Chicago City Council votes to protect historic Catholic parish after yearslong effort

St. Adalbert Parish in Chicago. / Credit: Gregg Nagel

CNA Staff, Jun 19, 2025 / 12:53 pm (CNA).

The Chicago City Council on Wednesday voted to extend protection status to a historic Catholic parish in the city, handing a win to advocates who for years have urged the local government to protect the more-than-century-old structure.

City leaders voted at their June 18 meeting to designate St. Adalbert’s Parish in the Pilsen neighborhood as a Designated Chicago Landmark. The city government says* *that designated landmarks are subject to stricter development rules, including approval from the government regarding if, and how, they may be altered or changed.

Preservationists hailed the designation on Wednesday. “BRAVO!!” Preservation Chicago wrote in an X post on Wednesday afternoon.

The preservation group has been at the helm of efforts to preserve the church from demolition and development. They noted on Wednesday that the building has appeared on the group’s “most endangered” historic property list multiple times over the years.

Ward Miller, the executive director of Preservation Chicago, told CNA that the vote demonstrates that churches like St. Adalbert’s are “really fabulous monuments in our city.”

“Particularly in Chicago, we had really wonderful architects that did some amazing work here,” he said. “It’s a great stride forward.”

Miller praised the Archdiocese of Chicago for backing the recent landmark designation.

“It’s wonderful to have the Archdiocese of Chicago working with us toward preservation of these great monuments,” he said.

Buildings and structures like St. Adalbert’s “were built by people with pennies, nickels, and dimes,” he said.

“It’s not just people of the Catholic faith — we all should be working toward this,” he said. “I think preservation needs to be a perpetual idea.”

*Historic parishes struggle to stay open around U.S.*

The yearslong preservation effort in Chicago underscores regular ongoing conflicts in cities around the United States where Catholics have fought to preserve historic parishes facing threats of closure and destruction.

Yearslong declines in attendance, financial troubles, and physical deterioration have rendered many once-vibrant parishes emptier and without support, oftentimes becoming liabilities for dioceses who themselves are cash-strapped.

In some cases parishioners have resorted to novel efforts to save their churches. A group of parishioners in the Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, last year acquired a historic church from the diocese, preserving it as a chapel and place of worship.

Earlier this year the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation announced a U.S.-based initiative to provide tens of millions of dollars to Catholic parishes and organizations across the country to “restore and endow” Catholic communities around the country “for generations to come.”

Other parishes have struggled to stay afloat, such as St. Casimir in Buffalo, New York, which has mounted efforts in recent years to pay its considerable bills and remain open as a house of worship and historic site.

St. Adalbert’s has seen similar efforts at preservation. The parish community dates to 1874 and has served Polish immigrants and their descendants as well as the Mexican-American community more recently.

The present soaring Gothic cathedral-style structure — designed by noted Chicago architect Henry Schlacks — was completed in 1914.

Parishioners have been fighting to preserve the structure and its surrounding buildings for years. In 2016 the Archdiocese of Chicago announced that due to “the dangerous state of repair and prohibitive costs of repair and maintenance,” the parish would be “reduced to uses other than divine worship.”

Among the necessary repairs was a $3 million structural restoration of the parish’s two towers, the archdiocese said.

In 2019 the archdiocese announced that the building was “relegated to profane but not sordid use,” meaning the parish would “no longer be a sacred space and may not be used for worship.”

Advocates told CNA last year that the archdiocese had previously offered them the parish for free before withdrawing the deal, though the archdiocese sharply disputed that claim, stating that supporters of the parish “were never able to come up with a realistic plan or viable funding source for the property’s acquisition, upkeep, or redevelopment.”

Though it has been afforded some protection from development, St. Adalbert’s may still be sold for non-Catholic use; a nondenominational church is reportedly seeking to buy the property.

The landmark protection, meanwhile, does not cover the parish’s entire campus, which includes a rectory, school, and convent.

Still, Miller said, advocates are “very pleased that there appears to be a path forward.”

“These are not just faith centers,” he said. “They’re humanitarian centers that provide things from counseling to schools to family dinners. We should all be working together to come to a common ground in preserving them.