde persuaded the pope in 1852 to appoint him as bishop of theDiocese of Natchez in Mississippi.[18][19][20] The Vatican erected theDiocese of Quincy in 1853, takingSouthern Illinois from the Diocese of Chicago. The Diocese of Quincy later became the Diocese of Alton and then the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.[12]
In December 1853, ReverendAnthony O'Regan was appointed as the third bishop of Chicago by Pius IX. During his tenure, O'Regan purchased property for the construction of several churches and Calvary Cemetery in Chicago. A systematic administrator and strong disciplinarian, O'Regan generated significant dissatisfaction among his clergy.[21] Many French-speaking congregants accused him of stealing their property.[22][23] In 1855, theSisters of the Holy Cross founded an industrial school in Chicago for girls, both Catholic and non-Catholic.[14]
Frustrated by the opposition he faced in the diocese, O'Regan submitted his resignation in 1857 to the Vatican, which accepted it in June 1858.[24] The pope appointed BishopJames Duggan of St. Louis as theapostolic administrator of the diocese.
On January 21, 1859, Pius IX named Duggan as the fourth bishop of Chicago.[25] Duggan faced challenges in Chicago: the legacy of the decade-long lack of leadership in the diocese, the aftereffects of thefinancial panic of 1857, and of theAmerican Civil War. German Catholics were hostile to an Irish bishop. Irish-born priests were hostile to Dugan's stand against theFenian Brotherhood: he denied the sacraments to anyone tied to this secret society. Some clergy faulted Duggan for failing to support theUniversity of St. Mary of the Lake, which closed in 1866 due to financial problems and low enrollment.[26] In 1859, Dugan founded the House of the Good Shepherd in Chicago as a residence for "delinquent women".[14]
After Duggan returned from theSecond Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866, he began to exhibit sign of mental instability. When he left Chicago for a European trip, several diocesan priests wrote to the Vatican, questioning Dugan's mental health.[27] Three years later, in 1869, Pius IX sent Duggan to asanitarium in St. Louis and appointed MonsignorThomas Foley ascoadjutor bishop to operate the diocese. In 1870, a Jesuit educator, ReverendArnold Damen, established St. Ignatius College in Chicago.[28]
In October 1871, the diocese suffered nearly a million dollars in property damage in theGreat Chicago Fire, including the destruction of St. Mary's Cathedral.[29][30] In 1875, Foley dedicated the new Cathedral of the Holy Name in Chicago, designed by architectPatrick Keely.[31] Foley invited the Franciscans,Vincentians, Servites,Viatorians, and Resurrectionist religious orders to establish parishes and schools in the diocese. In 1876, disagreements between Foley and MotherMary Alfred Moes of the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate ofJoliet led her to relocate her order to Minnesota.[32]
In 1877, the Vatican erected theDiocese of Peoria, taking several counties inCentral Illinois from the Diocese of Chicago. Foley died in 1879,
In 1880, the Vatican elevated the Diocese of Chicago to the Archdiocese of Chicago. At that time, it transferred five more counties to the Diocese of Peoria.[13]Pope Leo XIII named BishopPatrick Feehan from theDiocese of Nashville as the first archbishop.[33]
From 1880 to 1902, the Catholic population of Chicago nearly quadrupled to 800,000, mainly due to immigration. While the existing Irish and German communities expanded, Polish,Bohemian, French-Canadian,Lithuanian, Italian, Croatian,Slovak and Dutch Catholics arrived in the archdiocese, bringing their own languages and cultural traditions.[34]
During his tenure as archbishop, Feehan founded 140 new parishes. Fifty-two of them werenational parishes serving particular ethnic communities, staffed by religious orders from their home countries. The parishes provided the new immigrants with familiar fraternal organizations, music, and language, safe fromxenophobia and anti-Catholic discrimination.[34]
In 1881, Feehan established the St. Vincent Orphan Asylum and in 1883 the St. Mary's Training School for Boys. They were followed in 1887 with the founding of St. Paul's Home for Working Boys.[35] A strong supporter of Catholic education, Feehan promoted it with an exhibition at the 1893World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago[36] "Archbishop Feehan believed a strong system of Catholic education would solve the problem of inconsistent religious instruction at home, and unify a rapidly diversifying Catholic America."[37] He also brought theVincentians to Chicago to start what is nowDePaul University.
