Pope Leo's Boyhood Catholic Church is Closed

 


A man who bought the empty Catholic church building where Pope Leo attended as a boy in Chicago hopes the Papel label will bring investors to save the building. So far, he is up to his neck in debt with no solution. 

So often abandoned churches are proposed to be "community centers." This keeps an element of its former life even if the church use in gone. Any city has a limit to the number of community centers and there is no end to requests for taxpayer dollars. If is understandable former church members do want their former house of worship be turned into a gay bar but sometimes that is the best use. Arlo Guthrie wrote a song about a church that became "Alice's Restaurant."

The Chicago diocese has been closing churches and schools across the city. According to the link the neighborhood where Pope Leo grew up has changed a lot and is one of the locations that can no longer support a Catholic church. 

Readers may have different thought about preserving buildings with historical significance. I used to be much more enthusiastic about saving buildings than I am today. Buildings, like cars and restaurants, can no longer serve a purpose but be a drag on money that is needed for other things. Sometimes saving a picture is all that can be done. 

I wish all the best to the new owner of Pope Leo's Catholic church building. It sounds like he will need some lucky breaks to hang onto it.

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