A full congregation attending Holy Family parish's 9:45 a.m. Easter Sunday Mass today heard Rev. Michael Gabriel, pastor, cite the irony of the tragic burning of Notre Dame de Paris and the Archdiocese of Chicago’s decision to close the historic West Roosevelt Road church that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and a near tragic 2003 fire. 
 
"The events of Monday of Holy Week, 3,922 miles away are as close to us as our beating heart. Especially, for Holy Family with the decision to close this historic iconic church,” Father Gabriel said.
 
"The burning of the beautiful cathedral in the midst of Holy Week cannot be lost on us. For we are people of the Resurrection and from the ashes comes new life.
 
"Like the embers and ruble, the pain and shock of Notre Dame, fire is not the end of the story. It will be rebuilt. Just like Holy Family, I know and believe somehow. The light will shine, for we believe that He is risen. He is truly Risen, " he said.
 
On February 28, 2019, after many months of dialogue and discussion, Cardinal Blasé Cupich issued a decree to close Holy Family church and merge the parish with nearby Notre Dame de Chicago effective July 1, 2019.
 
The decision was contrary to the conclusions of members of Little Italy cluster team who recommended two separate worship sites for the neighborhood, Notre Dame de Chicago on West Flournoy Street and Holy Family.
 
Father Gabriel urged parishioners at the Easter Sunday Mass “to continue to pray and to communicate with Cardinal Cupich, asking him to reconsider his decision to discontinue Sunday masses at Holy Family church.”
 
According to Tom Justic, chair of Holy Family’s finance committee, the parish is thriving and vibrant, with more than 100 weddings, 80 plus baptisms and many confirmations annually. Holy Family, Justic said, has no debt, a balanced operating budget and more than $ 1 million in reserve on deposit at the Archdiocese of Chicago bank.
 
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND—HOLY FAMILY SERVES THE CITY FOR 162 YEARS
Founded in 1857 on what was then the outskirts of the city by Jesuit missioner, educator, pastor and an immigrant from Holland, Rev. Arnold Damen, S.J., Holy Family was the first Jesuit church in Chicago. Once the largest English-speaking parish in the U.S, with 25,000 parishioners, Holy Family’s boundaries, at one time, extended from the south branch of the Chicago River west to Austin Boulevard—a distance of nearly seven miles.
 
“It’s estimated that since 1857 when the parish opened more than 56,000 persons were baptized here and generations of couples exchanged their wedding vows in this church,” Father Gabriel, said.
 
Holy Family Parish’s Early History—Building a Cathedral on an Unsettled Prairie
 “Known as the ‘Ellis Island of the Midwest,’ Holy Family welcomed waves of immigrants to Chicago. The original congregation was comprised of Irish immigrants. It’s estimated that one-third of Chicago’s Irish trace their roots to Holy Family. They were followed by German, Italian, African-American and Hispanic people,” Father Gabriel added.
 
Father Damen established a network of elementary schools that served nearly 5,000 students. He founded St. Ignatius College which became St. Ignatius High School and later Loyola University Chicago, two of the city’s important educational institutions.
 
Among the memorable Chicago families who worshiped at Holy Family were Catherine and Patrick O’Leary, whose small barn at DeKoven and Jefferson streets on the east side of the parish, was said to have ignited during a lengthy fall drought on October 8, 1871 and sparked the Great Chicago Fire.
 
According to Holy Family’s records, between 1860 and 1866, three O’Leary children were baptized in the church: Cornelius, 1860; James, 1863 and Catherine, 1866. The family lived at 137 DeKoven Street, now 537 under the city’s 1909 numbering system and the site of the Chicago Fire Academy today.
 
John Comiskey, president of the Chicago City Council, was an active member of the parish. He is memorialized in one of the church’s 12 round clerestory windows, the oldest stained glass in Chicago which dates to 1860. His son, Charles Comiskey, baseball player, manager and founder of the Chicago White Sox, was a member of the parish and one of the first students to enroll at St. Ignatius College in 1870.
 
Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint was a familiar figure in the neighborhood as she raised funds for nearby Columbus Extension Hospital in 1911.
 
Today, Holy Family serves a broad range of ethnic, racial and economic groups– whites, blacks, Latinos and Asians– drawn from the near west and south side community and the entire Chicago metropolitan area, Father Gabriel said.
 
The parish continues to expand its community outreach with a food pantry, parish ministry programs and the celebration of nearly 100 weddings annually and a growing number of baptisms, he explained.