Results tagged “church”

It's been nearly six months since fire damaged the historic Holy Name Cathedral and while worshipers have found other locations to hold mass, they'll soon be back in their church. Repairs have been ongoing - at a rate of 10 hours a day for six days a week - and the $6 million repair is almost done, mostly covered by insurance. It appears the church will reopen officially on Saturday, August 1. CBS 2 has more on the repair efforts and the expected reopening.

Officials in Naperville are breathing a sigh of relief that one pyro-oriented kid didn't do more damage or seriously bodily harm to anyone after setting fire to a church while 50 congregants were inside. The fire was set by a juvenile Sunday morning at Naperville Congregational Church while the congregants hung about after the morning's worship service; the fire seems to have been set from the pulpit while the congregants were in the basement. Calling it, "an apparent arson involving a juvenile," Naperville police Cmdr. Dave Hoffman wouldn't reveal details about the suspect other than that he or she was a member of the church. No one was injured by the fire - which was immediately put out - and the church sustained about $500 in damages. Police are calling it "aggravated arson." [Sun-Times]

A Bridgeport church was vandalized and had two fires set nearby overnight and officials are calling at least one of the fires an arson. The incident happened at All Saints St. Anthony's Church very early this morning. One of the fires damaged a stained-glass window. In addition to the fires, the phrases "GOD IS A LIE," "RAPE," and "IT HAPPENED HERE" were displayed across the doors of the church in red duct tape. The church's pastor, Rev. John Parker, said earlier today, "We didn't receive any warnings or threats or anything of that nature...I'm trying to figure out what the message means and what it means to the person who did it."

Weird story out of Harvard, IL today. Skyler Hall, 21, has pleaded guilty to an April incident in which he beheaded the statues of Jesus and Joseph at St. Joseph Catholic Church using a lead pipe. He's been fined $500 and has to pay the church $7,185 to pay for the damages which also includes damage he did to a statue of the Virgin Mary. Beheading a statue of Jesus? That's rough.

                   

Yesterday, hundreds lined the streets of Chinatown and Bridgeport for the 88th procession of the Order of St. Rocco di Simbario. The order, founded in the late 1920s by Bruno Bertucci, was named in honor of St. Rocco, the Catholic Patron Saint of Pestilence.

The protesters who interrupted the Easter mass at Holy Name church yesterday were in court this morning and held in lieu of $25,000 bail for five of them and $35,000 for one with a record. They all face two counts of felony criminal damage to property and two counts of simple battery for allegedly squirting fake blood on parishioners. Donte D. Smith, Ephran Ramirez, Jr., Ryane J. Ziemba, Mercedes Phinaih, Regan Maher and Angela Haban will all be in court Monday, March 31.

Closed since February 26 because a 10-pound piece of decorative wood fell from the ceiling, damaging a pew, the Holy Name Cathedral will be closed through Easter. Originally, the cathedral was going to be open during the structural repairs, but engineers determined the entire cathedral was suffering from weakness.

With the city being overrun by holiday bar crawls, it might be difficult to walk the streets this weekend without being accosted by a drunk dude in holiday vest or run over by a Santa in a hazmat suit. Throw on your best Cosby sweater and enjoy any or all of these weekend delights....

Is it just us, or has this week sucked ass? It seems like everyone we've talked to has wanted to stab the whole world in the neck this week. At least we have a bunch of things to do that are awesome..... The Old Town School of Folk Music has its annual craft fair tonight, plus their monthly First Friday series. Tomorrow, bust out your wallet at Renegade Craft Fair's holiday bonanza. We've noticed...

After cooking our Thanksgiving dinner from scratch while holding our toddler, we’d like to never see the inside of a kitchen again. Thankfully, Chicago is rife with take-out deliciousness. Our new favorite is Ta Tong, a local Thai and sushi dive in Lakeview. Most Chicago neighborhoods have one: a hole-in-the-wall place that serves up some awesome Asian food. Ta Tong makes one of the best Pad Kee Mao ($6.95) dishes we’ve eaten in Chicago. We...

It's part of our national schizophrenia as Americans. Every year we bemoan the exploitation of Christmas, and every year we spend more and more money that we really don't have to buy crap to give to each other "in the spirit of the season." There's a great movie to be made about the overcommercialization of Christmas; What Would Jesus Buy? is not exactly that movie, but it still offers a lot of food for...

Lots to rock about over the next few days, from Modest Mouse at the Congress, to Bob Pollard at the Metro, to our beloved Hall & Oates at the UIC Pavilion, but DDaN's gonna keep it live and local this week.

On a weekend where gratefulness is foremost on our minds, it’s unfortunate that crime keeps moving forward. We’ll lead off with one story for which we can be thankful is not all bad news:Remember Nicolas Orbovich, the concert violist whose 1892 instrument worth $100,000 was stolen from the back seat of his unlocked car in a Michigan City, Indiana, Wal-Mart parking lot? It’s been found, with the help of Lake Station, Indiana, pawn shop, Orbovich’s...

The Rev. Jeffrey Lee, a moderate in the eyes of religious leaders, was elected as the 12th Bishop of Chicago at the diocese convention in Wheeling on Saturday. Lee was selected over seven other candidates, one of whom is an openly lesbian priest, the Very Rev. Tracey Lind. Theological conservatives are condemning the vote and Lee, saying it doesn’t demonstrate enough restraint in maintaining the traditional view that the scripture condemns homosexuality. And some are...

