Life at St. Thomas
St. Thomas of Canterbury Parish was founded in 1916 by the Archbishop at the time, George Mundelein. Cardinal Mundelein made a deal with Catholic laymen who pleaded with the Archbishop to allow them to have their own parish. The laymen were eventually granted this request after bringing community signatures to Cardinal Mundelein. This perseverance created the foundational characteristics and values St. Thomas and its community choose to follow to this day. Throughout its history, St. Thomas of Canterbury Parish has shown time and time again how it perseveres through hardships and its ever-changing surroundings. St. Thomas of Canterbury Parish experienced many changes since its founding with a revolving door of pastors and continuous location changes. For one hundred years since 1916, St. Thomas of Canterbury Parish has had eleven pastors with exponential growth. Where in recent years the amount of time a single pastor serves within the parish has been decreasing, making way for a new one to be appointed. And yet, St.Thomas has continued to persevere as the parish desperately attempts to remain pertinent with changing times. However, St. Thomas of Canterbury Parish eventually was forced to merge with St. Ita Parish and St. Gregory the Great Parish—making what we know today as Mary, Mother of God Parish.
Church and the Community
For many, the church was not just a church, but a part of their lifestyle and a large part of their community. Those who lived in the Wilson Avenue District knew the presence of St. Thomas and how important it was to the community. A large part of this was Father Francis O’Brien, the first pastor, setting about providing a combination church-school building. By the time the Church had been established in the community for almost 60 years, they had a rotation of over half a dozen Priests who attended to the needs of the community. With the Church offering worship in multiple different languages, those who were leading mass were often kept busy during this time— they had to ensure that every person who wanted to attend mass was able to do so.
In the 80’s, Rev. Thomas Foley worked closely with the other priests as well as the community to ensure that those who attended mass could not only adjust to life in the Church, but life in Chicago as a migrant. Some pockets of the community were larger than others, Laotian masses sometimes having no more than 50 people attending, but it was about establishing strong bonds within the community. The priests did not just help with worship and the connection with God, Rev. Peter Tran was kept busy with those who attended his masses, asking about how to open bank accounts or who needed help with the phone company. The trust that was built with those who attended mass extends all the way to Father Foley writing character testimonies for those applying for green cards who were a part of the Church. “That is one of the attractions of the parish. Everyone feels free to come in.”
The church being free and open for everyone does have some drawbacks within the community. The church and school were already at capacity, and the soup kitchen was one of the central hubs for the poorer members of the Uptown area to get a warm meal— the Church sometimes struggled financially and had to cut back on some big projects that would have otherwise been completed if they simply had the resources. One of these includes a winter shelter for vagrants— a project in 1981 they had hosted previously but put a great financial strain on the Church. Rev. William Johnson is passionate about the project, but believed that the City of Chicago was trying to push responsibility away from themselves for their lack of support for immigrants and vagrants, putting it all on the Church to handle. It was a “social issue that was so much larger than just Uptown and Edgewater and Rogers Park”, and they would need the support of multiple churches or the neighborhood organizations rather than trying to do everything alone.
