Join us at Holy Name Cathedral in downtown Chicago every Friday at noon until further notice. We will pray all 15 decades of the Rosary and the Litany of Loreto.
There is not a lot of space in front of Holy Name and the Police are there watching us, so it is very crucial that we maintain social distancing at all times. This means we may need to wrap around the block.
Even though this means that those not in front of the Cathedral won't be able to hear, and may have to pray the Rosary in groups, wouldn't it be cool to surround the whole block??? :)
ATTENTION!!!! Date change for the week of May 18-22!
We will meet this week on THURSDAY for The Ascension of our Lord. Same time, same place but THURSDAY MAY 21 instead of Friday May 22.
After this week we will resume Fridays.
Share this change with others!!!
Can we follow up on this great public witness with a petition that represents as many parishes as possible? Perhaps, we can correspond with the Aux. Bishops, since the Cardinal will likely not respond. It seems clear that he is in lock-step with our child-killing sodomite governor. Joe@vision2020il.org
Hi Joe,
At the beginning of all this there was a petition that circulated and it got around 30,000 signatures and was delivered to every bishop in the US.
Unfortunately petitions are far too easy to ignore. What would be far better is to flood the Chancery offices with thousands of letters.
The Cardinal is not only in charge here in the Chicago area; he has precedence over the other Illinois bishops, so most of them are following his lead. So...writing to the Auxiliary Bishops will not have any effect, I'm afraid.
We just have to keep praying and offering up this deprivation to Our Lord. He is allowing this to happen, and nothing that we do goes unseen by Him.
Dear CBS:
After praying on your response, I’ve come to believe that petitioning the Bishops of IL is what the Lord desires for us to do. Can you please help me to disseminate a public petition to the Bishops of IL only. Not the Cardinal. This is not to assume that the effort will result in open churches. It is only to say that I truly believe that this is what God wants regardless of the previous nationwide petition effort. I believe the Lord wants the Bishops to know that the faithful will simply not give up if they truly Love Him. I need assistance in making this effort larger. Thank you for prayerfully considering.
We are monitoring the current situation in downtown Chicago to determine whether to hold our usual prayer rally at Holy Name this Friday. We did go this past Saturday for our National Day of Prayer, and though there was increased activity in that area, we did not fear for our safety.
Thus, I recommend that you check here Friday morning before heading to the area. I will post here if we plan to call it off.
I do not currently envision doing so; if anything, we need more prayer at this time. However, we certainly do caution all our members to use their discernment regarding the situation and to act as they deem appropriate.
Dear CB Society: Especially at a time when the violence and looting might make the Holy Name Cathedral effort smaller and less safe, there should not be any lightening of the efforts geared towards reminding Cardinal Cupich to reopen churches. I am attaching a video I completed, which will guide you towards a working petition. The goal of the video and the petition is to request that the Auxiliary bishops "man up" and ask the Cardinal to quickly restore the Mass fully and NOT persecute traditionalists in any way (such as eliminating receiving The Blessed Sacrament on the tongue while kneeling). This video is a follow-up from a video posted on the Church Militant home page, and uses some of the same footage that I took and used in the video below (in case you have already viewed the Church Militant one). NOW WE NEED CATHOLICS TO SPREAD THIS VIDEO AND THE THE PETITION AND TO SIGN IT. SADLY, IT IS THE FEAR OF LOSING MORE DONATIONS THAT WILL LIKELY MOTIVE OUR CARDINAL WHO HAS BEEN LED ASTRAY. GOD BLESS YOU ALL FOR NOT QUITTING!
Joe, In response to your sincerity, which I don't doubt, the fact is this: under Canon law, the ordinary of a diocese has full authority over his diocese. Cupich is not going to be persuaded by a petition. He won't be made to change his mind by receiving a letter. Possibly, he might *think*, -*a little*, -if he were to receive hundreds or thosands of letters. The St. Charles Borromeo Society wrote to him a couple of months ago requesting a meeting. His response was to say, -through means of an archdiocesan spokesperson, -that it was not an opportune time to discuss the reopening of churches.
Look: he has planned, all along for an excruciating slow, draconian, phased-in *process* to *gradually* reopen parish churches for holy Masses in the archdiocese of Chicago. I'm certain that he's been listening to, if not taking explicit directives from archdiocesan legal counsel. At this point, I believe the best action we can take, in addition to writing letters to our local ordinary ("ordinary" means bishop or archbishop of a diocese or archdiocese) is to pray, and pray INSIDE CHURCHES, -or outside of churches and cathedrals (if they are still closed)
-and to assist at holy Mass wherever and whenever possible, and as often as possible. I don't know if you live in the Chicago area, but if you do, some parishes are opening for holy Mass soon.
St. John Cantius is opening for daily and Sunday Masses beginning Monday June 8.
Go to the parish website, cantius.org, for details and to sign up for a place at holy Mass. They have a capacity of up to 300 persons, which is 20% of capacity.
Ss. Peter & Paul in Naperville, IL is opening soon also.
I agree with your assessment. However, my petition was to the Auxiliary Bishops, not the Cardinal. This follows both the chain of command and subsidiarity.
As far as the petition itself being the thing that opens churches properly, I did not have this expectation. However, every measure does apply a healthy pressure against the Cardinal, which I believe has value. Not to mention, I do believe that every Catholic has a duty to contribute to restoring the Sacraments in some way.
There are also smaller persecutions, which we have not yet fully realized, which will, no doubt, be targeting traditional Catholics. Some churches are already NOT allowing Holy Communion on the tongue. So opening churches is not the only point in applying pressure.
