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Catholic New World moves into new home “Courteous reader: We take great pleasure in putting into your
hands this issue of The New World. … This number signalizes the
fact that It is no longer a wanderer ….” Those words were written 95 years ago when the rapidly growing archdiocesan newspaper—then almost 14 years old—had settled into its new home on Wabash Avenue, about a half-block north of 12th Street. Little did the author know that the paper’s wandering days were far from over. After the 1905 move, the paper was to change addresses another half-dozen times. The moves took the staff to various locations around the Loop: on State Street, Michigan Avenue and its own building at 109 N. Dearborn St. Other sites were in the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center and, until last month, in Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, 1144 W. Jackson St. On Aug. 30, it moved again to a new home—on the fourth floor of Catholic Charities Near North Center at 721 N. LaSalle St. With this latest move, The Catholic New World has come full circle—back to LaSalle Street. According to a 1936 article, “the first home of The New World was in the Rand-McNally building on Adams Street, a site now occupied by the 208 S. LaSalle Building.” The archdiocesan paper, founded in 1892, was in that building until 1903, when it moved to the Commerce building, also on LaSalle Street, between Van Buren and Jackson St. When it supposedly stopped wandering back in 1905, the Aug. 26 issue carried articles on a new chancery building on Wabash Avenue, news notes on the church in America and in the world, a notice about the regular meeting of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union, a list of churches scheduling Forty Hours Devotions, editorials, many feature articles and a sprinkling of poetry (all for 5 cents). A special “building edition,” it also included a full page about its new six-story building, headlined “The New World and Its Home.” Seven years later, the building became the social center of Old St. Mary’s Parish and The New World moved on. But its new home at Catholic Charities Near North Center is as historic as those in the past, with special meaning for Chicago Catholics. Just as Mercy Home has been caring for youths since 1890, the Charities center formerly was home to thousands of infants and toddlers who passed through its stately columned entrance. In 1887, the Daughters of Charity opened St. Vincent’s Infant Hospital on the site at LaSalle and Superior streets to care for abandoned and dependent infants. By 1967, a staff of nuns, nurses, child care technicians, lay social workers, other employers and volunteers were caring for 206 children, from infancy to age 3. The institution provided a maternity center for unwed mothers, many of whom placed their infants for adoption through Catholic Charities. Few passersby knew that atop the hospital’s seventh floor was a playground with sand boxes and swings. Its beautiful chapel was the site of hundreds of baptisms. That all changed in 1971, when the number of adoptive placements dropped and the hospital was closed. When the building became Catholic Charities Near North Center, the commitment to young mothers and children continued with the Arts of Living Institute, a special program for pregnant adolescents which recently was moved to another location. The center now accommodates a number of Catholic Charities divisions, including senior residential and senior social services. Besides New World Publications, which published The Catholic New
World, Chicago Católico, the Archdiocesan Directory and other
products, tenants that will soon be moving to the 721 N. LaSalle
Street address include the archdiocesan Department of Stewardship
and Development and the Catholic Missions Office. |