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AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■
Vol. 31 No. 27
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July 5, 2017
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Arlene Jones on immigrants,
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Youth Baseball debuts, page 7
Community leaders march on City Hall A group of elected officials and clergymen demand city address violence By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
A large group of elected officials, pastors, activists and residents converged outside of the doors of City Hall on June 27 for a demonstration held “to demand fair treatment from government,” according to Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin (1st), who joined the contingent. “As the violence in Chicago continues to rage, too many are feeling hopeless,” Boykin stated. “Those same people, in most cases, face higher taxes, pay more for food, insurance, gas, credit and generally face more difficult life road blocks than those who have been blessed with more.” More specifically, the demonstrators urged lawmakers to support legislation that addresses the crises happening across the predominantly black and Hispanic West and South Sides Rev. Ira Acree, the pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church in Austin and cochairman of the Leaders Network — a faith-based social justice organization— specifically urged lawmakers to support House Bill 4008, which would appropriate emergency funding for violence preSee MARCH on page 6
WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer
ALL BUT THE SCHOOL: Workers in the process of demolishing St. Angela Parish building. The church closed in 2005, but the school still lives on. Once razed, the church, convent and rectory will give way to more open space to be utilized by the school.
St. Angela undergoes demolition
The Austin church will be leveled to make room for students By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter
When St. Angela Parish in Austin closed in May 2005, the hulking neo-gothic building at the corner of Massasoit and Potomac was adroitly disemboweled — the statues and
shrines made from plain Carrara marble, gold furnishings and stained glass panes once housed under the church’s 65-foot vaulted ceiling now give life to Our Lady of Ransom Catholic Church in Niles. This summer, officials with St. Angela School, which has managed to flourish despite the church’s demise, and the Archdiocese of Chicago have decided to demolish what remains of the deteriorating parish campus, which includes three buildings that were built between 1949 and 1951: a church, convent and rectory.
The buildings, school officials said, are relatively new compared to other Catholic parishes in Chicago, most of which were built in the early 1900s. “This is really one of the last of its kind,” said Lynn Fredrick, St. Angela’s director of advancement. “It was a beautiful church.” And grand. “The first thing that grabbed your senses were the windows and their strikingly vivid colors,” notes an auction ad book from a 2009
Austin Chamber of Commerce on the move... 773.854.5848 • www.austinchicagochamber.com
See ST. ANGELA on page 4