Furthermore, it should be declared that Cardinal Cupich is not merely an overbearing or confused Cardinal. He has openly supported same-sex unions, and then tried to claim that those who want open churches are not pro-life. He has forged ties in an ungodly manner with anti-God leaders (Lightfoot, Pritzker). And the list goes on. He IS an enemy of the church, whether Catholics can accept it or not.
Finally, regarding prayer.....as every pro-life activist knows well......God is almost never content to let those who are truly praying, only pray. He uses prayer as a call to take action for Him. So I am in fact operating on prayer-driven fuel. God bless the Charles Borromeo Society for proclaiming the truth publicly! I still ask that as many as possible sign the petition. It is already in the hundreds.....
Hello Joe,
The benefit of having this forum is so that those who feel strongly about the need to open our churches and restore the Sacraments can easily reach others and work together to achieve this goal. We support grassroots activism, the cornerstone of which is prayer.
Thus, I am glad that you have put so much energy and prayer into this, and wish to share it here. I hope that you will be able to get signatures for your petition, and that it may do good. I don’t see a link in any of your messages; do provide one if you wish for people to sign it.
The St. Charles Borromeo Society was formed specifically to defend the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ; when one member is harmed, the rest are harmed. By being denied the Sacraments, we have been neglected and starved; therefore we have been forced to cry out to our shepherds and insist that they feed us.
Because some of our shepherds sadly have responded like hirelings, we have had to insist rather loudly. However, it is necessary to tread carefully in order to properly fulfill our mission and not harm the Mystical Body of Christ in the name of restoring it. No matter how obvious his intentions may be, we overstep our bounds if we allow our anger at Cupich’s treatment of us to change our mission into specifically targeting him.
As long as he is the Archbishop of Chicago, we must deal with him as befits his office. When he first revealed his plan to reopen the Archdiocesan churches, we reacted strongly to its measures because they deserved such a reaction. Further proof of this can be found in the fact that, of the roughly 300 churches in the Chicago Archdiocese, less than a dozen so far have troubled themselves to jump through these draconian hoops in order to open.
In the coming months, we will need to keep pressure on our clergy to make sure that restrictions and barriers and badges of fear are truly done away with in a timely manner, lest the defacing of the sacramental character of the Sacraments continue. Let us continue to work and pray toward this goal.
“And in doing good, let us not fail. For in due time we shall reap, not failing. Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” (Gal 6:9-10)
Thank you CB Society for this great reply. Dear devoted friends, here is the link for the petition discussed above:
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE REOPENMYCHURCH PETITION
YOU CAN ALSO FIND THIS PETITION ON FACEBOOK BY SEARCHING #REOPENMYCHURCH.
YOU CAN ALSO FIND THE CHURCH MILITANT VIDEO HIGHLIGHTING THIS TOPIC HERE:
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/illinois-bishops-mia
AND YOU CAN FIND THE PETITION VIDEO ENTITLED: "WHY IS Cardinal Cupich KEEPING CHURCHES CLOSED" ON YOUTUBE. THIS IS LINKED ABOVE ALSO.
SIGNATURES ARE COMING IN DAILY. THIS PETITION IS RESPECTFUL AND FOLLOWS SUBSIDIARITY BY BEING SENT DIRECTLY TO EVERY AUXILIARY BISHOP IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO. PLEASE DO NOT DELAY. SIGN THE PETITION AND FIND OTHERS WHO WILL. I WILL NOT HALT THIS EFFORT UNTIL THE MASS AND THE SACRAMENTS ARE PROPERLY RESTORED. GOD BLESS YOU!
Thank you Joe! Thank you SCB society... we need grassroots efforts like this. We need ALL efforts!
Hello All,
The good news is that "officially" the parishes of the Chicago Archdiocese are allowed to open.
The bad news is that the process to gain certification is so onerous, that very few parishes have jumped through all the hoops. The manual for re-opening fills a 1.5" binder and has more pages than the Baltimore Catechism.
So...while there is still much to pray for, the benefits of doing so as we have been doing are not clear. We are working on strategies but at least for this week (6/12) we will take a break from praying at Holy Name. Please do check back here for updates, we will keep you posted.
Dear CBS: The #Reopenmychurch Facebook petition is now to be sent out to all Illinois bishops due to overwhelming support from Catholics outside of the Archdiocese of Chicago. The faithful in dioceses, such as Joliet, have taken notice that their bishops have mostly cut and pasted Cardinal Cupich's overbearing restrictions in their own dioceses. Even in churches, which have opened, the faithful are being FORCED to either receive Our Lord in the hand, or not at all. For those who do don't know, this goes against Cannon Law and has been reaffirmed countless times.
The St. Michael's Church in Wheaton, IL is particularly filled with faithful who wish to help grow this respectful, yet firm, petition to the bishops. Even members of the clergy have boldly and courageously signed this petition. Please spread this effort as far and wide as possible. This time is presenting an opportunity, clearly brought forth by the Holy Spirit, for devoted Catholics to remind the clergy that irreverence breaks Our Lord's heart, and therefore ours also.
Please use this Lifesite News article link below as a sirens call to awaken friends in Chicago and other dioceses who would like to awaken their leaders. GOD BLESS YOUR EFFORTS TO PRESERVE THE SACRAMENTS!
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/were-being-persecuted-catholic-dad-calls-out-cardinal-cupich-for-severely-restricting-sacraments
Guys- let's get this petition out there- please paste on your facebook page or send to your contacts via messenger.