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Landmarking advances for Pilsen's St. Adalbert Catholic Church, Polish advocates left frustrated
A late compromise helped landmark status for Pilsen's St. Adalbert Catholic Church finally move ahead Tuesday, a decisive step in a fierce preservation battle.
The City Council's Zoning Committee unanimously approved a plan to give the shuttered church a landmark designation, teeing up a final vote Wednesday. But the Polish parishioners who long sought the preservation status left City Hall infuriated by what they described as a last-second 'backroom deal' that sets up the sale of the Archdiocese of Chicago land to a nondenominational church.
'It's what our ancestors sacrificed for. We're talking about poor farmers,' said Julie Sawicki, president of the Society of St. Adalbert group fighting for the church to reopen as a Catholic sacred space. 'You think that they did all that so that one day this could be just treated like a real estate broker, like bargaining chips? No, this was intended for perpetuity.'
Previous landmarking proposals included each building on the 2-acre plot, highlighted by the Renaissance Revival church. On Tuesday, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, presented a substitute plan that only granted the church building the landmark status, but left out the former rectory, convent and school.
That narrowed preservation plan came with the support of Preservation Chicago, a leading local preservation advocate. It also won approval from the Archdiocese, which closed St. Adalbert's in 2019 and has since fought the landmarking push. The Archdiocese has argued it must sell the St. Adalbert complex to avoid costly upkeep costs and fund the active St. Paul Parish nearby, a transaction potentially harmed by landmarking.
Aldermen also had to deal with a deadline: If they did not vote on the Commission on Chicago Landmarks' preservation recommendation this month, the entire complex would have been automatically landmarked.
Archdiocesan leaders feared that sweeping designation would prevent a planned sale of the property to People Church, a nondenominational Christian ministry that currently holds services at Roberto Clemente Community Academy.
'We have worked transparently with all stakeholders throughout this process and are grateful to those in city leadership who support limited landmarking,' the Archdiocese wrote in a statement before the vote.
The towering church building — currently covered in scaffolding the Archdiocese says is needed to prevent ongoing decay — is the 'crown jewel' of the property, Preservation Chicago Executive Director Ward Miller said after the vote. The new status will preserve the exterior of the building, but allow for changes to be made for its new owners inside and on other parts of the property, he said.
'We're very pleased that we came to a compromise here. The most important of the buildings has been landmarked,' Miller said.
Sigcho-Lopez defended the more-tailored designation as a 'win for the community' that came after public meetings and open conversations. He previously pushed for the broader landmark designation last year, but lost when his Zoning Committee colleagues decided to delay consideration in a 10-to-4 September vote.
'We did justice to what we heard from the community, a landmark designation that protects the use of the building,' Sigcho-Lopez said. 'That is a fair compromise.'
Sigcho-Lopez said he has not yet heard how People Church plans to develop the land, and People Church did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon. The alderman acknowledged the frustration of the dogged former parishioners who want St. Adalbert's to reopen as a Catholic church.
'I don't have jurisdiction over that,' he said.
But many of the Polish former St. Adalbert's parishioners pinned blame on the Pilsen alderman for failing to preserve the entire church complex. After the vote, Sawicki criticized Sigcho-Lopez for not effectively working with other aldermen and said advocates backing the full-property preservation were not made aware of the compromise.
'This was not done with community input,' she said.
The Society of St. Adalbert group has long fought for St. Adalbert's to reopen as a Catholic sacred space funded by the use of the church complex's many buildings, including as a potential retreat center. In their bid to save the church, activists have attended raucous and insult-ridden City Hall hearings, stormed into other parishes in protest and even, in the case of one 73-year-old woman, been arrested for trespassing while opposing the removal of stained glass windows and art.
The fight continued Tuesday, when dozens again donned the red and white of the Polish flag and filled the seats inside City Council chambers.
Sawicki criticized the Archdiocese for deciding to sell instead of using St. Adalbert's to grow its Catholic ranks. The church complex could still be used to respond to a coming wave of Catholic tourism tied to the May election of Pope Leo XVI, of Dolton, she said.
'It's ridiculous, it's short-sighted, it's misguided,' Sawicki said. 'They are dumping millions of dollars into shutting churches, merging them. Why don't you use that brain power and money instead to figure out ways of bringing people back.'
The group supports landmarking moving forward tomorrow because the church building will otherwise not be protected, but it now plans to push separately for the landmarking of the other buildings, Sawicki said.