After Feehan died in 1902, Leo XIII in 1903 named BishopJames Quigley from theDiocese of Buffalo as the next archbishop of Chicago.[24] In 1905, Quigley asked Reverend John De Schryver, a professor atSt. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, to organize St. John Berchmans Parish for Belgian Catholics.[38] Quigley also established parishes for Italian andLithuanian immigrants. "Chicago's urban parishes flourished as an important spiritual, cultural, and educational component of Chicago's life."[39]
Pope Pius X erected theDiocese of Rockford in 1907, with 12 counties transferred from the Archdiocese of Chicago.[40] In 1910, Quigley approached Reverend Francis X. McCabe, president ofDePaul University, about the lack of higher education opportunities for Catholic women in the archdiocese. DePaul began admitting women the following year.[41] Quigley died in 1915.[42]
The next archbishop of Chicago was Auxiliary BishopGeorge Mundelein from theDiocese of Brooklyn, appointed byPope Benedict XV on December 9, 1915.[43] Almost half the Chicago population was Catholic by the 1920s. For decades, the parishes had been building and running their own schools, employing religious sisters as inexpensive teachers. The languages of instruction were often German or Polish. On taking office, Mundelein centralized control of the parish schools. The archdiocesan building committee now picked the locations for new schools while its school board standardized the schoolcurricula, textbooks, teacher training, testing, and educational policies.[44]
In 1926, the archdiocese hosted the28th International Eucharistic Congress.
Mundelein died in 1939.[43] To replace him,Pope Pius XII named ArchbishopSamuel Stritch from theArchdiocese of Milwaukee.[45] After Stritch died in May 1958, Pius Xll appointed ArchbishopAlbert Meyer of Milwaukee as archbishop of Chicago on September 19, 1958.[46]Pius XII erected theDiocese of Joliet in 1948, taking four counties from the Archdiocese of Chicago along with counties from the Dioceses of Rockford and Peoria.[47] This created the current territory of the archdiocese.
On December 1, 1958,a fire at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago destroyed part of the school and killed 92 students and three nuns. While visiting survivors in the hospital and viewing the deceased in the city morgue, Meyer was overcome with grief. In 1959, theNational Fire Protection Association report on the fire criticized the archdiocese for "housing their children in fire traps". The report noted that the archdiocese continued to operate schools with inadequate fire safety standards. The archdiocese faced $44 million in lawsuits from the families of fire victims and survivors. After six years of negotiations, Meyer agreed to a financial settlement with the victims and survivors.[15]
In 1960, Meyer banned parishes from hostingbingo games in response to reports of corruption.[15] In January 1961, during riots in the African-AmericanBronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, Meyer made this statement:
We must remove from the church on the local scene any possible taint of racial discrimination or racial segregation, and help provide the moral leadership for eliminating racial discrimination from the whole community.[15]
After Meyer died in 1965.Pope Paul VI appointed ArchbishopJohn Cody from theArchdiocese of New Orleans as the next archbishop of Chicago. During his tenure in Chicago, many priests and lay people criticized Cody for an autocratic management style. he Association of Chicago Priests censured Meyer in 1971 for failing to advance theSecond Vatican Council reforms in the archdiocese. Cody closed 27 schools as well as several parishes in inner city Chicago.[48]
In September 1981, theUS Attorney's Office in Chicago announced an investigation of Cody over the diversion of over $1 million archdiocesan funds to Helen Dolan Wilson, whom Cody described as his step-cousin. That same week, theChicago Sun-Times revealed that Wilson was on the archdiocesan payroll, but had no discernable duties. Cody denied all charges of wrongdoing.[49] When Cody died in 1982, the official investigation was terminated.
Pope John Paul II in 1982 chose ArchbishopJoseph Bernardin of theArchdiocese of Cincinnati as Cody's replacement. Bernardin found an archdiocese in disarray, its priests disheartened by arbitrary administration and charges of financial misconduct under Cody. "With his patient charm and willingness to listen, Bernardin won back the confidence of the clergy and the laity."[50] Within a few months of his arrival in Chicago, Bernadin had spoken personally to every priest in the archdiocese. He also prepared and released an audit of the archdiocesan finances.[51]
During the 1983 mayoral election campaign in Chicago, the African-American CongressmanHarold Washington faced bitter opposition from the Chicago political machine. Bernadin urged Chicago Catholics to reject racist attacks against Washington; when he was elected, Bernadin met with Washington the day after the election.[51]
In 1984, Bernadin began the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago,[52][53] the successor group to the Chicago Conference on Religion and Race.[54] The archdiocese also established covenants with theEpiscopal Diocese of Chicago in 1986 and with the Metropolitan Synod of theEvangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1989.[52]
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In 1990, Bernadin announced that the archdiocese was closing 37 churches and schools.[55] After Bernadin died in 1996, John Paul II appointed ArchbishopFrancis George from theArchdiocese of Portland in Oregon as the eighth archbishop of Chicago,[56] George was the first native Chicagoan to become its archbishop.
In 2011, George terminated thefoster care program ofCatholic Charities in the archdiocese. TheState of Illinois had ruled that it would not fund any charities that refused to considersame-sex couples asfoster care providers or adoptive parents. George refused to comply with this requirement.[57]
In 2011, the City of Chicago proposed a new route for the June 2012Chicago Pride Parade, a celebration by theLGBTQ community. However, the archdiocese objected to the new route, saying the parade would pass by Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church during Sunday morning mass. George told an interviewer: "you don't want the Gay Liberation Movement to morph into something like theKu Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism."[58] In response,LGBTQ advocates called for George's resignation, but George said:
"When the pastor's request for reconsideration of the plans was ignored, the organizers invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church."[59][60]
City administrators negotiated a compromise plan that delayed the parade start by two hours, allowing it to pass by Our Lady after its mass concluded. Two weeks later, George apologized for his remarks.[61] George died in 2014.
