The
seal of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago is the ecclesiastical see of the Archbishop of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. The see covers 10,379 square miles (26,880 km²) of Illinois, north of the south line of Whiteside, Lee, DeKalb, Grundy, and Kankakee counties. The original diocese was created on November 28, 1842 and was raised to the rank of archdiocese on September 10, 1880.
As one of the largest dioceses in the nation and due to the fame of its prelates, the Archdiocese of Chicago is often referred to as the Preeminent See of the United States. However, it does not enjoy primatial status, as the only see in the United States with privileges approaching that would be the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Holy Name Cathedral in downtown Chicago is the mother church of the archdiocese, and the archdiocese has three basilicas: Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica, Queen of All Saints Basilica and St. Hyacinth Basilica. The archdiocese ministers in four languages: English, Polish, Spanish and Tagalog.
Frontier Catholicism
Holy Name Cathedral is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
French Jesuit missionary Father Jacques Marquette, SJ first explored the area that is now Chicago in the mid-1600s. On December 4, 1674, Marquette arrived at the mouth of the Chicago River where he built a cabin to recouperate from his travels. His cabin would become the first white settlement in Chicago. Marquette published his survey of the new territories and soon, more French missionaries and settlers arrived. In 1795, the Potawatomi tribe signed the Treaty of Greenville that ceded to the United States a track of land at the mouth of the Chicago River. There in 1804, Fort Dearborn was erected and protected newly arrived Catholic pioneers. In 1822, Alexander Beaubien became the first person to be baptized in Chicago.
In 1833, the Jesuit missionaries of Chicago wrote a letter to Joseph Rosati, Bishop of St. Louis and Vicar General of Bardstown (the diocese that Illinois was administered from), pleading for the appointment of a resident pastor to serve over one hundred Catholics living in Chicago. Rosati appointed a diocesan priest, Father John Mary Irenaeus St. Cyr. He celebrated his first mass in the Beaubien family log cabin on Lake Street, near Market Street, in 1833.
First congregation
Francis Cardinal George is the current Archbishop of Chicago.
At the cost of USD $400, Father St. Cyr purchased a plot of land on what is now the intersection of Lake and State Streets and constructed a church building of twenty-five by thirty-five feet (8 by 11 m). It was dedicated in October of 1833. The following year, the first Bishop of Vincennes in Indiana visited Chicago. There he found over four hundred Catholics with only one priest to serve them all. The Bishop asked permission from Rosati to send Fathers Fischer, Shaefer. St. Palais, Dupontavice and Joliet from Vincennes to tend to the needs of Chicago's faithful. In 1837, Father St. Cyr was allowed to retire and replaced by Chicago's first English-speaking priest, Father O'Meara. Father O'Meara moved the church built by Father St. Cyr to what is now the intersection of Wabash Avenue and Madison Street. When Father O'Meara left Chicago, Father St. Palais tore down the church and replaced it with a new brick structure.
Establishment
A meeting of Roman Catholic religious leaders called the First Plenary Council of Baltimore concluded that the Catholic population of Chicago was growing exponentially and was in dire need for an ecclesiastical see of its own. With the consent of Pope Gregory XVI, the Diocese of Chicago was created on November 28, 1842. In 1844, William J. Quarter of Killurine, Ireland was appointed the first Bishop of Chicago. Upon his arrival, Bishop Quarter summoned a synod of thirty-two Chicago priests to begin the organization of the diocese.
One of Bishop Quarter's most important achievements was the passage of an Illinois state law in 1845 that declared the Bishop of Chicago an incorporated entity, a corporation sole with power to hold real and other property in trust for religious purposes. This allowed the bishop to pursue mass construction of new churches, colleges and universities to serve the needs of Chicago's Catholic faithful. After four years of service as Bishop of Chicago, Bishop Quarter died on April 10, 1848.
Primacy
Joseph Louis Cardinal Bernardin, served as Archbishop of Chicago from 1982 till his death in 1996. He was one of the most popular Cardinals in the United States.
Diocese of Chicago
Archdiocese of Chicago
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