W E D N E S D A Y
September 29, 2021 Vol. 42, No. 9 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal
JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
Senior Living
Fall 2021
Special section Page 19
Options on table for how Catholic parishes might merge Renew My Church process lists multiple scenarios in Oak Park By TOM HOLMES Contributing Reporter
Members of Oak Park’s four Roman Catholic parishes were given a handout last weekend outlining the next step in the ongoing Renew My Church process being implemented by the Chicago archdiocese. The strategy is aimed at addressing decades of attendance decline, aging and declining numbers of priests, and weakening financial support for aging physical facilities. The stated goal of Cardinal Blase Cupich is to attempt to use the situation as an occasion for renewed vision and energy in the archdiocese. The handout repeatedly stated that no final decisions have been made on how the four parishes might be merged or potentially shuttered. Instead, the working document outlined five scenarios for members to comment on at upcoming meetings in each of the four parishes — Ascension, St. Giles, St. Edmund and St. Catherine-St. Lucy. While the decision-making processes of the Catholic Church are often characterized as hierarchical and top-down, Rev. Carl Morello, currently the pastor at St. Giles and the administrator at Ascension, said the Renew My Church process is also bottom-up. “It is the desire of the Cardinal that folks from the communities should be involved in giving feedback See CHURCHES on page 18
ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer
LEGACY ENDANGERED: Faith Julian, who lives in the home on North East Avenue that her father, Percy Julian, purchased in the 1949, says she’s in danger of losing the property, which is tax delinquent and must undergo significant repairs.
Back taxes have Percy Julian home in peril Famed chemist’s daughter starts GoFundMe campaign
By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter
Just before chemist Percy Julian and his family were to move into their Oak Park home in 1950, someone broke in, poured kerosene on its floors, then
threw a firebomb through the bedroom window belonging to his 6-year-old daughter Faith. The racist attack failed to intimidate the Julian family into abandoning their plans to live in Oak Park. The Prairiestyle house on Chicago Avenue was damaged, but still standing.
Seventy-one years later, Faith Julian, the sole surviving member of her family, faces the prospect of losing that home again. During a recent phone interview with Wednesday Journal, Julian said she was See JULIAN HOME on page 18