Pope Francis named Bishop Blaise Cupich from theDiocese of Spokane as the next archbishop of Chicago. Cupich announced a major reorganization of the archdiocese in 2015. Approximately 50 archdiocesan employees acceptedearly retirement packages offered by the archdiocese.[62] In 2016, increasing costs, low attendance at mass and priest shortages prompted the archdiocese to close or consolidate up to 100 parishes and schools over the next 15 years.[63]
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On December 27, 2021, following the issuing of themotu proprioTraditionis custodes in July and the subsequent issuing of guidelines released by theCongregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in December, Cupich imposed restrictions on the celebration of thetraditional Latin mass in the archdiocese. He banned the usage of the Traditional Rite on the firstSunday of every month,Christmas, theTriduum, Easter Sunday, andPentecost Sunday.[64] In 2021, the archdiocese announced plans to combine 13 parishes into five clusters, to minister to regions south of Chicago.[62]
On August 1, 2022, theInstitute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP) announced the celebration of public masses and sacraments atShrine of Christ the King Church, its headquarters in Chicago.[65] The archdiocese had sent the ICKSP in 2021 its new regulations on the use of the traditional Latin Mass.[66]
As of 2025, 39 churches in Chicago and 23 in the surrounding suburbs have closed and the number of parishes has reduced from 344 to 216.[67][68]
On May 8, 2025,Robert Francis Prevost, who was born and raised in Chicago and educated at schools run by the Archdiocese of Chicago, would become the first U.S. Pope, taking the namePope Leo XIV.[69][70][71]
In the 1950s, Chicago-area Catholics spoke of which churches they attended and identified themselves via these churches.University of Notre Dame professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings stated that knowing one's church revealed demographic information and that it "was an identifier, almost more identifiable than the particular neighborhood that they lived in."[72]
The archbishop's residence in Chicago is a private guesthouse owned by the Archdiocese of Chicago. It served as the official residence of the archbishops until 2014, when incoming Archbishop Blaise Cupich decided to live in the rectory ofHoly Name Cathedral.[73]
Listed on theNational Register of Historic Places, the archbishop's residence was built in 1885 by Bishop Feehan. A three-story, red brick building, it is one of the oldest structures in the Astor Street District, according to the Landmarks Preservation Council. Before its construction, the bishops of Chicago resided at a home on LaSalle Street and North Avenue. When John Paul IIvisited Chicago in 1979, he became the first pontiff to stay at the residence. However, both Pius XII and Paul VI resided there during their visits to Chicago as cardinals.[74]
Since 1915, the Vatican has designated each archbishop of Chicago as acardinal priest, with membership in theCollege of Cardinals. As such, they also have responsibilities in thedicasteries of theRoman Curia.
The archdiocese operates the Archbishop Quigley and Cardinal Meyer pastoral centers in Chicago.
As of 2024, the archdiocese has the following departments, agencies and offices:
The Office of Catholic Schools operates a system of primary and secondary schools in the archdiocese. A 2015 article in theChicago Tribune described the archdiocesan schools as the largest private school system in the United States.[77]
The first school in the archdiocese was a boys' school, opened in Chicago in 1844. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the archdiocese established schools servingGermans, Poles,Czechs, Bohemians, French,Slovaks,Lithuanians, Puerto Rican Americans,African Americans, Italians, andMexicans. Many of these schools were founded byreligious sisters.[78] The school construction boom in the archdiocese ended when Cardinal Cody froze school construction in Lake County and suburban Cook County.
Between 1984 and 2004, the archdiocese closed 148 schools and 10 school sites.[79] By 2005, over half of its urban schools had closed.[80] In January 2018, the archdiocese announced the closure of five school and In January 2020 it closed five more schools.[78][26] As of 2022, the archdiocese contained 33 secondary schools; seven were all-girls. seven were all-boys and 19 were co-ed[81] The system had an enrollment of 44,460 students in its primary schools and 19,200 in its secondary schools.[82]
Cardinal George established the Respect Life Office in the archdiocese. It provides educational resources and a speakers bureau, and sponsors conferences, retreats and rallies. The Office runs Project Rachel Post Abortion Healing, a program for women who have abortion procedures; and the Chastity Education Initiative, which advises youth and young adults on sexuality issues.[83][84]
The office has coordinated the local40 Days for Life campaign and trips to the March for Life rallies in both Chicago andWashington, DC, for college and high school students.[85][86]
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41°53′46″N87°37′40″W / 41.8960°N 87.6277°W /41.8960; -87.6277
