South Side Irish Parade Puts Crimps In Early Church Services

By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 8, 2012 6:20PM

Sunday's return of the South Side Irish Parade is going to be interesting, and that's an understatement. Right now, it seems as though the South Side Irish Parade Committee is moving forward with the event, and Beverly residents and city officials are along for the ride, waiting for something bad to happen.

The latest complaints to come from the festival are from a Catholic priest who says the earlier start time for the parade will force his church to cancel early morning worship. Bob Kyfes of St. John Fisher Parish told the Sun-Times he canceled 10 a.m. and noon services Sunday and added a 6 p.m. Saturday service for his laity due to the parade's 11 a.m. start time. In previous iterations of the parade, Kyfes said only the noon mass was canceled.

Kyfes believes the parade committee could have been more amenable to working with other local institutions in making accommodations during the planning. “The Gay Pride Parade folks on the North Side were considerate enough to move their parade to noon,” he said.

Organizers for the Chicago Pride Parade agreed in December to move their parade's start time after Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church complained the parade would pass by their front door during noon mass. While the two sides worked out an agreement, Cardinal Francis George made waves by comparing Pride Parade organizers to the KKK, a comparison for which he later apologized.

Maybe the archbishop of Chicago's Catholic Church has a bad comparison of the South Side Irish Parade Committee to the Irish Republican Army in him.