"She-kaa-go's gat it." More than 20 people were arrested at O'Hare today for having fraudulent security badges. Investigators discovered a suburban staffing agency told its employees, many of them illegal immigrants, that they needed ID to work at O'Hare, but that it didn't need to be legit. Mayor Daley's "bothered" by police officers Tasering an 82-year-old woman. A 10-year-old boy has an extremely rare form of anemia and will die unless a bone-marrow donor...

George Ryan starts his prison sentence today, and the Sun-Times and Trib have helpfully chronicled every move the former governor has made since last night. You know what that means: time for a Ryan Round Up! Olé! Yesterday, the 73-year-old released this statement to the public, again claiming innocence and thanking his family and legal team. At 5:50 this morning, Ryan left his home in Kankakee in a van driven by his son, George Ryan...

The Red Sox has permeated nearly every facet of Bostonist's lives. When they're not live-blogging the games, waxing poetic about the games, thanking Curt Schilling for his splendid work, or telling Dane Cook to watch his hair, they're watching certain presidential candidates hop on the Red Sox bandwagon (sorry, Gothamist). The Sox are so branded on the local brain that people are using the Series to spice up their sex lives. Speaking of spice, Bostonist...

Lesean Jackson, 17, was charged with first-degree murder today as the shooter in 10-year-old Arthur Jones's death. Jackson is the third teenager charged in the case; Steven McCaskill, also 17, was charged with first-degree murder last week for obtaining the gun, and a 14-year-old was charged as a juvenile for allegedly getting the gun from McCaskill and giving it to Jackson.

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just...

With the rise of new music media, and the ability to discover a new favorite band from Iceland in the comfort of your own bedroom, those instances of love for an unfamiliar artist at first sight leave more indelible impressions than ever.

Chicago is the 23rd greenest city in the world. Did you take your dog to church yesterday? Visit the Museum of Stuff Left on the Sidewalk. Here's a You Tube Video of legendary soul singer Syl Johnson live in Chicago from 1975. Unfortunately, the song isn't the classic "Is it Because I'm Black?" But it's still choice. Prosecutors in the Family Secrets Trial played on the paranoia of Frank Calabrese, Sr. Really? "Never Stop...

There are three Cocina Cocula locations in Chicago. The closest one to us is a short — and, for yesterday, hot — bike ride away where Pilsen blends into Little Village. We've often passed Cocula on our way to our favorite haunts in La Villita, but with the sound of sirens in the air all around yesterday, we figured it would be as good a place as any to cool down and have a nosh....

Angel Llavano is one cranky customer. He didn't like a sermon at his church, St. Thomas the Apostle in Crystal Lake, so he left a voice message for the priest saying, "I attended mass on Sunday and I have seen poor homilies, but yesterday broke all records." When the priest played that recording as part of the following week's sermon (snap!), Llavano decided to sue for defamation. Great, just when homilies were going multimedia, somebody has to ruin it for everyone. That's St. Thomas' pictured at the right, by the way; can you feel the aura of public humiliation? We cannot.

"I saw the face of Nailah Franklin so often, I began to feel as if I knew her," writes Mary Mitchell in a thoughtful column that contextualizes Franklin's disappearance and the media attention it garnered (1, 2, 3) as part of a broader narrative of how the media responds — and how families approach the media — when black women vanish. "Franklin has been humanized in a way that so many missing black women have not been," she says, citing Nancie Walker's 2003 disappearance (a case Mitchell wrote about back then, too).

Or, since this will be an Oktoberfest-intensive installment, "Das Freitagsbüfett." Most of these are around the general vicinity of Lincoln Park, Lake View, and Wrigleyville. Things kick off this evening with St. Alphonsus' Sixth Annual Oktoberfest Chicago. Admission is $5, or free if you RSVP at going.com/oktoberfestchicago. First St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church hosts their Oktoberfest Saturday from 5-10 p.m. Cost is $20 ($15 for seniors, $10 for children under 12). St. Michael in Old...

For those interested in learning more about Scientology off the job, the church is expanding its Chicago presence. The Church of Scientology is setting up shop at the former Artcraft Building in the South Loop, at 650 S. Clark. When the flagship center opens next summer there will be activities, social services and, presumably, auditing. The building’s previous tenants, ACORN and the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, moved out because the space and crumbling façade needed attention...

Seattlest watches as a S.L.U.T. is born and Seattle Flickr users go nuts over a local art installation. A restaurant critic demands a Diner's Bill of Rights over a gnat next to her drink, and, in lieu of a Portlandist, Seattlest debates with itself over the identity of the Northwest's crown jewel. Seattlest also joins the guys from Fantagraphics for an ill-fated gun party in the woods. Bostonist got a crash course in what not...

This afternoon, Pat Quinn, the most progressive guy in state government, and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, granddaughter of United Farm Workers co-founder Cesar Chavez, will join state and local political and community leaders to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the UFW Grape Boycott. The ceremony will take place at 1:30 p.m. on the 15 floor of the State of Illinois Building and is open to the public, and this Saturday, the United Farm Workers will host...

As we briefly noted in the Extra, Extra last night, two homeless men were shot in Uptown over the span of 24 hours last week. Sadly, early on Monday morning, yet another person was added to the list of those who have been murdered in recent days in the neighborhood. To give a recap of the tragic violence that has occurred: Phillipi Larrnarri, 32, was sleeping on a park bench when he was shot in...

SHOOTING: Two homeless men shot in a 24 hour span in Uptown -- they appear to be unrelated. In more shooting news (why is there so much?!): Police have two "persons of interest" in custody Sunday morning after two teenagers were shot in a playlot on the South Side in the Woodlawn neighborhood, blocks from the University of Chicago campus. TRAINS: Our dear friend warns us: This is why you NEVER put headphones in...