Religion
The Catholic religious order to which the Rev. Freddy Washington belongs says the allegations against him are “unsubstantiated,” but he’s identified as credibly accused by the Archdiocese of Chicago. His case illustrates the chaotic way the U.S. church still handles misconduct accusations against clergy, often to the detriment of the public.
Catholic organizations had lobbied Pat Quinn to end the death penalty. The former governor was not previously aware of Prevost’s message to him.
She built Misericordia into a model residence for Chicagoans with developmental challenges.
The Chicago native and confirmed Sox fan formerly known as Robert Prevost couldn’t help but get caught up in a White Sox chant earlier this week as he rode through Vatican City in the popemobile, video shows.
The landmark designation approved by the City Council only covers St. Adalbert’s church, not the entire complex that includes a school, rectory and convent.
About 8:30 p.m. Sunday, residents in the 900 block of Marion Avenue reported getting a letter “containing antisemitic comments,” city officials said. Specifics of the letter’s contents were not reported.
The Chicago-born pope addressed a crowd of 30,000 in a live-streamed message from the Vatican: “Build up community [and] friendship as brothers and sisters.”
Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. takes a deep dive into the pope’s past in New York Times Magazine piece.
Carlo Acutis was 15 when he died in northern Italy in 2006, after a short bout with leukemia. The pope announced Friday he’ll be canonized in September.
The Jewish United Fund produced a clever hot dog-themed ad about antisemitism. The Chicago Park District wouldn’t accept it.
At the time Pope Francis picked Bishop Gregg Caggianelli, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — was running the Vatican office that selects and vets prospective bishops. Cardinal Blase Cupich also is part of that office.
Pope Leo XIV met Thursday with members of the Vatican’s child protection advisory panel for the first time amid questions about his handling of abuse and demands from abuse survivors that he enact a true zero-tolerance policy.
The Catholic Church lobbied hard against a bill that would allow the terminally ill to end their lives in Illinois.
St. Sabina Church is offering a $10,000 reward for information on the attack that left seven teens wounded early Saturday. “This is personal,” the Rev. Michael Pfleger, St. Sabina’s pastor, says.
State Rep. Martin McLaughlin wants a statue of the new pope at the Illinois statehouse, paid for in part with a commemorative license plate.
Language and how it’s used shapes not only the way we feel but also how we think, said Viorica Marian, professor of psycholinguistics at Northwestern University and author of the new book “The Power of Language.”
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, called on the pope to enshrine in canon law that the Catholic Church has zero tolerance for sexually assaulting children and any clergy member who does so should be permanently removed from the church.
“He’s the one who gave me permission” to stay at a Hyde Park monastery in 2000, former priest James M. Ray told the Chicago Sun-Times of Robert Prevost, the newly installed pope who was then head of the Midwest province of his Augustinian order.
“It’s just remarkable to see someone I know as the pope,” said the Rev. Joe Roccasalva, an Augustinian priest who grew up in Beverly on the South Side.
“It’s very special, for our country and especially for our city,” a parishioner at the Shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini says on the day that Pope Leo XIV is installed as leader of the Catholic Church.
