Archdiocese To Merge Our Lady of Loretto With St. Germaine Parish

CHICAGO, IL -- The Archdiocese of Chicago announced a new structure for parishes along the South Side’s “Pulaski corridor,” including the merging of two parishes and the closure of a church. Long rumored that a merger was in the offing, Our Lady of Loretto in Hometown will merge with St. Germaine Parish and School in Oak Lawn. Other parishes along the Pulaski corridor, including St. Catherine of Alexandria, also in Oak Lawn, and St. Terrence Church in Alsip, will remain intact.

The restructuring is part of the archdiocese’s Renew My Church revitalization plan. Our Lady of Loretto and St. Germaine parishes will unite to form one new parish lead by one pastor and one staff team effective July 1, 2019. Over the course of the next two years, at a time to be determined by parish and Archdiocese leadership, the newly formed parish will come together at St. Germaine Church at 9711 S. Kolin Ave., Oak Lawn. Our Lady of Loretto Church will close. St. Germaine School will remain as a ministry of the parish, the archdiocese said. It is not known if the newly formed parish will have a new name.

St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish will remain structurally as is, with the parish grammar school continuing as a ministry. St. Terrene Parish will remain intact, but will be reevaluated by parish and archdiocese leadership to identify an alternate grouping for further discernment about the best future scenario for the parish. (SUBSCRIBE: Get Real-Time Alerts and a Daily Newsletter for Oak Lawn)

“Through the new parish structure, the St. Germaine and Our Lady of Loretto Parish communities will unite their resources to become a stronger, more sustainable presence for the future,” the archdiocese said in a news release. “Working in direct, ongoing collaboration with St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish and St. Terrence Parish, all of the parishes within the Pulaski Corridor will be capable of reaching more people in their work of making disciples of Jesus Christ.”

Over the next few months, the archdiocese will work with both parishes to “ensure an orderly and smooth transition to the new structure.” The Archdiocese Priest Placement Board said it will work with the community to identify a pastor to lead the new parish formed by St. Germaine and Our Lady of Loretto.

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Our Lady of Loretto parishioners learned of the merger last Saturday. Hometown Mayor Kevin Casey said parishioners were told that the archdiocese would reevaluate the merger in 2021.

“[The Archdiocese of Chicago] is not going to tip their hand. If they did no one will be in church next Sunday,” said Casey, a lifelong Loretto parishioner. “The archdiocese is consolidating all these parishes one at a time. Nobody is safe anymore.”

Casey said the parish lost many of its young families after the Archdiocese of Chicago closed the grammar school in 2006 due to declining enrollment. The parish has served as a community center for residents in the 306-acre-large city, offering a meals-on-wheels program and services for low-income families and individuals.

“Closing the school took the heart out of the parish,” Casey said, whose father purchased the third house built in Hometown in the early 1950s. “We are not a rich community. People are struggling. Hometown has always supported the church. We’ve always been a giving parish and the archdiocese never took that into consideration. It’s all about the money you put in the basket, so we get pushed aside.”

Samuel Cardinal Stritch appointed Fr. Patrick Ronayne to establish a new parish in Hometown in July 1951. The church took the name Our Lady of Loretto, the name by which the Virgin Mary is known to aviators and homes, as nod to nearby Midway Airport. The first mass was celebrated on Sept. 30, 1951.

Our Lady of Loretto currently rents the former school building to the state, which uses the building as a school for children with behavioral issues. Casey said no one in the parish knows what is going to happen to that arrangement.

“I was born and raised in Hometown,” Casey said. “My parents helped build that church. I was married in the church and I plan to be buried from it. A lot of residents born and raised in Hometown pledged to that church.”

~ Image via Our Lady of Loretto